Aleksandra Polisiewicz: Wartopia (Berlin)

The Polish artist Aleksandra Polisiewicz presents a virtual reconstruction of the Nazi city planning for a “German Warsaw” at the Polish Institute Berlin.

The Nazis largely destroyed the Polish capital Warsaw, especially when putting down the Warsaw Uprising that started on August 1st 1944.1 Originally, a complete demolition of the city had been planned, followed by a rebuils as “New German City of Warsaw” with only a few ten thousand citizens.

The Polish artist Aleksandra Polisiewicz2 is working under the pseudonym Aleka Polis, too. This alternative name may be an abbreviation – in any case, the link to the Greek  Pólis is quite obvious when talking about this work: in 2005-2006, she developed with Wartopia a virtual reconstruction of this urban planning fantasy that had never been realised. Architectural city panoramas show in 3D this utopie in models, animations and prints. The impression is known from Speer’s plannings, e.g. on the “World Capital Germania”, the remodelled Berlin. This generic totalitarian architectue has a refence in reality: the Warsaw Palace of Culture, built 1952-56 in Socialist Classicism style, approaches the designs shown.

The exhibition Wartopia has been organised by Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Artists’ house Bethanien) together with the Polish Institute Berlin (curator: Bożena Czubak).

While it had been exhibited at Künstlerhaus Bethanien from January 16th to February 1st, the opening of the contination will be at the Polish Insitute Berlin on Wednesday, February 4th 2009 at 1900h. The exhibition can be visited until February 28th.

Address: Burgstrasse 27, 10178 Berlin, Germany; S-Bahn Hackescher Markt
Opening hours: Tu-Fr 1000-1800h
Free entrance.

  1. The Red Army was, unfortunately, “too busy” to actively support the uprising; Stalin was not too interested in a strong and independent Poland.
  2. Unfortunately, there is only an entry in the Polish Wikipedia so far.

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