Tuesday, 11/12/2024 to Saturday, 11/30/2024



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The Polish Institute Düsseldorf, the National Library of Poland in Warsaw, and the Foundation House of History in Bonn invite you to the presentation of Paweł Bownik's "The Urn." The event will start to commemorate the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising 80 years ago on August 1, 2024 at the House of History.

August 1 to December 1, 2024

Lounge, House of History Bonn, Willy-Brandt-Allee 14, 53113 Bonn

Paweł Bownik's work consists of a large-format photograph of an urn containing the ashes of books from the Krasiński Library in Warsaw that were set on fire. German occupation forces destroyed this library - along with many other cultural institutions - after the capitulation of the Warsaw Uprising in October 1944. The urn is now displayed in a glass case in a room of the reconstructed Krasiński Palace in Warsaw, a branch of the National Library of Poland. The remains cannot be clearly identified, making the urn a symbolic monument to all books, archives, and collections destroyed during the war.

Movements and vibrations contribute to the slow decay of the urn and its contents. In the photograph, Bownik captures the state of this ephemeral monument and symbolically protects it from further decay. The urn and its contents, through photography, become a new, more permanent object.

The presentation will be accompanied by a 3-minute film featuring statements from Dr. Tomasz Makowski, Director of the National Library in Warsaw, and the artist Paweł Bownik.

On November 28, 2024, at 6:00 p.m., an artist talk with Paweł Bownik and a panel discussion on the theme "Remembering Culture 80 Years Later" will take place. The discussion will involve Dr. Jacek Kordel, Head of the Library and Reading History Laboratory at the National Library of Poland, Warsaw, Prof. Dr. Anke Hilbrenner, Historian, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, and Prof. Dr. Katja Makhotina, Historian, Göttingen/Bonn. Dr. Magdalena Gebala from the German Cultural Forum Eastern Europe will moderate the event, which is part of the accompanying program for the rotating exhibition "After Hitler. Germany's Confrontation with National Socialism."

Presentation in the Lounge: August 1 to December 1, 2024, www.hdg.de

Opening hours: Tue-Fri 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sat, Sun, Holidays 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

See www.hdg.de


Event data provided by: Kulturkurier

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