Ilona Karwinska

POLISH NEON

When Warsaw was rebuilt after WWII it was done so under the utilitarian architectural model of the new communist regime.  Design flourishes and bright colours were deemed superfluous.  Even repressive political systems, however, cannot stifle the creative impulse forever.  The barren landscape was eventually colonised by neon signs, bringing light to the grey gloom of winter and much needed points of reference year round.  Where we might say “left at The Dog and Duck”, they said “below the golden Teatr Buffo”.   Each of these signs were designed by a single company, that employed artists to bring individual creations to life - often with a newly designed font for a simple bakery or perfumery.  

Since the fall of the Communist regime, Poland has undergone dramatic changes, changes that are now accelerating as the country integrates into the European Union.  Many architectural symbols of its past have been torn down, whilst some, like its neon signs, have simply been left to decay.  Ilona Karwinska set out to document these vestiges of the past.  The photographic images have both an aesthetic beauty and provide an insight into a period of history that is rapidly being subsumed by the rush to join the West.  In an ironic reversal of our preconceptions the individuality of the East is being buried under the Golden Arches and other ubiquitous free market symbols.