To no avail the monument resolution and detailed regulations. Everything can be circumvented. It is enough that a spatial composition of monumental scale is created by commemorative plaques on concrete poles. The case of Poznan's implementation at Lake Malta is another example of treating regulations carefully - even if you are a proponent of them.
This spring, Poznań residents walking along Lake Malta saw a row of twenty-one concrete poles on its shore . All of them the same, almost a meter high, hollow in the middle, with a beveled top. After an online alert, journalists quickly determined that this was not, as the mockers had suggested, a breakwater, a monument to penne pasta, or a row of armored urinals or trash cans. It turned out to be pedestals for plaques commemorating all medal-winning Poznan Olympians. In addition, with an option to continue if more medalists are added to the city. A granite slab with the name and image of the medal was to be attached to each of the pedestals.
A glass commemorative plaque is to be placed on each of the unkempt pedestals
photo: Jakub Glaz
The undertaking was not a grassroots amateur stunt. The initiative came from the Poznań Olympic Association, but the implementation was handled by a municipal(!) company: Poznańskie Ośrodki Sportu i Rekreacji (POSiR), which manages Malta. Meanwhile, the graphic designer, Prof. Grzegorz Nowicki of the University of Arts in Poznań, is responsible for the design of the row of poles and boards. The city is paying 60,000 zlotys to make the whole thing. The media even showed one of the plaques. The black granite, the lettering used and the composition of the rectangular board were reminiscent of a tombstone.
The issue gained publicity, and the concept was praised by almost no one. Both the design, the extremely sloppy execution of the poles and the interference with the landscape setting of the lake, the regatta course and the recreational areas of Poznan Malta, which are a coherent work of the late architect Klemens Mikula, were blamed.
is it not a monument?
Some critics have noted in passing that the dozens of meters long composition should be classified not as a collection of commemorative plaques, but rather a monument. This is indicated by the scale and visual impact of the entire composition. Meanwhile, since 2014, every new monument in the city must undergo a special procedure. At the time, councilors passed a special resolution that regulates the process of erecting monuments.
Thanks to the resolution, the city's monumental free-americanism was to end, according to which councilors gave their consent to the placement of a monument, and later neither they nor the authority had almost no influence on the forms of the sculptures erected most often by social committees. The resolution allowed for the establishment of a monument team composed of representatives of the office and the city council and - above all - experts. According to the procedure, after the councilors approve the idea for the next monument, the team should announce and conduct a competition for its form. Only in exceptional and justified cases can the team members recommend abandoning the artistic competition.
how about trees?
After the media discussion of the curio poles, it seemed that the matter would have a sensible conclusion. Ideas were very often put forward that the athletes should rather be honored with memorial trees. There was also talk of ivy to shield the concrete pipes. Unfortunately, the opposite is happening. Six months have passed, the poles are still standing and, POSiR representatives declare, they will not be removed. The designer proposed replacing the "cemetery" slabs with glass plaques.
The mockers considered the poles to be a monument to penne noodles or armored urinals
photo: Jakub Glaz
As Gazeta Wyborcza reported earlier this month, councilors from the physical culture and tourism committee said yes to the change, although they could have referred the matter to the monument team, which was, after all, created by the council's decision. Piotr Sobczak, head of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture, however, explained that commemorative plaques do not fall within the definition of a monument, nor do sculptures of distinguished figures attached to occasional benches . Piotr Libicki, the mayor's plenipotentiary for City Aesthetics , who was one of the ardent supporters of the introduction of the monument resolution, comments on the matter for "A&B" in the same way:
In my opinion, this composition is not a monument. They are memorial plaques. After the redesign, they will look much better, no longer resembling tombstones. And this without planting the pillars with ivy, which I think is not a good idea.
This interpretation formally leaves the composition outside the jurisdiction of the monument team. Therefore, there is a chance that if the row of poles is not dismantled and the investment is completed, it will open the floodgates for all those who do not like the monument resolution. Suffice it to recall that over the same Malta River, activists from the right-wing Academic Civic Club wanted a few years ago to erect a replica of the monumental Christ the King stat ue standing in the center before the war, in today's Mickiewicz Square. The city acted sensibly by saying a firm "no" to such an idea. Now that it is putting its own hand to the disfigurement of Malta's shoreline, it is taking the weapon out of its own hand and exposing itself to equally creative ways of circumventing the regulations. Perhaps we're in for a giant Christ of the plaques or seated on a massive bench. Why not? Recent years have taught us that basically any absurd solution is possible in Poland.
