The old town of Gdansk is one of the biggest tourist attractions in
Poland. Every year millions of visitors enjoy the beauty of the
historic city center. Which is less old than they might think, because
a large part of the city was destroyed during World War II and later
rebuilt. References to German architecture were replaced with other
architectural styles, making the old town look
surprisingly like a Dutch or Flemish city. Gdansk is also the city of
Solidarnosc,
the trade union that challenged the oppression of the communist
regime in the 1970s and 1980s. Next to the impressive monument on
Solidarity Square is a huge museum with an exterior of weathered
steel, a reference to the shipyard where the movement started.
But
the city also has an attraction that has not yet been massively
discovered. Visitors who like to see something different should go
to Zaspa, fifteen minutes by tram from the center. Zaspa would be one
of the many rather anonymous high rise neighborhoods of the city, if
it wasn´t home for one of the largest collections of murals in the world. They are really huge, the dozens of paintings on the sides of the
buildings. Looking out of the tram window the face of Karol Wojtyla, or
Pope John Paul II, already shows up in the distance. "Murals are hot
in Poland," says Zaspa-inhabitant Jarek Orlowski, one of the
local guides who provide free tours. (Because of the large distances
a bicycle tour is preferred). "But in most places it remains
limited to a few walls. In Zaspa we have built a cohesive collection
with an artistic purpose. It is unique in its size, only the city of
Lodz has something that comes close."
The
first murals in Zaspa were made around the millennium festivities in
Gdansk in 1997. From that moment on the collection steadily grew. Since
2009 there is an annual Festival
of Monumental Arts in
the city, where mural artists from around the world gather. In 2010,
the Gdansk School of Murals was formed, part of the Arts Academy,
with the goal to let students and artists present themselves through
murals. Political graffiti in Poland has a long tradition,
particularly in the years of Solidarity. It is tempting to see the
murals as a logical next step, but painting huge works of art on
blind walls with the help of scaffoldings is a relatively recent
phenomenon, says Orlowski: "The Spanish murales
is
used because there wasn’t really a Polish word for it. In the
beginning it was considered as something exotic. Meanwhile, it has
developed into a fully fledged art form. Although some artists who
contributed do not want to be labeled as street
artists,
because they think it will not be perceived as real art."
The
images in Zaspa are indeed more than just decorations. They leave
something to the imagination, even if they refer to historical events
or famous people. In Zaspa you don't see visual jokes like fake
cracks in the wall. The murals are more like enlarged pictures from a graphic
novel.
Only the store rooms at the entrance of the flats are painted with
more familiar scenes, such as animals and flowers. This way, they
help children and visitors to find their way.
The
air strip of the former airport, on which Zaspa was built, is still
recognizable between the flats. The murals are a change to the original planning principles: from gray uniformity to
multicolored diversity. Just like the Bijlmer - or Amsterdam-South
East, as it is called nowadays - Zaspa was a utopian neighborhood,
planned in the sixties and largely built in the seventies. And just
like the Bijlmer it never became the district the planners had
envisioned. Facilities such as shops, schools and playgrounds were
lacking long after the blocks for twenty thousand people were already
there. "In the past people were not proud to say that they lived
in Zaspa," Jarek Orlowski says. "Now much has improved,
with more facilities and shops and nice parks with playgrounds. The
appartments also got fresh new colors. The positive effect of the
murals is that they brought a sense
of place
to a place that used to be anonymous. Every Zaspa resident is aware
that they live in an open air gallery. "
The
residents' involvement is not formalized but still present. The
festival is the annual highlight, when residents come along with food
and meet with the artists. In each building there is a residents cooperation that must approve of a design for a new image. Only once a design has been rejected, an image of a bomber from World War II
that was considered too grim. There are still plenty of gray walls
in Zaspa. But according to Jarek Orlowski it is not intended that the
public space gets 'overcrowded' with murals and at some point in the coming years the collection will be completed.
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