Some buildings of the former Jewish Ghetto established by the Nazis during the occupation survive in the center of Warsaw, particularly in the Wola District. These last fragments of the 1943-44 insurrections are part of another city, the missing Warsaw, whose resistance to annihilation they witness. They are Voices of common Memory that risk the final removal from the city and the European collective consciousness, because of the ongoing incessant urban transformations. Those finds represent an extraordinary material for the construction of a present of dialogue and civil cohabitation, aware of its past; heritage to be protected and regenerated through a responsible architectural and urban project: an extended museum of the present, able to reconnect the two cities: nowadays Warsaw with the destroyed one. A group of 3 ruined buildings survived in ulica Waliców eloquently polarizes the dimension of Memory, the documental thickness of History and the value of warning for a european present marked by the declination of the ghetto principle in new walls, fences and forms of apartheid. It’s on the regeneration of the Waliców archaeological find of modernity that the Politecnico of Milan has activated an architectural design workshop in collaboration with the Warsaw Polytechnic, with the patronages of various European institutions including the ICOM. Waliców Project -embodying the idea of "extended museum" promoted by the 2017 ICOM conference- can represent the first unit of a possible system of memorialistic sites devoted to the formation of youngsters, to the debate within socio-cultural activities and arts. An archipelago of archaeological sites to be reactivated through museographic-architectural design. In this perspective Waliców represent a case-study with an evident component of museum responsibility towards the urban landscape of the city identity of Warsaw and, more in general, of the european city.

A Tale of Two Cities : designing an Extended Museum of the Present with the Former Warsaw Ghetto Fragments: the Waliców Project

Morpurgo G
2019-01-01

Abstract

Some buildings of the former Jewish Ghetto established by the Nazis during the occupation survive in the center of Warsaw, particularly in the Wola District. These last fragments of the 1943-44 insurrections are part of another city, the missing Warsaw, whose resistance to annihilation they witness. They are Voices of common Memory that risk the final removal from the city and the European collective consciousness, because of the ongoing incessant urban transformations. Those finds represent an extraordinary material for the construction of a present of dialogue and civil cohabitation, aware of its past; heritage to be protected and regenerated through a responsible architectural and urban project: an extended museum of the present, able to reconnect the two cities: nowadays Warsaw with the destroyed one. A group of 3 ruined buildings survived in ulica Waliców eloquently polarizes the dimension of Memory, the documental thickness of History and the value of warning for a european present marked by the declination of the ghetto principle in new walls, fences and forms of apartheid. It’s on the regeneration of the Waliców archaeological find of modernity that the Politecnico of Milan has activated an architectural design workshop in collaboration with the Warsaw Polytechnic, with the patronages of various European institutions including the ICOM. Waliców Project -embodying the idea of "extended museum" promoted by the 2017 ICOM conference- can represent the first unit of a possible system of memorialistic sites devoted to the formation of youngsters, to the debate within socio-cultural activities and arts. An archipelago of archaeological sites to be reactivated through museographic-architectural design. In this perspective Waliców represent a case-study with an evident component of museum responsibility towards the urban landscape of the city identity of Warsaw and, more in general, of the european city.
2019
9788366104228
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11578/297219
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