| |
In comparison to other public places railway stations with their atmosphere of human diversity and mobility seem exceptionally attractive to artistic undertakings. Warszawa Wschodnia Railway Station, where the 6,28 project (2009 / 2010) was carried out, is even more inspiring with regard to spacial metamorphoses the building went through over the years as well as the planned renovation works which will bring about an inevitable identity change. It is exactly the idea of change that defines the artistic practice of Grzegorz Drozd and Alicja Łukasiak working together within the ZOR project (Change of Traffic Flow). The change of traffic flow entails the violation of the old order, the proposition of new solutions and the change of old habits. City actions initiated by ZOR, referring to a variety of aspects of life in contemporary Warsaw, are characteristic for this subversive strategy. Within the 6,28 project a number of neons have been installed in different places at Warszawa Wschodnia Railway Station. In the main hall two neon lines cross each other; the 60-meter one goes along and the other one of 20 meters in length across the hall. They end with arrows at both sides and have a measuring number in the middle. The white neons look like measuring lines from a technical drawing in the third dimension. The fact is that mathematical measurement and calculation were inspirational to many artists, for example Roman Opałka or Ryszard Winiarski. To highlight new aspects of space by means of measurements was the idea of an American conceptual artist Mel Bochner. In the 60's he used to measure walls and mark the sections with a black scotch and measuring numbers, which would create large-scale diagrams of rooms. Taking use of conceptual gestures, ZOR enters the public space. Their site-specific neon installation goes beyond conceptualism and into the area of engaged art. What measurements are taken by neon lines in the railway station hall? City neons, which belong to applied arts, are supposed to inform, advertise and/or decorate. The formally ascetic neon installation 6,28 does not have the function of ornamentation yet. Moreover, the message it conveys is tautological - it is not to inform either. The title number 6,28 does not refer to any particular distance. And yet each form tells something and we might agree upon the fact that these neons mostly emphasize the architecture of the station designed by Arseniusz Romanowicz and opened to the public in 1969. The minimalist building of Warszawa Wschodnia Railway Station represents the so-called "unimposing" architecture of which the functionalist form results from the very purpose of the building. In this case a simple neon is to draw rushing travelers' attention to modernist geometry. It enhances the beauty of this architecture, a harmonious container for the monumental public space. ZOR's gesture may be seen in terms of defence of the architecture neglected for so many years, which will be modernized in a while. It could be also perceived as the first stage of preparations and measurements taken before renovation works at the station. The place's identity is defined by the culmination of rush and temporariness, and the clash between people of different backgrounds. The space some of them want to leave as fast as possible has become a home to the other ones. The 6,28 project located in a crowded main hall brings together all the aspects of the apparently democratic public space where people living hundreds of kilometers away from each other meet. Traveling means moving along sections in space, and the railway station may be both a starting and an ending point of the journey. The neon arrows are like signposts to travelers. With their uncomplicated conceptual intervention ZOR has managed to touch upon a variety of issues: public space as human diversity, the motif of a journey and, in particular, architecture. Justyna Kowalska
 ..................... 
|
