Benedictine University is host to a special photography exhibition by Izabela Mieszczanska, an artist/teacher living in Warsaw, Poland. Ms. Mieszczanska has been on the search to photograph the Madonna shrines of Warsaw. These uniquely beautiful shrines are all dedicated to the Virgin Mary. They grace Warsaw's streets, alleyways, courtyards and niches in hundreds of locations throughout the city. One is immediately struck by how well attended these shrines are; with flowers, and fresh paint. They look as though they were just put together, not sitting forlorn or neglected, as one might expect since most of them are now over 50 years old.
Mieszczanska became fascinated with these shrines as a child on her annual family visits to Poland, but when she moved to Warsaw three years ago, she started to look for them and photograph them within their settings. Some of the locations are out in the open, in a courtyard or alongside a busy street, but a lot of these shrines are in isolated walkways and behind old, decrepit buildings. They stand out like a beacon of colorful light amongst the weathered old bricks of buildings whose surfaces have been scarred from war and antiquity.
Mieszczanska's statement about her work says
"these extreme contrasts of beauty within desolation serve as a reminder that beauty exists always, both in spite of and because of things that are not beautiful. There is also a sense of domestic normality and peace that radiate from Mieszczaska's work. They supply the beholder with feelings of humility and thankfulness, trying to remind them that time never stops, life must always moves forward and rises like a phoenix from the ashes."
The details Mieszczanska shares about the shrines' function for the people of Warsaw is heartfelt and poignant. She says the shrines were built by the residents of the surrounding block where they are currently found. They were built mostly during the period of the Warsaw Uprising during WWI. At that time, people could not openly go about their business, let alone go to church, so they built the shrines in the belief it would protect their small neighborhoods.
When it became too dangerous for the residents to go to church, or their churches had been destroyed in the conflict, these shrines served as makeshift places of worship. People would gather for private services, marriages, baptisms, etc. The more shocking revelation was that the ground surrounding many of the shrines also became consecrated burial grounds. People could not go to the cemeteries to bury their dead, so many of these shrines also serve as grave markers for multiple burials under the street or alleyways surrounding them.
These photographs bring us a private and personal reality of the Warsaw Uprising and the resilience of its residents to survive by any means necessary. They show us that the residents' faith was not abandoned or destroyed when their city was being besieged by the Germans and the Soviets. The shrines show us today that there is faith and reverence for these places, and the belief these shrines till watch over the neighborhood is evident by the care and devotion they obviously still receive.
Mieszczanska's goal is to eventually photograph all of the 400 shrines in Warsaw. After three years, she is halfway there.....
Details about the Warsaw Uprising...the exact number of casualties remains unknown, it is estimated that about 16,000 members of the Polish resistance were killed and about 6,000 badly wounded. In addition, between 150,000 and 200,000 Polish civilians died, mostly from mass executions. Jews being harboured by Poles were exposed by German house-to-house clearances and mass evictions of entire neighbourhoods. German casualties totalled over 8,000 soldiers killed and missing, and 9,000 wounded. During the urban combat approximately 25% of Warsaw's buildings were destroyed. Following the surrender of Polish forces, German troops systematically leveled another 35% of the city block by block. Together with earlier damage suffered in the 1939 invasion of Poland and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, over 85% of the city was destroyed by January 1945, when the course of the events in the Eastern Front forced the Germans to abandon the city.
This exhibition will be continued through March 31st, and is located on the first floor of Kindlon Hall of Learning. For more information about Ms. Mieszczanska's work or to contact her:
Email: Izabelam@comcast.net
Website: izabelam.wix.com/imphotography
Blog: izumfoto@wordpress.com
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