The statue of Artur Rubinstein is part of the ‘Pantheon of Famous Łódź Citizens’, which have lined the famous Piotrkowska Street since 1999. They are all bronze sculptures displayed on its pavements, commemorating prominent people in the city’s history. The monument was unveiled on 23rd September 2000 as part of the World Meeting of People from Łódź event. The monument was designed by Marcel Szytenchelm. The tenement building at 78 Piotrkowska Street is where the world-renowned pianist used to live.
Classically, he is presented here in a tailcoat, sitting at the piano with his hands touching the keyboard. The raised lid of the instrument resembles a bird’s wing – Artur Rubinstein’s family actually objected against the monument in this shape. His daughter Eva Rubinstein wrote several letters of protest on behalf of the family, addressed to the Municipal Office of Łódź and to the Chancellery of Poland’s Prime Minister, claiming that the form of the monument and its low artistic value were insults to the artist’s memory. Because of the monument, Eva Rubinstein refused to come to Łódź for six years despite annual celebrations commemorating her father.
The sculpture has also provoked many controversies among the art and music community of Łódź, and there is talk of plans to remove the existing monument and replace it with one of higher artistic value. In the original version of the monument, putting a coin into a slot triggered a mechanism hidden inside to play either Chopin’s Concerto in F Minor, Czajkowski’s Concerto in B-minor, or Chopin’s Waltz in C-sharp Minor or his Polonaise in A-flat Major. However, Sony BMG intervened demanding royalties for the pieces played, and the piano has since fallen silent.
Tadeusz Różewicz’s bench (non-existent)
Some artists do not want to have benches erected in their memory. The writer Tadeusz Różewicz expressed precisely this desire in his 2012 poetry volume To i Owo in the drawing 13 Benches in Memoriam of TR. It was a reaction to a proposal by Wrocław’s mayor, who wanted to celebrate the poet with a bench and his bronze figure sitting on it. The artist reacted in a grotesque and ironic manner typical of him. He put up ‘regulations against the molestation of benches’ and even designed boards with special notices (‘Don’t sit if you have flatulence’, etc.). Moreover, he excluded the following from sitting on any bench next to his bronze figure: people weighing over 100kg, vomiting drunkards, girls using mobile phones, poets writing poems, and combatants recollecting the struggles of the Battle of Grunwald (which took place in 1410). He also banned ‘pissing and shitting dogs’. That being said, he did welcome female players of basketball, volleyball and tennis to sit down.
Originally written in Polish, translated by MF, edited by NR & AZ, 24 Feb 2020