SWING, installation, Memorial to the Berling Army Soldiers, Warsaw, September 20th, 2008

The installation "Swing" is a part of public space project "Carousel Slide Swing", which was publicized by a large number of posters put up in the streets of Warsaw.

CAROUSEL / Memorial to Brotherhood in Arms, Wilenski Square, Warsaw 1945

"GLORY TO THE HEROES OF THE RED ARMY, TO COMRADES IN ARMS WHO LAID THEIR LIVES FOR LIBERTY AND INDEPENDENCE OF THE POLISH NATION THIS MEMORIAL WAS ERECTED BY THE CITIZENS OF WARSAW 1945"

SLIDE / Memorial to the Red Army heroes, Skaryszewski Park, Warsaw 1945
"ETERNAL GLORY TO THE HEROES OF THE RED ARMY FALLEN IN COMBAT FOR LIBERATION OF WARSAW CAPITAL OF POLAND"

SWING / Memorial to the Berling Army soldiers Okrzei Street, Warsaw 1985
"LENINO - WARSAW - BERLIN"

The project "Carousel Slide Swing" aims to pursue a dialog with memorials that served as communist propaganda. Although such memorials have been consigned to the historical scrap heap, we can still meet them in the streets and parks. To suggest a change in the function of the monuments is an attempt to build a bridge between the present and the past, to add a contemporary layer distinct from their original style and function. For example the idea of Swing is based on a contrast between the monumental bronze Berling Army Soldier and a tiny individual swung by a big hand of history. It is a monument from a former era, but at the same time - from the Berling Army soldier?s point of view - it is a well-deserved tribute paid to his sacrifice. This is an example of how much history can differ from the perspectives of individual and collective memory. My aim is to make this complexity and ambiguity more conspicuous, to show the relation between an individual versus the historical machine. [K.S.]

Kamila Szejnoch "Carousel Swing Slide"
Agnieszka Żechowska "Dematerialization of a Monument" PDF