TWO SIDES OF THE WALL
In 1940, a ghetto wall was erected in Warsaw, isolating the Jewish population from the rest of the city's residents. It became a symbol of oppression, loneliness, despair and brute force against defenceless people. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The testimonies were more lasting than the wall, which no longer exists - the diaries and notes of several people hiding in the burning ghetto. The symbolic wall - an installation erected on 6 September 2023 at the junction of Grzybowska and Żelazna Streets in Warsaw, on the historical border of the ghetto - evokes the memory of these tragic events from the participants’ perspective.
POLIN Museum
The installation "Two Sides of the Wall", prepared by the POLIN Museum in collaboration with the Saatchi agency & Saatchi, aimed to recall the history of hundreds of thousands of Jewish women and men confined to the ghetto.
"Our installation is a symbolic wall, on one side of which is a Venetian mirror that allows us to observe what is happening behind the wall. The other side of the installation is a mirror in which people passing by and observing are reflected," - says Marta Dziewulska, POLIN spokesperson. "The same as those who lived and died in the ghetto. It is time to get to know their stories. Stories of those rescued from a sea of fire,” - says a sign addressed to passers-by.
"This is one of those projects that is truly touching. We considered how to draw the attention of busy passers-by to the theme of the exhibition <<Around us a sea of fire>>. We found the idea of building a symbolic wall that permits the freedom to observe one's surroundings from a single perspective incredibly poignant. - says Malgorzata Wajdziak, Integrated Communication Director Saatchi & Saatchi.
The installation “Two Sides of the Wall” is also combined with the premiere of the podcast “Jakby nas ziemia pochłonęła” (As if the earth had swallowed us up) by writer and journalist Katarzyna Kobylarczyk. The podcast, compiled from the diaries of those in hiding during the uprising, is a moving literary reportage in six episodes. It interweaves the fates of six characters fighting for survival during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: Stella Fidelseid, Mieczyslaw Baruch Goldman, the anonymous girl from the bunker on Miłej Street, Mr Maura, Luke Menes and Krystyna Budnicka. They are all protagonists of the exhibition "Around us a sea of fire. The fate of Jewish civilians during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising" is on display at the POLIN Museum until 8 January 2024.
“The fact that the starting material comprises diaries is of great significance to me.
Personal stories about oneself. Something incredibly intimate. For some people, this is the only thing left. Words. Letters on paper. What remains of Engineer Goldman is not at all the great bunker he built, but just paper. And the girl who wrote on a scrap of paper what was happening in the bunker on Miłej Street? We do not even know her name. We do not know who she was or how old she was. But I can visualise her sitting in the dark in the bunker, conceivably with a flickering candle for light or standing guard by the radiance of the flickering fires - all the while consumed in her writing. And all that is left after her are words. As someone who has dedicated their entire career to writing, this serves as a significant testament to the value of our work." - the author, Katarzyna Kobylarczyk, says about the podcast.
You can listen to the podcast on polin.pl, the museum's YouTube channel and on podcast platforms such as Spotify and Apple Podcast. A link to the podcast in the form of a QR code will also be available at the installation.
The creative idea for the campaign and implementation of the installation falls under the purview of the Saatchi & Saatchi agency in partnership with Prodigious (Publicis Groupe), cooperating with the POLIN Museum for the second time. The first joint campaign, “Different history, same hate“, prepared in partnership with the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute in Poland, accompanied the exhibition 'Stranger at Home. Around March '68, “ and won as many as 3 Effie Poland awards in 2019. It drew attention to the problem of hate speech and anti-Semitic hate present online and in the media.
The installation project is co-financed by the capital city of Warsaw. The podcasts are funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Fund and the national budget. The installation will be available to passers-by until the end of October 2023.
Read more: www.dwiestronymuru.pl