Exhibition
26.06.2020 - 14.03.2021

Here is Muranów – a new temporary exhibition at POLIN Museum

"Here is Muranów" temporary exhibition presents a cross-section of a hidden layer of the residential district of Warsaw and tells stories of selected locations, of those who reside there and those who come visit.

Let us all take a peek into the city’s entrails and discover the unique, multi-layered history of Warsaw. Under the seemingly familiar surface we will reveal unknown dimensions of the past, the present and the future of the city and its residents.

At the very beginning, we will travel in time, back to the eighteenth century, in order to meet a certain Venetian who longs for his home island of Murano. We will take a stroll in the former Northern Quarter which was the center of Jewish life before World War Two—at the time when Warsaw was home to the largest Jewish diaspora in Europe.

We will walk down pre-war Nalewki, a vibrant commercial street, comparable to today’s Marszałkowska Street in Warsaw or Piotrkowska Street in Łódź, with its hustle and bustle and a variety of stores, goods and services available. We will learn about the dramatic fate of Jews imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto established in the district. We will find out how the urban planners reconstructing the capital city envisaged a new Modernist housing estate on the rubble of pre-war Warsaw, and even how children played in the courtyards of postwar Muranów. We will seek answers to questions such as: what makes Muranów unique, or why POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews was built here rather than anywhere else. We will reflect upon what it means to reside in Muranów today.

We encourage you to join us on this fascinating journey in time organized by the exhibition authors: Beata Chomątowska, Prof. Jacek Leociak and Kamila Radecka-Mikulicz. Artur Żmijewski and Zofia Waślicka-Żmijewska will implement their artistic project as part of the exhibition - thanks to them, for the first time ever, we will be able to tour the temporary exhibition not only inside the Museum building, but also beyond its walls. The two artists are working with archaeological finds unearthed during the Museum construction works - e.g. cutlery, glass cups, eye glasses and tailor’s scissors.

  • Exhibition curator: Kamila Radecka-Mikulicz
  • Exhibition originator and co-author of the concept: prof. Jacek Leociak
  • Co-author of the concept: Beata Chomątowska
  • Curatorial cooperation: Anna Miczko
  • Exhibition coordinator: Kinga Lewandowska-Doleszczak
  • Authors of art projects at the exhibition: Jadwiga Sawicka, Artur Żmijewski
  • Exhibition space design: TATEMONO | Anna Pydo, Justyna Szadkowska, Katarzyna Pawlik, Piotr Antonów, Franciszek Zakrzewski
  • Authors of the outdoor installation: Zofia Waślicka-Żmijewska i Artur Żmijewski
     

The project "Preparation of educational elements for a temporary exhibition at the POLIN Museum, dedicated to the Muranów district in Warsaw and its residents" is implemented in cooperation with Verein zur Förderung des Museums für Jüdische Geschichte in Polen e.V. with financial support from the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation.