Rozwadów – podróż sentymentalna w 330. rocznicę lokacji miasta. Wystawa jubileuszowa

July 2020 – December 2020, outdoor exhibition, Market Square in Stalowa Wola-Rozwadów

The outdoor exhibition entitled. “Rozwadów – a sentimental journey on the 330th anniversary of the town’s incorporation”, consists of archival, mostly unpublished photographs. They were donated by former Rozwadów residents who spent their childhood here. They also become storytellers and guides to it. Following in the footsteps of Irenka, Rajmund, Jurek and Kazio, we become witnesses to their childhood experiences and the great history unfolding in the background. The keynote of this journey through memories are the words spoken by one of the protagonists, Irena Bień: There was not a single day in my life when I did not think of Rozwadów.

In 2020 Rozwadów celebrated its anniversary, as 330 years have passed since its founding. The exhibition prepared on this occasion is a sentimental journey to this former town. In this journey we go where human memory reaches.

The outdoor exhibition consists of two parts. The first is a story about Rozwadów as seen through the eyes of four children. Some were brought here primarily by their parents’ professional work, others, as displaced persons or refugees, sought refuge in the town from the conflagration of war. Later, as adults, they returned to Rozwadów with great sentiment, and when visiting the Museum they shared their memories and souvenirs.

Wystawę tworzą osobiste historie, zapisy rozmów i mikro narracje zilustrowane fotografiami i dokumentami, które do tej pory spoczywały w rodzinnych archiwach. Bohaterowie wystawy, dziś już dojrzali ludzie, opowiedzieli o swoich przyjaciołach z dzieciństwa, szkole, nauczycielach, pierwszych sympatiach, zawodowych wyborach, niezwykłych spotkaniach. Będąc dziećmi doświadczyli również II wojny światowej. Zabrała im ona duży fragment dzieciństwa, byli świadkami najokrutniejszych wojennych zbrodni, doświadczyli głodu, bólu, tułaczki, strachu przed bombardowaniem. Mimo wszystko Rozwadów jawi się w ich wspomnieniach jako miejsce wyidealizowane, pełne bliskich im ludzi, dziecięcych zabaw, pamiątek i szczęśliwych przeżyć. Ten być może ubogi i, zdawać by się mogło, mało atrakcyjny miejski pejzaż był dla nich ostoją radosnego życia i beztroski.

The second part of the exhibition is a presentation of atmospheric photographs of children, taken mainly in the 1950s. They were made available by Ms. Barbara Karakuła, and are the work of her father, Bronislaw Karakuła (born 1908 in Wólka Grodziska near Lezajsk – died 1986 in Rozwadow). He ran his first photography business in Nisk, and during the occupation and after returning from forced labor in Germany, he moved his atelier to a building at the back of the house on Mickiewicza Street in Rozwadow, where he lived with his family (the business building no longer exists). He took photographs and ran his establishment until 1974. He took photographs for documents, family portraits, documented weddings, communions and funerals. He was often invited by Rozwadów schools for sessions. Bronislaw was an amateur, he had no specialized education, but his photographs have, in addition to their commemorative or aesthetic value, also a cognitive value and are a unique document of family and social life of the past years. On black-and-white plates, the author immortalized, among other things, the railroad kindergarten, artistic performances by the Rozwadów mandolin players, and summer half-schools at the Rozwadów elementary school. Unfortunately, only a small part of this legacy has survived to our times. The museum has digitized the surviving part of the collection on the basis of the surviving films.

Exhibition design: Aneta Garanty

Graphic design: Jacek Kawa

Photographs presented at the exhibition come from the collections of: the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola, Irena Bień née Kurpiel, Rajmund Ulatowski, Jerzy Czarnek, Kazimierz and Maria Jackowski, Barbara Karakuła