Changes to street names in Warsaw in recent years have ignited strong identity conflicts. Street designations are powerful tools for the exercise of symbolic politics. The act of naming or renaming is a moment of history construction - it is associated with indicating and highlighting, or erasing, selected characters and events. Through naming, a street acquires symbolic value and becomes a vehicle of collective memory. Renaming can be seen as a basis for creating new identities and bringing about deeper social change. Conflicts over street names are therefore a contention over how to judge the past and how to construct today's identity. The work presented here discusses three examples of such disputes: around street de-communization (Dąbrowszczaków - Sawinkowa), around the visibility of women in urban space (Dmowskiego Roundabout - Women's Rights Roundabout) and around the cosmopolitanism of the city (Rzeżuchowa - Rukoli, i.e Watercress vs Ruccola).

 

 

Justyna Orchowska, Jerzy Porębski

Prof. Jerzy Porębski graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Krakow University of Technology (1980) and from the Faculty of Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1982), where he ran a design studio for more than 30 years. He served as dean from 2005 to 2012. In 1991, he founded the Design Society, which he now runs with Grzegorz Niwiński. He is involved in design, the planning of public spaces, interior architecture, exhibition design and applied graphics. The Society's major realisations: Municipal Information System in Warsaw, Bielsko-Biała and Krakow, interiors of AGORA S.A., SLIM, GAP and ALTAIR furniture for Noti and Comforty, urban furniture for the Royal Route in Warsaw, furniture and bus shelters for Warsaw, interior design of the National Music Forum in Wrocław, Polish diplomatic missions (Polish Embassy in Skopje, Polish Institute in Tel Aviv, Polish Embassy in Berlin), modernisation of the Central Railway Station in Warsaw and design of the exhibition "Unspeakable Space" at Zachęta. He is the artistic supervisor of the "Architektura Murator" monthly. Winner of numerous awards and distinctions at home and abroad.