Lasting impressions from the City of Love
A post-modern jamboree of the kitsch kind is currently drawing Varsovians in droves to the National Museum and it's all in the name of art.
The Eiffel Tower may have been reviled by French artistes back in the Naughty '90s, but for organizers it's the only way to draw the crowds in the new millennium.
For the first time since World War II, the museum is hosting more than 40 impressionist and post-impressionist paintings on loan from Paris' MusYe D'Orsay.
Since the exhibit opened Jan. 19, thousands of people have flocked to the museum each day, pushing their way past replicas of Gustave Eiffel's tower of steel and the Arc Du Triumphe. But not all French art lovers have been lucky enough to make it inside to see the exhibit.
Realizing the interest that the show would generate, the organizers erected a huge tent a sort of makeshift Place du Tertre, complete with murals of the celebrated Parisian square to house, feed and water waiting art lovers.
Filmar, a Warsaw company that organizes promotional events, is charged with maintaining the massive marquee, while 4,000 people a day huddle inside from the biting cold. The tent itself belongs to Polkomtel (Plus GSM), the exhibit's sponsor.
Interior designer Agnieszka Struzynska was hired to build the interior of the structure as well as the faux Eiffel and Arc.
Filmar's Piotr Biedrzycki said Struzynska created them as easily recognizable symbols of Paris.
"The idea of the tent in the front of the museum came from Filmar," said Biedrzycki, adding that Polkomtel agreed to make the tent accessible to all even the square's resident Hurdy-Gurdy man who seemed more intent on warming his hands than ruminating on the aesthetic qualities of Monet.
Biedrzycki admitted the tower should have been bigger, but it simply wasn't possible.
"We could have done that but there would be a problem with placing the tower on the sidewalk because it would have taken up too much space," he said.
The exhibition is here until March 25 before moving on to to Poznan and Krakow. Tickets cost zł. 13 and zł. 7 for students.
