Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 PL, via Wikimedia Commons

20 years of the Warsaw Rising Museum: a story that is still alive

on 31 July 2004, the Warsaw Rising Museum opened its doors to the public. Since then, the museum’s permanent exhibition has become one of the most visited exhibitions in Poland, already attracting 10 million people of all age groups. The authorial studio Nizio Design International, led by Mirosław Nizio, played a key role in the design and implementation of the exhibition, which celebrates its 20th anniversary today.

The Warsaw Uprising Museum is located in the historic building of the former Tramway Power Station in Wola, at 79 Grzybowska Street. The building, which was erected between 1904 and 1908, originally served as a power supply for the city’s electric tramways. After the end of the Second World War, the building was used for various industrial purposes. In the 1990s, the building was abandoned and fell into disrepair. However, it was decided to renovate it and adapt it for use as a museum. Work began in 2003. The museum opened on 31 July 2004, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising. The transformation of the historic power station into a modern museum space has become a symbol of revival and remembrance of the heroic struggle of the people of Warsaw. The building has retained many of its original architectural elements, which, combined with the modern exhibition, create a unique place for historical education and reflection.

Adrian Grycuk, CC BY 3.0 PL, via Wikimedia Commons

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The commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising draws crowds, and the Warsaw Uprising Museum continues to play a key role in telling this multifaceted story. The exhibition, which combines historical narrative with multimedia elements, was a forerunner of narrative architecture in Poland. Its interactivity and ability to engage visitors on both an intellectual and sensory level make it still attractive and relevant, despite the dynamic development of technology. Visitors pass through a variety of themed rooms, such as the Hall of the Little Insurgent or the Canal, which capture the atmosphere of Warsaw in 1944.

Photo by PAP/Paweł Kula

The exhibition does not literally recreate a bygone world, but evocatively depicts its reality through exhibits including documents, maps, photographs, letters, personal items and weapons. The total number of exhibits is around 1,000, which are placed in austere showcases that emphasise their brutal reality. The way in which the space is organised is simple, but at the same time allows for an in-depth understanding of the subject, also in a broader, geopolitical perspective. The different stages of the Warsaw Uprising are arranged and shown chronologically and from the perspective of those who fought in it.

Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 PL, via Wikimedia Commons

The dramaturgy of the events was emphasised by the authors of the concept using a variety of finishing materials, including iron, steel, brick, wood and granite paving. The materials are mostly recycled, both from home and abroad, and literally remember the times they tell about in the museum. Due to the exhibition’s small creative budget for the time, the studio visited many material repositories from ruins and old houses to bring out the actual narrative fabric and later personally assembled parts of it, including the aforementioned steel showcases. The exhibition is also held together by a steel monument running through all three floors, which cover a total of more than 3,000 square metres.

Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego
Photo by PAP/Paweł Kula

Architect and co-author of the concept Mirosław Nizio emphasises that, in his opinion, the exhibition has stood the test of time because it was not only the result of the imagination of those working on it, but consistently set itself the primary goal of maintaining a comprehensible narrative formula:

“I am proud and touched that in the 20 years since the exhibition opened it has been visited by so many people with a variety of personal, historical, cultural backgrounds. This shows that the quality direction we wanted to set as a team is timeless and has fit in with the needs of visitors. Despite the changes taking place in museums in Poland and Europe, it still remains fresh. Working on the permanent exhibition at the Warsaw Rising Museum also built the foundations for my philosophy of narrative architecture. Being in one of the muted, darkened exhibition rooms on the eve of the anniversary, I had the feeling as if the place had only opened yesterday – it retained the lively energy that I care so much about in every project.”

Source: Nizio Design Internationalpress materials

Read also: Achitektura w Polsce | Warsaw | Museum | Curiosities | Nizio International