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The dramatic transformation that I witnessed over the years following the demise of the USSR is symbolized by these photos, that I took while living in Wrocław, from 1996 until 2012, myself playing a small role, both as an artist and business owner, in the city’s post-communist rebirth. Not long after I arrived, a terrible flood consumed the city. I caught a photo of sandbags that were lining the Odra River (Oder, in English), which carried enormous amounts of water from mountains far away and consumed most of the city’s center. In the background of the photo, on the other side of the river, is the city’s cathedral, on what is known as “Ostrów Tumski” (Cathedral Island, in English).
The market square (known in Polish as “Rynek”), where everyone strolls and enjoys many outdoor bar and restaurant patios during fair weather, had become colorfully renovated. One can see the restored tower of the church, which two years earlier was hidden inside of a wood scaffolding. Public statues and sculptures had become commonplace. Tiny gnome statues were installed throughout the city center, representing a political artist organization, known as “Orange Alternative,” which staged ridiculously humorous anti-communist demonstrations. The public sculpture of what appears to be people sinking into the ground is also at the outskirts of the city center. Called “Przejcie” (Passage, in English), it represents the sad conditions of citizens living during the dark period of Martial Law, in the early 1980s.
What had led to my strange destiny to Poland was an introduction in Los Angeles to a man from Wrocław, who was the leader of an underground of artists throughout the country, who played a key role in nonviolently toppling the totalitarian Stalinist regime. The Berlin Wall was torn down during my three-month visit in 1989, liberation of other countries of Central Europe followed and the Soviet Union disbanded two years later. He had been sent to tour the US by a US Consulate in the Polish city of Poznań, on a cultural exchange mission, while presenting a video documentary of Orange Alternative’s activities. I was introduced to him in LA by a journalist friend and he invited me to his country. The very day after our fateful meeting, the headline news of the NY Times said that Poland had just been liberated and it would soon have its first free elections since 1945. At that moment I knew that it was my calling, as I became the only American artist to accept his offer.
