At the entrance to the historic Krasinski Garden in Warsaw's Muranów district a few days ago stood an unusual tower - a structure built from forty-five wooden modules, the third installation by Jakub Szczęsny realized as part of the Taburete Towers - The Benches series.
After the towers of stools realized as part of the Concéntrico festivals in Logroño, Spain, and Bengaluru By Design in India, the architect, in collaboration with Karolina Potębska and Artur Wisniewski created another installation, this time in Warsaw, on Stare Nalewki Street (on the axis of the now-defunct Nalewki Street, a tract of the former Jewish quarter).
left: Taburete Towers in Logroño; right: Taburete Tower in Bengaluru
Photo: Penisula, Josema Cutillas (left); photo: Sartaj Tanweer (right).
The location is not coincidental, as the tower serves as a temporary memorial to Warsaw Ghetto teachers, including Stefania Szwajgier and Abraham Lewin teaching at the Yehudiya Gymnasium located nearby at 55 Dluga Street, as well as people associated with the Oneg Shabat group, who collected information on living conditions in the ghetto and created the Ringelblum Archive. On some of the benches that make up the memorial, at the eye level of passersby, light boxes were placed with information dedicated to the teachers and the March of Remembrance, which is organized annually on July 22 to commemorate the start of the ghetto liquidation campaign.
Temporary art installation on Stare Nalewki street
photo: Andrzej Stawinski / Jewish Historical Institute
TheMarch of Remembrance is dedicated this year to teachers. In the extreme conditions of the ghetto, they did not lose faith in the value of education and the moral standards they tried to pass on to their students. Until the last days before the deportation, they accompanied their charges in learning to read and write or preparing for matriculation. Many of them went with their students to the Umschlagplatz," Monika Krawczyk, director of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, said about the heroes of this year's July 22nd Memorial March.
The 
the towers are connected at the top and bottom
photo: Andrzej Stawinski / Jewish Historical Institute
The installation consists of three twisted towers connected at the top and bottom, built of simple benches made of waterproof plywood. Each is labeled with a description recalling the event and, as in Jakub Szczęsny's previous projects, after the exhibition ends in August, the installation will be dismantled and the individual modules will be given a second life.
