In the courtyard at 3 Piotrkowska Street in Łódź lies a true gem of local architecture and street art – the Rose Passage. This extraordinary place was designed by Joanna Rajkowska, who transformed the unremarkable rear section of a 19th-century tenement building into a space offering an intense experience.
For many years, Piotrkowska Street concealed the typical 19th-century outbuildings – cramped and devoid of sunlight. The tenement house at number 3 formerly belonged to the Hotel Polski complex, one of the city’s first hotels, which developed in step with the industrial revolution. For a long time, the courtyard was unremarkable, lost amongst thousands of similar places in Łódź. Change only came in the second decade of the 21st century, when work began on the regeneration of the city centre. It was then that the idea arose to bring a new quality to this forgotten corner of the city through art with a powerful impact.
Joanna Rajkowska’s concept was developed between 2013 and 2014 and was realised as part of the Łódź Four Cultures Festival. The opening took place after a process of almost two years of painstaking work. Not only art and construction specialists were involved in the project, but also residents who participated in the creation of individual sections. As a result, the project took on a social dimension, extending beyond the artist’s individual expression. The RWSL studio was responsible for the technical aspects, developing methods to permanently integrate the delicate mirror elements with the façade of the historic building.
The Rose Passage consists of a mosaic made up of hundreds of thousands of tiny fragments of mirror. However, they do not form a uniform surface. These are hand-cut triangles, rhombuses and rectangles, arranged in a dense, irregular pattern, imitating, amongst other things, the shape of rosebuds. The glass has been embedded directly into the surface of the walls and protected with special coatings designed to extend its lifespan. During the day, the passageway glitters with reflected light, and the image of the city breaks up into hundreds of reflections. The sky, passers-by and details appear as scattered, ephemeral fragments that shift with the observer’s movement. After dark, the courtyard takes on an intimate depth, with pinpoint reflections creating an almost theatrical atmosphere.
The source of this extraordinary project was the artist’s personal history, specifically the illness of her daughter, Róża, who was diagnosed with a tumour of the retina. The motif of shattered mirrors refers to a way of seeing in which an image is formed from many tiny impulses. The viewer is not presented with a finished whole. They must piece it together themselves from scattered fragments, just as human vision reconstructs reality. In this way, the passage goes beyond mere aesthetics. It speaks of the perception of the world, the experience of illness and the slow recovery of the ability to see.
Today, the Rose Passage serves as a passageway leading from Piotrkowska Street towards Zachodnia Street and further on towards Manufaktura. The former courtyard has begun to attract footfall and attention, gaining renown and a prominent place among Łódź’s attractions.
Source: lodz.travel.pl
Photos courtesy of Bon voyage – travels around Poland
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