Warsaw 1945–1949: Rising from Rubble
Exhibition, Museum of Warsaw, 30 March–3 September 2023
Curator: Adam Przywara
Collaboration: Jola Górska
Exhibition architecture: Studio Okuljar Architekt*innen SIA
Exhibition graphic design: Alina Rybacka-Gruszczyńska
Exhibition Warsaw 1945–1949: Rising from Rubble offered a new perspective on the postwar reconstruction of Warsaw by placing rubble—the material produced by the city’s wartime destruction—at the centre of its narrative. Rather than approaching reconstruction primarily through architectural plans and completed buildings, the exhibition traced the material transformation of the destroyed city: from ruins to rubble, from rubble to recovered bricks and aggregates, and ultimately to new buildings and landscapes. It examined how approximately 22 million cubic metres of debris changed status during the first postwar years—from waste that had to be removed, to a valuable source of building materials, and ultimately to a powerful political and cultural symbol of collective reconstruction.
Presented across seven rooms, the exhibition brought together more than 500 objects, including fragments of ruined architecture and sculptures, demolition bricks, rubble-concrete building materials, photographs, drawings, paintings, maps, archival documents, newsreels and oral histories. Historical material was complemented by contemporary artistic commissions, including works by Monika Sosnowska and Diana Lelonek. The exhibition followed the first four years of Warsaw’s reconstruction, addressing the labour of clearing ruins, the recovery and circulation of bricks, experiments with rubble concrete, and the reuse of debris in new architecture. It concluded by examining the lasting transformation of Warsaw’s landscape through rubble landforms such as the Warsaw Rising Mound and the Moczydłowska and Szczęśliwicka Hills.
In 2024, Warsaw 1945–1949: Rising from Rubble, together with its accompanying book, received the Architectural Award of the Mayor of Warsaw in the category Architectural Event.
Photographis documentation and more infromation can be accessed [here]