Exhibitions at the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | 83. Wojska Polskiego St.
„10 Years of the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź” [PL/ENG]
In 2021, we celebrate our 10th birthday. We popularize the multicultural history of Lodz and Poland, important historical events, as well as people who played an important role in building our identity. Through culture, we teach the history of Poland, Europe and the world, as well as respect for other cultures and traditions. While talking about the past, we maintain a constant dialogue with the present, trying to draw conclusions from the experiences of other generations and times.
The exhibition summarizes 10 years of our activity from the beginning of our existence until the difficult year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when we moved our activity to the online sphere. At the exhibition, you will find a place to express your opinion about our existing projects and suggestions for further activities.
„Fragments of Memory. Stories of Survivors from the Litzmannstadt Ghetto” [PL/ENG]
"Fragments of Memory" is the fourth exhibition presenting the stories of people who have their trees in the Survivors' Park. The Survivors' Park was established in 2004 in connection with the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the liquidation of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto organized by the City of Łódź. Every year in the Survivors' Park, new trees of remembrance are planted, there are already over 650 of them. They symbolize the people who cast their post-war fate in various parts of Poland and the world. The exhibition "Fragments of Memory" presents the figures of some of them.
חלל פנוי | Freed up space – exhibition of Aleksandra Chciuk’s paintings inspired by the history of the Great Szpera [PL/ENG]
Aleksandra Chciuk חלל פנוי | Zwolniona przestrzeń | Freed up space – a series of paintings inspired by the Great Szpera made using her own mixed technique: archive photographs, acrylic, gouache, tempera and objects on canvas. Chciuk’s works have been exhibited at the Arsenale at the Venice Art Biennale, Siddhartha Art Gallery in Kathmandu, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, the Mills Gallery in Boston, Dzyga Gallery in Lviv, the Museum of Modern Art and the Leto Gallery in Warsaw, the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, as well as Atlas Sztuki, the Museum of Art, the Signum Foundation Gallery, the Central Museum of Textiles, and other establishments in Łódź.
https://www.centrumdialogu.com/en/
Exhibitions at the Museum of the City of Łódź | 15. Ogrodowa St.
„Łódź in Europe. Europe in Łódź. The promised land then and now” [PL/ENG]
The new historical exhibition at the Museum of the City of Łódź essentially covers the 1820-1989 period. It presents the biography of the city which, in an unprecedented way on a global scale, has advanced from a small local craft and agricultural centre to the group of great European metropolises in just a few decades. The exhibition, enriched with numerous multimedia and tactile objects, provides a look at the history of Łódź from four different but mutually complementary perspectives, each of them distinguished by colour. Its main axis is the history of the metropolis, but it is worth learning about other aspects of the city's life and discovering its richness. Only then the network of connections and correlations that build this complex urban machinery will be revealed. Thus, an exhibition with a chronological and problematic arrangement can be discovered in many ways: getting to know fascinating aspects related to the Metropolis, Progress, People or Success, walking along designated zones, or wandering between them according to the chronology of events, checking how the penetration of these threads influenced the shape of the city and changed both its look and position in the world. Through historic objects, photos, tactile models, games, applications and recordings, the exhibition will allow you to understand the past of Łódź, get to know the behind-the-scenes of its phenomenal development, and discover its potential.
Exhibitions at the Museum of Art in Łódź
„Jerzy Krawczyk. Mice and Men” [PL/ENG] – exhibition in ms2 | 19. Ogrodowa St.
The exhibition entitled "Jerzy Krawczyk. Mice and Men”, organized in cooperation with Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, displays rarely discussed themes present in the artwork of the artist from Łódź. The exhibition at the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź invites us to focus on the perspective that determines all of Krawczyk's work. The new reading of the artist's paintings leaves no doubt that they were entirely marked by the trauma of the Holocaust.
Jerzy Krawczyk is one of the most original Polish painters of the 20th century. Connected with Łódź, his first appearance in public as an artist took place in 1945 at an exhibition at the Centre of Art Promotion in Łódź. He attended Władysław Strzemiński's lectures and in his own way interpreted his Theory of Vision, developing his own painting formula, which he called “spatial realism.” The self-referential theme of “art about art” and personal experience, including the war events, were crucial for his painting. He would focus on them intensively until his suicidal death in 1969.
„War Against Homes. The Neoplastic Room in Solidarity with Ukraine” [PL/ENG] – exhibition in ms1 | 36. Więckowskiego St., entrance from 43. Gdańska St.
Opened to the public in 1948, the Neoplastic Room has become a symbol of the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź. Designed by Władysław Strzemiński, at the time of its creation it boldly manifested the opposition of artists to the advancing communist ideology. Today, in view of the tragedies taking place across our eastern border, we dedicate it to the fighting Ukraine.
Historically, it hosted the sculptures of Katarzyna Kobro, spatial compositions and furniture designed by Władysław Strzemiński and examples of paintings by artists from the circles of Constructivism and Neo-plasticism, including Theo van Deosburg and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. In the early 1950s, in the face of the spreading radical cultural policy of the communist authorities, opening it to the public was a manifestation of courage in promoting artistic freedom. Nowadays, neighbouring with exhibitions of contemporary artists, the Neoplastic Room enters into a dialogue with their works, posing a still lively question about the topicality of the problems raised by avant-garde art.
Exhibitions at the Museum of the Independence Traditions in Łódź – The Radegast Station Branch | 12. Pamięci Ofiar Litzmannstadt Getto Av.
„They Were Neighbors. Human Choices and Behavior in the Face of the Holocaust” – exhibition prepared by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum [PL]
The exhibition prepared by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and presented in Łódź in cooperation with the Museum of the Independence Traditions, examines some of the critical questions concerning the Holocaust.
How did the Holocaust happen? What role did ordinary people play? What was the reason for their compliance with the persecution of Jews? Why did so few help the victims? What spurred others to help and what drove those who engaged in violence against the Jews?
“Łódź Ghetto model” [PL/ENG]
The main element of the exhibition presented in the Radegast Station building is a model which faithfully recreates the historical layout of the Łódź Ghetto. It shows the area of the then functioning Łódź Ghetto (Litzmannstadt) within the borders as of May 1942. The model is based on archival designs and building plans, preserved photographs of buildings and aerial photographs, and contemporary photographic documentation.
The exhibition is a part of the “Litzmannstadt Ghetto Model” project that has been running since 2015, which aims to use modern technologies and new forms of media to educate about the Holocaust.
The queries enabled the creation of a photographic source base, which contains a large collection of photographs taken in the Łódź ghetto. Maps of the ghetto area and architectural plans of individual buildings (more than 2500 in total) have been collected. In addition to the archival photographs, hundreds of contemporary photographs have been taken (more than 6 thousand in total). It allowed the architectural structure of the former ghetto district to be accurately mapped, making it possible to create a physical model of the ghetto. The 1:400 scale model, with target dimensions of 10 m x 4 m, will be the largest of its kind in the country.
So far, the project has been implemented within the framework of the three-year grant programme “Raise awareness and promote research into the causes of Holocaust” run by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the Museum’s own budget and with the financial support of the City of Łódź Council.
https://muzeumtradycji.pl/oddzial-stacja-radegast/
Exhibitions at the University of Łódź Library | 32. Jana Matejki St.
„Post Office in the Łódź Ghetto” [PL/ENG]
For the hundreds of thousands of Jews confined to the ghetto, the post became the only permitted means of communication with the outside world. It soon became apparent that this possibility was also being restricted: at the request of the German ghetto administration, postal services were blocked. During periods of free movement, thousands of parcels and correspondence arrived in the ghetto, and even more were attempted to be sent. Unfortunately, many parcels were stopped by internal censorship. Clear guidelines were followed – no information could come out of the ghetto that could show its brutal reality.
The Postal Department, established in the ghetto, was responsible not only for external contacts by receiving and sending mail, but also for internal correspondence. Through the Judenpost, the Jewish Post Office, allowances were delivered to the unemployed, as well as candy for children on festive occasions, parcels from labour ministries and the most tragic of notices – referrals for deportation outside the ghettos.
The exhibition presents the organisation of the post office, including Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski’s unique idea of developing his own stamp in the ghetto. Postcards will be an equally important element of the exhibition, through which it will be possible to look at the fate of the senders and addressees of the, usually undelivered, correspondence.
The materials for the exhibition come from the collection of Danny Spungen, the largest collection of postal material from the Łódź Ghetto held in private hands, and from the resources of the State Archives in Łódź.
The exhibition is co-sponsored by the Florence and Laurence Spungen Family Foundation, USA.