Warsaw street art

My new addiction is free walkative tours. Luckily, unlike other addictions, there is a limited number of fixes – only one to go, after today’s jaunt amongst street art.

Praga is the alternative Warsaw – “Asia” to many Warszawians. I explored it a few years ago on another walking tour, and hope that this tour – Warsaw street art – will not be a duplication. It most definitely isn’t.

We begin the walk with a bear, a very special bear, decorated by schoolchildren of Praga, with a belly coat-of-arms featuring Mary, with whom Praga’s feel a special connection. This bear is anticipating the disappearance of real bears who have been living nearby on a concrete island in Praski Park since 1949 beside a very busy road, the first glimpse of Warsaw zoo. But their days are numbered: when the two current ones die, they won’t be replaced. This bear is a kind of epitaph.

The tour guide, Agata, is a Praga local and speaks with authority not only on its street art, but on its history and current politics.

Praga survived without much damage in WW2, a curse rather than a blessing in many ways. The other side of the river, 85% destroyed, had to be rebuilt: much of Praga is derelict. There are at least 300 families living with only a shared bathroom. Gentrification is complicating matters, often pricing long-term tenants out of their neighbourhood. And as if that’s not enough, there are disputes over ownership between pre-war owners and communalised owners that the Supreme Court is struggling to sort out. Feelings are running high.

This stencil commemorates the housing activist, Joli Brzeskiej, who was one of the founders of the Warsaw Tenants’ Association, blocked evictions, advised other tenants, and taking on one of the slumlords of Praga. She was found dead in the woods, her body burned beyond easy recognition, in 2011. The stencil says “In memory of Joli Brzeskiej. You can’t burn us all.”

The two mice, also stencilled, are “after Banksy”: since he works anonymously he doesn’t hold copyright of his images.

Also on the walls of this building are these three murals. I don’t dare say they have no political message! I’m partial to the dribble effect, used so beautifully here to represent rain. The dog reminds me of Cruz and his hair-shedding habits.

Agata made a point of highlighting different techniques used by street artists. Photocopying a blown-up image and pasting it to the wall with flour-and-water glue is quick and easy: it is also easy to remove. The little girl is a one-off: not so the jellyfish stencil which appears often on a variety of surfaces.

Here’s a game of preferences: this …

… or this?

And you have to choose quickly, before I tell you the first one is part of an ad campaign for McDonalds. Which explains its lack of personality and its superficial perfection. Where are the textured walls? Where’s the peeling paint?

We move on from commercialism to the Virgin Mary. Many of the courtyards in Praga have a shrine to Mary, which became the focus of worship during the curfew in WW2. These murals are in that tradition. The first one, in an alley leading to a courtyard, is still a community focus – but more for drinking vodka, if the empty bottles in the niche on a Monday morning are any indication.

The images in trees are unique. They are painted in tree-restoring paint, and over the years the bark should grow over the image. There are more on random trees in Park Praski, near the zoo.

Community murals feature local residents in the places where they lived or worked. This cooper is portrayed with his barrels. Locals who knew him bailed up Agata on one tour and told her that the image beautifies him: he was fatter and not that good-looking.

This portrait too is based on someone local, wearing the universal hoodie and slouch of young men of a certain age and habit, portrayed outside a nearby real bar.

It seems that street art can be quite controversial. The bear was, and so is this one by Irish muralist, Conor Harrington who says “I paint brawling men because I want to demystify the classical art which tends to portray such figures as elegant. By presenting them in direct physical combat I wanted to show the harm they are capable of.”

Locals saw it as a reference to Praga’s reputation as a tough place, an image they’re trying to get away from, and fear it could encourage street violence.

Concern for the children of Praga has led to a couple of murals. For the first one the artist talked to Praga kids about what was essential in their lives. This resulted in the Praga handbag spilling out all the objects the kids mentioned.

Ernest Zacharevic’s “Playground” shows a group of children scaling a globe-shaped climbing frame to draw attention to Warsaw’s lack of urban planning. The artist says “Back in the old days, there was a proper play area in the patch of land in front of this building – now there’s nothing.” Zacharevic likes to use the features of the wall he paints on: in this case the crack down the centre of the wall becomes the pivot for the globe.

If you’re interested in street art, you might want to check out these people that Agata mentioned.

NeSpoon is Polish. She’s on a “mission to embroider the world” by using intricate doily patterns, to beautify “abandoned and unadorned spaces in unlikely urban jungles”. For a feast of her work check out Google images.

The Outings project is the brainchild of Julien de Casabianca, a visual artist and a filmmaker. Its aim is to bring paintings from museum walls into the streets.

Loesje is an international free speech organisation started in Arnhem (Netherlands) in 1983. Its charter is to “spread creativity, positive criticism, ideas, philosophical ponderings and thoughts on current events by way of short slogans on posters.” The one we saw (which I failed to capture in a photo) was the result of a workshop with Praga schoolchildren and said something like “The longer you wait for the future the shorter it will be.”

I love the way my knowledge of Warsaw builds in layers: I’ve seen enigmatic stencils on the footpaths in Morksie Oko, signed Loesje, which now have an explanation.

For future reference:

Gone To The Wall. Warsaw Street Art

https://warsawlocal.com/warsaw-street-art-guide/

https://warsawlocal.com/find/listing-category/street-art/