Warsaw. Advertisement in the subway. The conservator of monuments became interested in mosaics. I want to put them on the register

– At the request of the Time Collectors Association, we intend to start proceedings for entry in the register ex officio. For the duration of the procedure, it will not be possible to carry out renovation works in the area covering the mosaics. In the case of an entry, all works and activities, i.e. placing advertising media, will have to be agreed with MWKZ – Andrzej Mizera from the office of the Mazowieckie Voivodship Conservator of Monuments told the portal transport-publiczny.pl.

We described the problem on tvnwarszawa.pl at the end of November. For the installation of advertising media on the congestion walls of the Służew and Ursynów stations our reader noticed. Mr Paweł claimed that the Warsaw Metro, by installing advertisements in this place, destroys the mosaic, which “is a comprehensive artistic composition”.

“It’s outrageous because this mosaic, the so-called graphic distinguishing feature, is one of the relics of the original design concept of the Warsaw metro from the 1980s. What we see at the other stations of the first section of the M1 is poor-decoration from the early 1990s. , forced by the search for savings to be able to run the metro at all. Only at the Ursynów and Służew stations, which were built first, we have original ceramic cladding in brown for the entire southern section, “wrote Jakub Jastrzębski in social media.

He reminded that a team composed of artist-visual artist Krzysztof Jachiewicz and architects Piotr Szeliński and Andrzej Drzewiecki worked on the mosaics. “While covering a fragment of the congestion wall at other stations, which usually have uniform colors, seems to be easier to accept, here an important fragment of a well-thought-out whole has been hidden, a piece of art that the Warsaw Metro should be proud of” – noted Jastrzębski. He also wrote that “it’s exactly as if the screens covered part of the inscription Świętokrzyska or Rondo ONZ at M2 stations”. The walls of the stations indicated by the Varsavianist are decorated with graphics by Wojciech Fangor.

Metro Warszawskie, when asked about such a solution, only reported that “advertising media on the M1 line are replaced due to the need to standardize them and thus increase the aesthetic level of the station’s design”.

Currently – as we reported on tvnwarszawa.pl on Friday – there are no ads on the first line. They were dismantled by the operator – Ströer, which withdrew them from both old and new carriers.

According to the portal transport-publiczny.pl Anna Bartoń, spokeswoman for the Warsaw Metro, “a substantive assessment of the proposed modernization solutions is being conducted and the carriers are being verified.” – After performing the necessary analyzes, we will be able to inform you about further activities in this area in the near future. The overall implementation of the audit task will end in June, she noted.

In turn, according to Bartosz Barański from the Ströer press office, the dismantling of advertisements at the first line stations “is a consequence of the suspension of the contract with Ströer Polska by Metro. This decision has been in force since December 6, 2022”.

The mayor of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski also referred to the issue of confusion with advertising in the subway. – Decisions must be made as transparently as possible, based on tenders. We will definitely reach an agreement, the president assured. – Specialists from our offices are meeting about what this policy should look like. The point is that these rules should be worked out together – added Trzaskowski. – It is important that these points serve information, but that they are also aesthetic and fit into the city’s strategy – he summed up.