November 22 / 6 pm / at the Museum of Warsaw's Praga at 50/52 Targowa Street.
Right-bank - Nine exceptional women who always went their own way. New exhibition at the Museum of Warsaw's Praga district
Nine women associated with the right bank of Warsaw: researchers and scientists, teachers and social activists, pioneers of change. Each of them had different goals and a different life path, but they all wanted to decide for themselves. And all of them, at different stages of their lives, were associated with Warsaw's Praga district. Their biographies, though individual and specific to the times in which they lived, are universal and continue to inspire people to make courageous choices. Exhibition Right-bank will open at the Museum of Warsaw's Praga district on November 22.
The heroines of the exhibition are not widely known, although they were respected in the communities in which they were active. What they have in common is ambition, determination and a desire to make changes - both in their own lives and in the world around them. They had different activities and goals, and faced different challenges. They were independent, determined and committed to helping others, and blazed trails for many women.
Helena Rzeszotarska was born in 1879, and Ninel Kameraz-Kos died in 2011. That's one hundred and thirty-two years of tumultuous history, but also private little herstories. What emerges from the exhibition is a kaleidoscope of fates and personalities, as well as a universal message about self-determination as a basic need.
The women's characters were depicted through personal objects and memorabilia from family collections, photographs, documents, objects provided by many institutions, and audio recordings. The heroines are connected to contemporary right-bank Warsaw by a unique art project by Katarzyna and Marianne Wąsowski, who selected and photographed places metaphorically referring to the fates of the Right-bank. A series of photos and a film were created especially for the exhibition.
The exhibition refers to the project Right-bank, run by the Museum of Warsaw's Praga since 2015, and to the exhibition The Right Bank. Uncommon Biographies (2016).
- Nine women and nine stories. Each in some way connected with the right bank of Warsaw, each unique. These are characters hitherto unknown or rarely mentioned, often hidden behind the backs of men. We discover them through the choices they make and the experiences they share," says Jolanta Wisniewska, curator of the exhibition. - The exhibition is also a voice in the discussion of how the city's heritage, its image, is perceived and created. A meditation on the place of women-Prazhian women in this process. An attempt to give them a voice, to look from their perspective," she adds.
Teacher, anthropologist, ceramicist, religious actress, swimmer, Zionist activist, scout, doctor, painter and hostess of an art salon
Helena Rzeszotarska (1879-1976) was 29 years old when she founded a school for girls in Prague. She developed it, acquiring full public school rights. She promoted talented female students and raised generations of educated women. During the occupation, she conducted secret teaching. After World War II, the school was nationalized, but Rzeszotarska taught there until 1952. She retired at the age of 74, but remained in contact with her alumnae until her death at the age of 97.
Maria Czaplicka (1884-1921) was an anthropologist and ethnographer, academic lecturer and women's rights activist. Born in Prague, she was educated at a secret university during the Partitions, and later in London and Oxford. She spent several months in 1914 and 1915 in Siberia. She organized the expedition, conducted research in harsh conditions, took photographs and learned local languages. In 1915 she became one of the first women to receive a doctorate in anthropology. Seven years later she died a suicide.
Wanda Szrajberówna (1886-1962) was an artist who was one of the first Polish women to take an interest in ceramics and applied art. In the area of today's Bialoleka in 1924, she opened the Experimental Station for Folk Ceramics, where she educated craftsmen, and taught girls from the surrounding villages in the ceramics school, commonly known as the "potting house."
Hanna Hirszfeldowa (1884-1964) studied at prestigious medical universities in Europe. She had two doctorates and spoke seven languages. She was one of the best-educated physicians of her time. She practiced medicine as a pediatrician and conducted research in hematology, immunology and serology. During the typhoid epidemic at the front of World War I, she worked as an army doctor, organized field hospitals and laboratories, and researched the properties of blood groups. After Poland regained independence, she settled in Warsaw, where she was, among other things, head of the children's ward of the university clinic and ran a private practice in Saska Kepa. During the Nazi occupation, she and her family were taken to the ghetto, where she was head of the ward of a hospital in Leszno. She managed to escape, and after the war she and her family settled in Breslau, where she took charge of the department of pediatrics and was appointed director of the pediatric clinic, which she organized as part of the City Hospital.
Stanisława Umińska (1901-1977) was one of the most talented actresses of the interwar period. In 1924 she shot her fiancé, who was dying of liver cancer. She was acquitted in a high-profile trial, but the tragic event changed her life forever. She joined the Samaritan Women's Association, took civil vows and the name Benigna, and became the supervisor of the Haven Institution for Girls. Young women in conflict with the law, often minors, ended up there. In addition to working, learning to cook and sew, the wards of the Haven also participated in theater classes. During the occupation, the girls starred in a famous conspiratorial play Pastorals, prepared by Leon Schiller and Tacjanna Wysocka.
Tovah Ruby (1907-1989) in 1933 founded a kibbutz for women in Rembertów as part of the Zionist organization Bruria. At the kibbutz, eight young Jewish women, through work and study, prepared to emigrate and build a new life in Palestine. Towa managed to organize funds and documents for the trip, which came to fruition in March 1934. She continued her activities in Tel Aviv, allowing the women who co-founded the new kibbutz to bring relatives.
Józefa "Buba" Czuperska (1920-1993) learned to swim with the help of her mother, Józefa, who was one of the first swimming instructors in Warsaw. Fourteen-year-old Buba took part in the Wilanów-Warsaw swimming race. She arrived at the finish line as the first of the women distancing 73 more experienced swimmers. She competed in many races, including those on the river, and in 1937 she won the Polish championship in the 200-meter classic style. After World War II, she judged sports competitions, was a swimming instructor and youth coach, and mentored, among others, the young Agnieszka Osiecka.
Jadwiga Czajka (1923-2008) was a scout, member of the Grey Ranks and the Home Army, and a teacher. After the war, she was actively involved in the reactivation of scouting and taught history at a high school. She was a scout leader, co-founder of the Youth Hostel Association, developed sightseeing tourism, and was active in the Society of Friends of Warsaw.
Ninel Kameraz-Kos (1937-2011) was an engineer, but sought her own path in life. She painted, worked at the Jewish Historical Institute, researched Jewish customs, and wrote a book that has been reprinted many times Jewish holidays and customs, which was also translated into Hebrew. During the difficult times of communist Poland, she and her husband ran an art salon in an apartment in Praga. A circle of friends, people of theater, literature and art met at Jagiellońska Street. In the 1980s, the art salon became a clandestine salon, where an underground publishing house operated.
- In order to tell about them, it was necessary to reach out to family archives, memories of friends, rarely shown publicly materials from the collections of museums, archives, or libraries," says Jolanta Wisniewska, curator of the exhibition. - Among the exhibits on display will be: photographs from the Siberian expedition of Maria Czaplicka, permission to open a school in Praga by Helena Rzeszotarska, a portrait of Hanna Hirszfeld painted by Roman Kramsztyk in the Warsaw Ghetto, ceramics from the studio of Wanda Szrajberówna, photographs of a performance of Leon Schiller's "Pastorałka" initiated during the occupation by Stanisława Umińska/Matka Benigna, painting works by Ninel Kameraz-Kos, diaries of Jadwiga Czajka, a cup of the Wilanów-Warsaw swimming race by Buba Czuperska, or a diary from the women's kibbutz founded in Rembertów by Tova Rubin," she enumerates.
Exhibition Right-bank will be complemented by an extensive program of events. Scheduled are curatorial tours i author tours With invited guests. The exhibition will feature Warsaw-based artists, including Olga Drenda. Lectures and meetings over a cycle Around the Right Bank will be inspired by the biography of each of the nine women. Performative readings will allow in a new form to get acquainted with the notes, reflections and observations left by the heroines of the exhibition. The concept of femininity in a broader sense will be addressed the herstory debate With the participation of feminism and women's history researchers. A series of workshop meetings directed to adults and young adults will be inspired by the paths of emancipation Right-bank, will address the ever-present questions of what femininity is, how to discover one's strength and life path. The exhibition will also be accompanied by family workshops and museum lessons for kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools.
Right-bank will also inspire the well-known and well-loved cyclical events at the Museum of Warsaw's Praga district, namely Do Yourself a Gift and Birthday of Praga. Make yourself a gift is an annual Christmas campaign of open workshops and an opportunity to make gifts with your own hands. This year, craftswomen, illustrators, painters and performers, who have associated their creative activity with Praga and the right bank of Warsaw, will be invited. The event will take place in Saturday, December 2, and the program will include workshops in ceramics, portraiture, scent work and bouquet making. On February 10, 2024, Prague will celebrate the 376th anniversary of its city charter. The celebration will be highlighted by a specially developed urban game dedicated to the undiscovered and little-known women of Prague who were very important to the history of the right bank of Warsaw.
Exhibition opening Right-bank will be held on November 22 at 6 pm at the Museum of Warsaw's Praga at 50/52 Targowa Street. The exhibition will last until July 21, 2024.
The museum is open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., on Thursdays from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Tickets: PLN 10 / PLN 8, on Thursdays free admission.