HELLP

On 14 September, a flag with the inscription "HELLP" designed by Monika Drożyńska was hoisted next to the POLIN Museum building. It is part of anti-war and anti-violence artistic activities organized for the finissage of the "1945. Not the End, Not the Beginning" exhibition.

Monika Drożyńska emerges from behind a white hanging tablecloth – one of her works.

The word ‘HELLP’ – an intended hybrid of the words "help" and "hell"—serves as a visual cry at the intersection of language and despair.

Against the blue backdrop—a color associated with peace, sky and humanitarian institutions—white typography brings unease. The cry for help becomes distorted, as if it were coming from a place where language no longer functions, from the very center of a catastrophe.

Raised next to the Museum, the flag becomes a warning sign. It doesn’t comment directly, but it stirs emotions by pointing to our contemporary hells—wars, migrations, indifference.

Institutionalized humanitarian aid has repeatedly become a tool of influence and hunger has become a weapon in the pursuit of political goals. In light of Linda Polman’s reflections shared in The Crisis Caravan, this work may also be read as a critique of the humanitarian aid industry, which at times is not only a response to suffering but also part of the mechanism that sustains it. Within the complex system of interdependencies between war and aid, the "HELLP" flag exposes this ambiguity—where aid turns into currency, and suffering becomes the ground for negotiation.

It's not just a flag. It is a question whether we hear those who call to us, and whether we are able to respond to them—not just by a reflex, but with full awareness of the consequences.

Monika Drożyńska’s artwork "HELLP" will become part of the POLIN Museum collection.

On September 14–15 (during the finissage of the exhibition '1945. Not the End, Not the Beginning'), the intervention included four 'HELLP' flags. Two 'HELLP' flags will remain at the Museum until November 19.

Monika Drożyńska – an embroiderer, visual artist with PhD in Fine Arts, activist. Laureate of the "Polityka: weekly Passport Award in 2024. Convicted for embroidering headrests on the Polish Railways (PKP) trains. A pioneer of embroidery techniques in contemporary art and of textile in public space. Monika has collaborated with the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Wrocław Contemporary Museum, Zachęta National Gallery, Nomus in Gdańsk, and POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Her works are held in the collections of Bunkier Sztuki, the National Museum in Kraków, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków, the National Museum in Kyiv, and Lentos in Austria

Curator: Ewa Chomicka

Production: Alicja Kaczmarek-Poławska

More information about the "1945. Not the End, Not the Beginning" exhibition

Photo: M. Jaźwiecki / Museum of the History of Polish Jews