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Monday, 30 May 2011

A new lick of paint for W-wa Powiśle

The nearest railway station to my office, W-wa Powiśle, is a pearl of post-socialist-realist socialist architecture. Very moderne, very stylish. And its one of my favourite Polish railway stations - architecturally at least (I'll pass on a complete lack of signage, timetables at the entrance on ul. Kruczkowskiego and a working clock). But its all-white plaster finish had left it painfully vulnerable to anyone with a spray can and a vandalistic streak. Today I was delighted to see a new coat of paint being applied at the Kruczkowskiego end of the station (below) - and what an interesting scheme it is too!

The new paint extends up to platform level - I hope they manage to do the sides as well. It makes such a difference, especially in the bright sunlight of late-May. (Read about W-wa Powiśle architecture in this post about Warsaw railway architecture by Owen Hatherley)

LinkSadly, the vandalistic end of graffiti world, suffering from spray-can incontinence, will no doubt waste no time in daubing their tired, boring tags on top of the bright new street art, much as they did at W-wa Żwirki i Wigury and W-wa Rakowiec after artists set about improving the stations (for some reason the flamingo and stork cartoons at W-wa Al. Jerozolimskie were left largely untouched).

This time last year:
The ingredients of success
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous31 May 2011 at 08:49

    "Post-socialist-realist" ? WTH ? Why call one of the finest examples of Polish late modernism such a lame name ?

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  2. PolishMeKnob5 June 2011 at 17:50

    Isn't this station just the greatest? I love Powisle.

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  3. Unknown23 February 2015 at 17:51

    Well I think without those "boring spray can incontinentist" have had a tremendous influence on how modern architecture is built and designed. It used to be all gray, but due to Graffiti Vandals worldwide the walls are now more accepted with color, even with "socialistic art" or whatnot. I hope you stop badmouthing graffiti artists, even if you dont get the art itself.

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  4. Michael Dembinski23 February 2015 at 20:57

    @Anatoli

    Read more of my comments about street art. I am a huge fan of decent street art, but 90% is pure rubbish - mindless tags, vandalism and not art. Our opinions differ only in degree.

    Tagging is like a dog pissing on a wall. It is depressing and aggressive. It is a signal that no one cares, massive over-tagging leads to broken windows and petty crime leading to major crime. Look at what happened to crime in NYC after the Subways trains got cleaned up.

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