The results of the competition were announced during a press conference held on the 30th of March, 2012 at the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, Poland.
The monument pays homage to the victims of the plane crash which took place in Smolensk on the 10th of April, 2010. The Tu-154 aircraft of the Polish Air Force crashed near the city of Smolensk, Russia, killing all 96 people on board. These included the Polish president Lech Kaczyński and his wife, former president Ryszard Kaczorowski, the chief of the Polish General Staff and other senior Polish military officers, the president of the National Bank of Poland, Poland's deputy foreign minister, Polish government officials, 15 members of the Polish parliament, senior members of the Polish clergy, and relatives of victims of the Katyn massacre. They were en route from Warsaw to attend an event marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre, the site is approximately 19 kilometres west of Smolensk.
The idea of raising a monument to commemorate the victims first came up during the ceremony on the 1st anniversary of the catastrophe. It was the common initiative of the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage and the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation. The competition was officially announced by the Polish President Bronisław Komorowski and the President of Russia, Dmitri Medvedev.
The winning project takes on the form of a two-metre high black wall. The funereal construction of the project traces the east to west direction of the last course taken by the Tu-154 aircraft. The wall is also a boundary which divides the space into two areas – the sacral sphere encompasses grounds where the remains of the aircraft and victims’ bodies were found, and the public area marked by two perpendicular roads, which come together against the background of the airport’s fence. The authors have also designed inscriptions of the victims’ names and of the Polish national emblem. In the place where the names of the victims are enscribed, the surface of the wall breaks and opens onto a square made of a granite platform. The designs also embraces symbols of the actual catastrophe – a birch, a stone and a cross.
Grzegorz Kowalski listed the following reasons for choosing the project by Sołyga, Śmiechowski and Komorek
A full respect for the authenticity of the place, a protection of the sphere which belongs to the victims and the depiction of a dramatic path which must be pursued by those who live, which traces the last phase of the aircraft’s catastrophe.
According to Kowalski, the authors of the project opened up the grounds onto the metaphysics of death. Other members of the jury approved the gravity of the space-time continuum which can embrace the various emotions that are experienced by visitors.
The second prize of 10 000 euros was presented to another team of Jeremi T. Królikowski, Krzysztof Ozimek and Jan Mazur. The third prize and 5 000 euros went to Tomasz Tomaszewski. In addition the awards, four special mentions were also selected from among the participants of the competition.
Adam Myjak emphasised that the only reference for jugdement was the artistic value of the project. He revealed that the debate was very agitated but it was carried out in a friendly atmosphere. According to professor Kowalski, each member of the jury first chose the works that seemed most valuable to him individually, and then presented this choice in front of his colleagues. The final outcome is thus undoubtably a result of the team effort of these presentations and debates.
The deadline for project submission was the 16th of January, 2012. 96 works were sent in, and 88 out of them met with the contest’s rules. The artists and designers who took part in the contest came from Poland, Russia, Latvia and the United States.
The jury began debating over the entries on the 26th of March, at the Centre of Contemporary Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, which was the organiser of the competition. Members of the jury included professor Adam Myjak (the jury’s president), professor Grzegorz Kowalski, Marek Budzyński, Ewa Komorowska, professor Yuri Pavlovich Volchek, Valeri Yosifovich Pierfilyev, Stefanie Amparo Weinmayr, Hartmut Stielov and Mariusz Knorowski.
The site of the monument is to be symbolically indicated during a visit by Polish government officials to the city of Smolensk on the 10th of April, 2012. The visit on 2nd anniversary of the catastrophe is led by Bogdan Zdrojewski, the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage. The official of the moment is scheduled to take place on the 10th of April, 2013.
All of the projects which were submitted for the competition are presented in an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Sculpture in Orońsko. The exhibition is on from the 14th of April and runs until the 10th of June, 2012.
For more information on the competition, see: bip.rzezba-oronsko.pl
Source: press release, PAP, gazeta.pl.