Closing of the "Rechowicz/Smaga. Koło” Exhibition
The house - a work in progress - was established at the start of the 1950's by painters Gabriel and Hanna Rechowicz. Following Gabriel Rechowicz's passing, it was cared for and developed by his wife. It is a place with a rich past - over several decades, it has served as a meeting place for the artist community of Warsaw [...]. It is also a place for painting and sculptural intervention within the architectural substance and the gradual layering of various materials, objects united by the Rechowicz couple in poetic assemblies.
– from the exhibition catalogue.
Hanna Rechowicz lives at ul. Lekarska 9 to this day. During World War II, it was the address of her mother, Jadwiga Piotrowska (1903–1994), who was active in helping Jews. She was employed in the Welfare and Health Department of the Warsaw City Council, working together with Jan Dobraczyński and Irena Sendler. As Irena Sendler recalled:
Her home became an "Emergency Clinic” for people leaving the ghetto. Adults, children and youth passed through her home. [...] Jadwiga led children out of the ghetto and prepared false documents [...] She was one of those who worked with distinction, helping to save the Jewish population.
Irena Sendler also mentioned that it was the garden at the back of the Piotrowski house in ul. Lekarska where, in 1944, the "Żegota” file was to be buried. The file recorded the names of the children saved by her network of co-workers. This has been described in detail in Anna Bikont's book "Sendlerowa. W ukryciu” ("Sendler - In Hiding").
See the House at the Exhibition
Hanna Rechowicz's house, which itself cannot be viewed directly, can be seen per medium of this exhibition in Zachęta. The exhibition's curator, Katarzyna Kołodziej-Podsiadło, writes:
Respecting the specificity of the place - the fluidity of the processes which occurred within it, the tendency to differentiate forms and the spatial dimension - Smaga asked Hanna Rechowicz to complete the photographic images which he had created. These forms lead the mobile and closed substance of the house from the depths of the photographic representations outside [...] Exhibited in the halls of Zachęta, they are a representation of an inaccessible place, impossible to see from the outside and in one viewing.
The exhibition can be viewed in Zachęta - National Art Gallery until 17th March 2019.
