Façade decoration at 29 Szeroka St.

Technique: painting, mosaic

Object:

A historicist façade aligned with the ridge to Szeroka Street, covering a block of flats that was built as part of the post-war reconstruction of Gdańsk. In 2018, the façade underwent a major refurbishment as part of the ‘Gdańskie Fasady OdNowa’ project, which aimed to improve the quality of the public spaces of the Główne Miasto by adding architectural decoration to existing buildings that were omitted during Gdańsk’s reconstruction.

The decoration of the corner building is on the façade facing Szeroka Street. The intervention covers the space between the third and fourth floors, parallel to the arcade on its western side. The work depicts a mosaic in the shape of a multicoloured nautilus inverted in a vertical plane relative to the developed, painterly multiplied Fibonacci sequences. The artist’s aim was to show the maritime character of the city while highlighting the influence of mathematics on the natural sciences and the arts.

Place:

The building is located in an area designated as a heritage site. It forms part of the historic urban layout of Gdańsk. Szeroka Street was destroyed in 1945 during World War II. Most of the tenement houses were rebuilt without respecting the historical layout. Historic remnants can only be seen in the distinction of the separate façades with gables and in the ridge layout perpendicular to the street. The height and width of the buildings were standardised, and consequently, the historic parcelling was not maintained. Retail and service units were located in the ground floor. Szeroka Street acts as a boundary between the historicising reconstruction and modern development: a place where the two ways of post-war reconstruction intertwine.

Information about the author:

Przemysław Garczyński (b. 1988) graduated in graphic arts from the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, where he studied from 2007 to 2013 (he presented his graduation work in Prof. Piotr Lech’s studio), and in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk (2018, Prof. Maciej Świeszewski’s studio). He currently works at the Department of Basic Education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk Gdańsk, led by Marek Wrzesiński, PhD and in the Mural Painting and Stained Glass Studio led by Professor Jacek Zdybel. Garczyński was a finalist of the 17^th edition of ‘Hestia Artistic Journey’ competition. In 2016, one of the artist’s drawings took part in the Moon Drawing Project/Moon Arts Ark 2016. He works with mural painting, painting, drawing and graphic design.

Condition of the object: good

Owner/guardian: Ankra

Author of the entry: Noemi Etush