Twice painted, twice unveiled, once vandalized. Szczecin 's newest mural already has a rich history that can be surprising. But what is most shocking is that a love storyline from more than 60 years ago still stirs such controversy.
The Szczecin mural was created on a pillar under the Castle Route. It depicted a smartphone screen with a chat window open. A conversation between Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz and his lover Jerzy Błeszynski was displayed. Iwaszkiewicz wrote, among other things, ".... you are everything to me, lover, brother, life, death..." Błeszynski responded with a heartfelt message. In this way, the artist presented an excerpt from the writer's love letter to his younger lover. Over the course of their 7-year relationship, Iwaszkiewicz wrote more than 200 of them. They are a record of great, touching love and devotion.
action and reaction
The initiators of the mural were two Szczecin organizations: Lambda Szczecin Association and Trafostacja Sztuki. However, it did not last long. Two-three days after the unveiling, on the night of September 23-24, vandals doused the mural with paint. The incident was reported to the police. However, the organizers decided to turn the situation around and use it to create a new work of art. Artist Justyna Dziabaszewska painted silhouettes of Iwaszkiewicz and Bleszynski on the black stain and placed the same quote as before. The new mural was unveiled on Saturday, September 26 during the LGBT Film Festival organized by Trafostacja. The Trafostacja website reads:
Love conquers all. It can be splashed, it can be mocked and condemned, but it cannot be annihilated. It is still there, and its energy gives the power of life to all existence and everything they create.
Justyna Dziabaszewska paints second mural
© Trafostacja Sztuki
The unveiling of the second mural became an excuse to discuss collective memory, the canon of literature and its perception, as well as censorship in public space. Trafostacja organized a meeting devoted to these topics. It was attended by journalist Ludwika Wlodek, the writer's great-granddaughter, writer and literary scholar Inga Iwasiów, historian of modern literature, cultural studies scholar, researcher of autobiography Tatiana Czerska and Stanislaw Ruksza - curator of exhibitions, art historian, author of texts.
a forgotten love story
Iwaszkiewicz's relationship with Jerzy Błeszynski was overlooked for years. It was brought back to memory by Anna Król in her book "Everything as You Want It. On the love of Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz and Jerzy Bleszynski. She came across the writer's letters during a search for her earlier book on the writer, "Things. Iwaszkiewicz intimately". I said in an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza:
It was enough to read a few of them, and I immediately felt that the material was unusual, engaging and stirred up emotions. And it represents an important missing key to understanding not only Iwaszkiewicz's life, but also his literature.
Trafostacja's director, Stanilaw Ruksza, unveils the new mural
© Trafostacja Sztuki
artistic training ground
Trafostacja Sztuki in Szczecin is a municipal cultural institution. It has been operating since 2013, providing a platform for the exchange of ideas and various artistic activities. It organizes exhibitions, educational programs, concerts as well as research programs and artist residencies. Since 2017, the director of Trafostacja Sztuki is Stanislaw Ruksza, art historian, curator and lecturer, from 2008 to 2017 program director of CCA Kronika in Bytom.
