Piotr Szwabe

Lech Wałęsa

Pilotów 17f
2008

Pilotów 17d is one of Gdańsk’s most significant opposition addresses. It was here that Lech Wałęsa lived with his family. As Wałęsa was returning from internment, a crowd of tens of thousands of people gathered. The mural was created on the exact 25th anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize. It is an image of Lech from the internment period enlarged to the size of a wall. Seen up close, it is ambivalent and unclear. From a distance, it is the undeniable face of the Solidarity leader. The work has become a herald of the return of large-format painting to Zaspa.

Fot. Adam Korzeniewski

Fot. Leszek Biernacki, źródło: Wszechnica Solidardności

Magma/Round Table

Skarżyńskiego 14a
2009
Monumental Art 2009

On one hand, the mural is connected with the 20th anniversary of the Round Table Talks and on the other, to the work of Witkacy. The monster emerging from the molten magma, as if in one of the visions described in Witkacy’s Narcotics, is a symbol of the politics and uncertainty which surrounded the architects of the new régime in Poland.

Chopin in a tower block estate

Dywizjonu 303 15f
2010

This mural was created as part of the Year of Chopin celebrations. It is inspired by an unfinished portrait of Frederick Chopin and Georges Sand. The painting, commissioned from Eugène Delacroix, fell victim to the changing moods of the composer, who no longer wanted his female friend in the canvas. This is how the most famous image of Chopin, now on view in the Louvre, came about. The unfinished part showing Georges Sand is on display in a Copenhagen museum. The pair have only been re-united on section F (for Frederick) of the block because of Piotr Szwabe.

Fot. Adam Korzeniewski

Hypothetical reconstruction of the painting. Source:wikimedia commons

Artist

Curator of the Monumental Art Festival. Born in 1975 in Gdansk. Painter , sometimes poet, works with spatial forms, performer, singer, curator. Lives and works in Gdansk.

Tagi: 2008, Piotr Szwabe, Poland