The ‘stone and co’ mural will soon be covered up and disappear from the landscape of Wola. This is nothing surprising, as there has long been talk of developing the plots of land on the corner of Waliców and Grzybowska Streets. In July this year, the city put up for sale a 1,400-square-metre property that could become the site for a new 90-metre skyscraper. A building of this size, which will stand next to the iconic mural, will significantly change the appearance of the area.
An advantage of the plot, which has recently been fenced off and unspecified work has begun on it, is that it is covered by a local development plan, which significantly shortens the administrative procedures for obtaining a building permit. The plan allows for intensive use of the land. The new owner will be able to build a building up to 50 metres high, with the possibility of increasing its height to 90 metres at the corner of Grzybowska and Waliców streets.
The building adjacent to the plot at 14 Waliców Street in Warsaw, which is one of the few preserved relics of the city’s past, is a unique place on the map of the capital. Built at the beginning of the 20th century, like the two other tenements at numbers 10 and 12, it survived the tragic events of World War II, including the Warsaw Uprising, but its front was destroyed by a German mine. These buildings are among the last surviving reminders of the Warsaw Ghetto. The surviving outbuildings of the explosion-damaged building were renovated and adapted for residential use as we can see them today. The building was inhabited until 2004, when the residents and tenants of the premises were evicted. In 2009, in the context of the intensive urban development changes that were taking place around the Wola landmark, with modern office and apartment buildings sprouting up nearby, a ‘stone and co’ mural was created on the blind wall of the building.
The mural was created by the artist Leon Tarasewicz, who created a minimalist design consisting of the black inscription ‘stone and what’ on a white background and a red balloon floating above it. The work is a reflection on the transience, permanence and ephemerality of history recorded in the ruins of the city. “Stone” symbolises a material trace of the past, unchanging and permanent, while “what” suggests the question of its meaning in a contemporary context. The light balloon is a contrast to the weight and monumentality of the stone, expressing the transience and changeability of time.
The mural quickly gained recognition both as a work of art and as a symbol of remembrance of Warsaw’s history, reminding us of the role the past plays in shaping the present. It also became part of the fight to save the tenement from demolition. In 2015, the District Building Inspector decided that the tenement was neither fit for use nor for renovation and ordered its demolition. Thanks to the actions of activists, it was saved and entered in the register of historic buildings. In September 2018, the preservation of the deteriorating tenement began, including propping up the blind wall of the building, laying a temporary roof and bricking up the windows. These measures are intended to protect the building until the renovation that has been awaited for years.
On the wave of the Singer Festival and the entry of the 14 Waliców tenement house into the register of monuments, the idea was conceived to convince the city to create a square named after Władysław Szlengel in the vicinity of the famous mural. Unfortunately, economics and money lose out to sentiment. Plots of land of such value have no chance of remaining undeveloped. The empty piece of land will change beyond recognition in the coming years, the mural will disappear, and in the meantime the fate of the tenement houses that survived the war still remains uncertain.
Source: stone and co, urbanity.pl, propertynews.pl
