WE HAVE IT! A statue from Wroclaw with two top awards in the USA!

·5 August 2024

A monument from Wrocław depicting the silhouettes of Unbroken Soldiers (Anti-Soviet Partisans’ Memorial) has won the CODAawards 2024 international competition for the best work of art in public space! The monument received as many as two main prizes – it won in the ‘Public Spaces’ category (the prize awarded by the international jury) and in the vote of the public from all over the world (‘People’s Choice’).

Unveiled on 8 May this year in Wrocław, the Monument to Unbroken Soldiers was appreciated both by the public from all over the world and by jurors in the CODAawards 2024 competition. The Monument received the highest number of votes in the poll of the public from all over the world “People’s Choice”. It was also awarded first place by an international panel of judges in the most numerous category “Public Spaces”.

CODAward is awarded for the best work of art in architecture and public space in the world. due to its innovative and extremely interesting form and its ability to bring together different communities and institutions around the project.

“The work, which departs from the traditional heroic soldier from monuments of the past, evokes a deep, eerie sadness and haunting fear of being possessed by the horrors of war.” – Ilene Shaw, executive director of NYCXDesign, founder and producer of the design pavilion, CEO of Shaw Co. Productions

The Depot History Centre was the lead organising entity for the creation of the memorial and launched educational activities around the monument, showcasing the dramatic fate of the soldiers of the First and Second Conspiracies.

“This monument is a mute testimony to the sacrifice made by the entire post-war generation, and their greatest fault and drama was that after the war they refused to accept the order brought to Poland on Soviet bayonets. Often they found themselves in a dramatic situation with no way out, facing a choice: go to prison, undergo brutal investigations, be sentenced in political trials that usually ended in death sentences or life imprisonment, or fight in the forests, hide.”-Dr. Andrzej Jerie, Director of the Zajezdnia History Centre

The Monument to the Unbroken Soldiers, which was unveiled on 8 May 2024, was erected in a square at the junction of Gliniana, Borowska and Dyrekcyjna streets. The revitalisation and landscaping of the area made the place more friendly to residents and tourists. The authors of the design and builders of the monument are the Wrocław artists Tomasz and Konrad Urbanowicz from the Archiglass studio. The Zajezdnia History Centre and Tomasz and Konrad Urbanowicz of the Archiglass studio would like to thank you for all the votes cast and invite you to see the official results: https://www.codaworx.com/codaawards/2024-codaawards-winners.

Monument from Wrocław among the best in the world

“Anti-Soviet Partisans’ Memorial”, as this is the name by which the monument is known in the world, was selected from among 380 works from 24 countries. The Wrocław monument is the only object from Poland to make it to the TOP100 CODAawards 2024. This is a great distinction both for Wrocław, as the work has permanently found its place in urban space, and for its creators – the Wrocław artists Tomasz and Konrad Urbanowicz.

– This is a great success for all the individuals involved at each stage of the work of this complex and demanding project, which we have been creating together for several years,” said Dr Konrad Urbanowicz, one of the authors of the project.

Major Wanda Kiałka during the ceremonial unveiling of the monument

Monument to the Outlawed Soldiers / Anti-Soviet Partisans’ Memorial

The memorial takes the form of nine figures of unbroken soldiers, cast in glass and specially orchestrated, which are embedded in glass cuboids. The silhouettes appear to go in different directions. The monument was unveiled on 8 May this year by Major Wanda Kiałka, a Home Army nurse and liaison officer and prisoner of Vorkuta.

– The Monument to the Unbroken Soldiers symbolically depicts the situation of an entire generation that found itself in a no-win situation after 1945. Why was it erected in Wrocław? Our city was home to the largest number of Warsaw insurgents outside of Warsaw; the son of Adam Lazarowicz “Klamra”, commander of the 4th Board of the Freedom and Independence Association, settled in Wrocław; Lt. Col. Ludwik Marszałek “Zbroja” was executed here; Col. Jerzy Woźniak lived here. The structures of WiN, NSZ and many other underground independence formations were active here, and over 300 victims of Stalinist repressions lie in the Osobowice Cemetery,” explains Dr. Andrzej Jerie, director of the Zajezdnia History Centre.

The project was realised thanks to the joint efforts of the City of Wrocław, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Centre for Zajezdnia History, which will now carry out educational activities to raise awareness of an entire generation whose greatest fault and drama was that after the war they did not want to agree to the order brought to Poland on Soviet bayonets. Often they found themselves in a dramatic situation with no way out, facing a choice: go to prison, undergo brutal investigations, be sentenced in political trials that usually ended in death sentences or life imprisonment, or fight in the forests, hide.

Tomasz and Konrad Urbanowicz of Wrocław-based studio Archiglass, authors of the installation

This Monument to the Unbroken Soldiers – an evocative installation by Tomasz and Konrad Urbanowicz – symbolically depicts the situation of an entire generation who found themselves in a no-win situation after 1945.

The projects of Tomasz and Konrad Urbanowicz from the Archiglass studio in Wrocław are well known to the inhabitants of the capital of Lower Silesia – we are familiar with the glass egg, i.e. the gatehouse in the hallway of the connector between Wrocław University and the University Church, or the glass portal of the Passage under the Blue Sun in the Market Square.

And Archiglass projects can also be admired by Varsovians (glass decoration of the Supreme Court building) or by officials and tourists in Strasbourg (the “United World” sculpture is located in the courtyard of the European Parliament).

In 2021, in the plebiscite of the 30 Creatives of Wrocław, Tomasz Urbanowicz was the winner in the field of culture/art/design. And a year later, together with his son Konrad, he was awarded the CODAaward in the ‘Liturgical’ category for ‘Spirit of the Palatium’, a unique realisation in Poznań’s Ostrów Tumski.

Najlepsza przestrzeń sakralna na świecie jest w Polsce. Szklane Palatium z Poznania z nagrodą!

Not only Wrocław. Poznan has already won!

It is worth noting that Poland has a victory in the CODAawards competition . In 2022, the same studio was awarded in the competition for the best sacred space in the world. The award went to Tomasz and Konrad for creating the Glass Palatium in, which can be admired in Poznań’s Ostrów Tumski.(More in the article above or at the link HERE)

source: Wrocław / wroclaw.pl
photos: Adam Stelmaszek / press materials of Centrum Historii Zajezdnia / https://zajezdnia.org/