People
BABARYBA - MARRIAGE WITH A FISH TAIL
Marta Tychmanowicz and Marek Włodarski are a young couple who revolutionized a souvenirs market in the city. Instead of Russian babooshkas they sell mugs with the Mermaid drawn by Picasso. They fight for Warsaw to be given back its pride.
Five p.m. is a bad time for having an appointment in Warsaw. Five p.m on Friday is even worse but the worst possible hour for a meeting is five p.m. on Friday when it rains. Knowing this very well I’ve set up an interview with Marta and Marek for 17 hours. Now I am stuck in a gigantic traffic jam and all I want is a helicopter. In normal conditions, it would take me fifteen minutes by a car to get from my hostel to Babaryba’s place. But today it looks like two hours weren’t enough! Suddenly I remembered something. I parked my car in the middle of nowhere and I ran to the nearest underground station. I am lucky that Marta and Marek live close to the Warsaw’s only subway line. I am “just” twenty minutes late.
Gosia Piłacińska: Do you find this city nice?
Marta Tychmanowicz: What do you mean by “nice city”? Can a city have a good looks? Is London pretty? Or New York? Buildings, pavements, rubbish, neon lights – that’s all. Everywhere the same. Atmosphere – this is, what a real city’s beauty is about and Warsaw has a great spirit, fantastic energy and a lot of things to offer.
Marek Włodarski: Still, it can have ugly elements. Let’s be honest, Warsaw has quite a few of them. For example, The Palace of Culture and Science, it’s terrible and I really hate it. Not only because I can see this nightmare from any place in the city but also because the Stalin’s “gift” is insolently changing into the Warsaw emblem. I don’t agree with that and that’s why I am taming the Palace.
GP: How to tame such a huge monster?
Marek: By making it ridiculous. Like in the Karolina Breguła’s photo in which the Palace is put on a top of the Fiat 126p (from the author: Poland’s most popular car in the communism epoque). We printed this image on t-shirts and mugs. We sell it as a funny souvenir from Warsaw. The Palace is nothing more than a joke in this case.
GP: Unfortunately, the Palace still dominates the postcards from Warsaw but the Palm, an artificial tree “planted” in the middle of one of main roundabouts seems to take its place...
Marek: The Palm is also an excellent example for adding charm to grey elements of the city. Joanna Rajkowska, the artist, managed to introduce a bit of absurd into the city space.
GP: I love the Palm, especially in winter. When I see it dug in the snow, it always makes me smile. Anyway, neither the Palace, nor the Palm should be the symbols of Warsaw. What’s happening to the real one – the Mermaid?
Marta: Her monument stands lonely and slightly forgotten at the Vistula river bank but we hope to bring the Mermaid back to Warsaw! That’s why we called our project: “Babaryba” (from the author: although it sounds like Louis Armstrong’s song, in Polish it means: “woman-fish”) The Mermaid is a symbol of a heroic fight against adversities. She is proud and brave. Isn’t it a beautiful metaphor of Warsaw? One of my favourite legends says, she’ll be back when the city needs it.
GP: Now it rather looks like it was her who needs the city... Why exactly did you decide to reactivate the Mermaid?
Marek: I was looking up the book “The Emblem of Warsaw” by Kuczyński and I came accross a daub. I was shocked when I read it was drawn by Pablo Picasso when he visited Warsaw in 1948.
Marta: He was so fascinated with Warsaw being built up on its ashes that he drew the Mermaid with a hammer in her hand, instead of a sword. The funny thing was, he made his drawing on a wall in a leading worker’s flat. The worker wasn’t very happy when hundreds of Picasso’s admirers started to visit her house immediately!
Marek: For the second time we saw the Picasso’s Mermaid on the envelope we were given in a registry office after we got married. At that time we were thinking on producing new souvenirs from Warsaw and the Mermaid printed on the envelope became our inspiration. We wrote a letter to the Picasso’s office in France saying we were a young couple from Poland that would like to buy for a reasonable price a licence to the Mermaid’s image. Surprisingly, they agreed! That’s how it all began.
Marek: We started to produce gadgets with the Picasso’s work. Then in the Norblin Factory, we found another mermaid’s image and later on there was the Breguła’s Palace on a top of a car...
Marta: We started to co-operate with the artists. We try to inspire them with our visions of Warsaw and they create absolutely fantastic things, like Mirella von Chrupek’s “Dragonflyeyescope” from Warsaw. We believe such things are much more oryginal than trashy beer glasses or Russian babooshkas that used to be the only souvenirs you could buy here.
GP: As the discoverers of a gap in the market you should be very rich now!
Marta (laughter): We call it a very expensive hobby rather.
Marek: Everything we do, we do by ourselves. From an idea and negotiations with the artists through buying mugs, printing them, up to the distribution. We go from one place to another and often take our one-year-daughter Nadia with us! We invested in this buissness five thousand Euros from our own pockets and I am not sure when we’ll see them back (laughter).
Marta: We are not bussinessmen. We are arts scholars. We both work for editorial offices for a living. In fact, “Babaryba” wasn’t invented for making money. We felt sorry nobody carred about the image of Warsaw and we decided to improve it on our own.
GP: You were born here, wern’t you? What does “to be Varsovian” mean to you?
Marek: You will never understand Warsaw when you just watch it. You have to get to know its tragic history to see it completely. Once you find out this city hardly existed in the past, you won’t ignore it anymore. A real Varsovian is someone who feels this city’s wounds hurt.
Marta: It’s my “home sweet home”. I am Varsovian beacuse all the places here are not just parks or squares. They are emotions, memories, my family’s roots. I drive down the streets and I can say to Nadia: “Hey, there used to be a cyrcus when I was a girl” or “this is the bench when I kissed for the first time”.
GP: Though, for many people Warsaw is just the way to earn for a living. Do you mind it?
Marta: No, I don’t mind it at all! I want Warsaw to be open for everybody. This is what the big city is about, isn’t it? What I dislike about newcomers is their lack of respect to the city that give them a chance of a better life. In New York hardly anybody oryginally comes from New York, but it’s not a reason to hate it! Quite the contrary, they love it. The problem is, the Polish have a sick vision of Warsaw lifestyle. Recently, I’ve heard on a radio a story of a man from Elbląg (from the author: a town in the North of Poland) who came to work to Warsaw. He contracted a huge credit to buy a flat in the city centre and now he is not able to pay for it. He chose the most expensive area because he wanted to be Someone. No one from our friends would do so! Paradoxically, the real Varsovians don’t take part in the rats’ race. These are the newcomers who do.
GP: If someone asks you for preparing a “Handbook: how to get a real Varsovian”, what would you write?
Marek: Step number one: read the novels: “Mała Apokalipsa” and “Wniebowstąpienie” by Tadeusz Konwicki and "Zły" by Leopold Tyrmand to be familiar with the Warsaw past. Step number two: set up your own city tracks to follow. I remember at the university I had a lecture called “Anthropology of every day life”. The students were asked to make a drawing entitled “My places”. I was the only one who made a sort of a map: my home and the block of flats, the university, a club, student's hostel and my favourite "Iluzjon" cinema. Most of my collegues, who didn’t come from Warsaw, drew their houses and backyards only.
Marta: My suggestion to newcomers is: be more open and natural. Don’t pretend you are someone else and try to fall in love with this city. Warsaw really needs to be caressed!
After the visit in Babaryba’s seat (a cozy, small flat full of books and toys) I catch a taxi. I need to find my car again. Fortunately, traffic jams are gone now, but I still discuss them with a taxi driver. He knows the reason why it’s getting impossible to drive in Warsaw. “It’s not the lack of a ringroad only”, he explains. “This city has more than a million inhabitants. On weekend. From Monday to Friday there are three million people here! I am just considering buying a riksha”.
Warsaw according to Marta & Marek:
1. Which area to live in:
Żoliborz – an idal area for the intelectualists, Praga – for the artists, Wola – for the fans of postindustrial atmosphere, Mokotów – for the jogging lovers and families with small kids.
2. Marek’s favourite bar:
“Grażynka” (behind the Sesam shopping hall) – time stopped here, eat thin sausage and drink cheap beer in the atmosphere of the 80s.
3. Marta’s place for shopping:
Mirowska shopping hall and a flower market around it. Simply magical place!
4. Warsaw Uprising Hill – a very important place for us. It was made of ruins of Warsaw after the II World War. We always show this place to our friends who visit the capital for the first time. We go there by night so they could see the city skyline and could feel the presence of the ghosts of the insurjents.
For extraordinary souvenirs from Warsaw visit: www.babaryba.pl
SEARCHING FOR THE HEART OF THE CITY
Bartek (born in 1974, married to Ola) writes for a popular weekly newspaper "Przekrój" and cooperates with Polish Radio. He is the author of "Wypasiony Słownik Najmłodszej Polszczyzny" ("The Big Fat Dictionary of the Latest Words in the Polish Language") in which he puts under the microscope words that have their origins in street slang. He is also the co-author of a book entitled "Warszawa. W poszukiwaniu centrum. Miejski przewodnik" (“Warsaw, searching for the city centre - an urban guidebook”).
Bartek Chaciński doesn't walk; he runs. He is just like everybody else in Warsaw. Every day on his way to work he races against the other subway passengers to be the first to get on the escalator. “I wouldn't compete if there was a staircase that I could sprint up instead, but there isn’t one,” he explains.
Has he found the city centre? What does "little Warsaw" mean? And how should we cope with the “be-close-to-the-exit syndrome”? Below you will find the answers to all these questions.
Gosia Piłacińska: Have you ever thought to yourself “I am Varsovian”?
Bartek Chaciński: I didn’t doubt it as a teenager living in Wołomin, a small town close to Warsaw. I dreamt of being a journalist, and for this it was imperative that I become a real citizen of Warsaw. Yet, though I felt very strongly I was Varsovian at college I often introduced myself as a guy from Wołomin.
Did you want to impress your colleagues with the fact that you were from the town renowned for being a hive of mafia activity?
B.CH.: It was definitely easier to pass an exam (laughter). Honestly though, when I am somewhere in Poland and someone asks me about my origins, I still prefer to answer I am from Wołomin because of the national hatred of people from Warsaw.
LITTLE WARSAW
G.P.: Where does this hatred come from?
B.CH.: I think that it’s a worldwide phenomenon to hate the inhabitants of the nation’s capital. People watch TV or read glossy magazines about the fantastic lives of celebrities, their brilliant careers, and their affairs. In Poland all this takes place in Warsaw, and people tend to believe that this is the Varsovian lifestyle.
G.P.: Is this what the pejorative term: warszawka (little Varsovian) means?
B.CH.: It is, but there are several different warszawkas, from the celebrities and the politicians, to the alternative artists or the clubbers. They have different habits and different meeting points.
G.P.: Do you have a “membership card” to any of them?
B.CH.: In a sense I do, as a journalist. But I don’t use labels like that. I create them (laughter). My job is to name, and to invent words for such micro-worlds. When you do that, it's impossible to feel like part of your own creation, because you know you cannot be part of something that is just a term.
G.P:. Let’s take a look at your lifestyle. What kind of clothes do you wear?
B.CH.: I must admit I am a little bit “warszawka” in this particular regard. It means that I wear trendy, cool clothes from H&M or Zara, whilst giving the impression that I don’t care about my look (laughs again). Or maybe it’s just a journalist’s style? Anyway, traveling around Poland I’ve seen people wearing much more expensive and snobbish clothes than we do in Warsaw.
G.P.: What kind of cool car do you park in front of the editorial office each morning?
B.CH.: I don’t park any car because it’s impossible to find a parking space there. Also traffic jams don’t make a driver’s life easy. By the way, have you noticed that the traffic is heavier in Warsaw when it rains? I can’t understand it. Personally, I don’t use an umbrella and I only get soaked twice per year, maximum. However, even umbrellas aren’t waterproof enough for people in this city. They use cars instead.
SUBWAY CLASS
G.P.: So how do you get to work?
B.CH.: I am one of the happy passengers of Warsaw’s subway. This is a privileged social class, comprising of those who live, study or work near the single subway line in the city. They are usually young, intelligent people traveling on clean trains through modern stations. I mean, the subway is luxurious in Warsaw. It doesn’t even have that specific tube smell. There is only one thing that annoys me about it. It’s this kind of “must-be-close-to-the-exit syndrome”. I don’t know why people are afraid of going inside a train. They always crowd around the exit, so when you want to get out you must shout “EXCUSE ME” and push to get through.
G.P.: Sounds like an adventure for tough guys... Now, tell me something about the place where you live.
B.CH.: Well, I live with my wife – Ola in a three-room flat in a big block dating from the Communist era. My block and some others are surrounded by a solid fence and the whole area is guarded. This is typical for this city. Next to our blocks there are some modern and extremely expensive apartment buildings where you’ll pay almost USD 5,000 per square metre of space. Then there is a green area of so called “workers’ gardens” with their little houses made of plywood, and their plots of carrot plants. My foreign friends were sure that they were slums! I explained to them that they were pieces of ground given to workers to cultivate. To sum up, ugly blocks, impressive “plazas”, tiny huts, plus the biggest shopping-mall in Europe are all gathered in one place, close to the capital’s geographic centre. Such things can be seen only in Warsaw.
G.P.: Why have you used the expression “geographic” here? Why not simply “the centre”?
B.CH:. You can’t in Warsaw. The Palace of Culture or the Old Town are in the middle of the city, but they are not necessarily the heart of it. In other words, their geographical position doesn’t guarantee them leadership. The city centre means something different to each person who lives in Warsaw. This is what my book is about.
G.B.: What does it mean to you?
B.CH.: I think I miss the places with an incessant history. Considering the fact that Warsaw was a ghost town for a while, I guess that I’m missing something that doesn’t actually exist. However, I look for the enclaves of normal life, like where Czesio, a salesman, has been running his grocery for several decades and knows who’s going to get married and what I cooked for dinner last week. You can find the remains of it in the districts of Żoliborz, Old Mokotów or Northern Praga. I also search for it in local shops near my house. For example, I buy bread in the shop underneath my apartment; I could go there in my slippers and nobody would care. Ola and I often visit “Vin-de-siècle” where the owner remembers our favourite sorts of wines, and I buy records in Side One or Duo 111, little shops, which the uninitiated wouldn’t find.
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND
G.P.: You don’t like the anonymity of the big city?
B.CH.: I look for a small town atmosphere in Warsaw and, sometimes, I am lucky enough to find it.
G.P.: Would you call Warsaw a cosmopolitan place?
B.CH.: Not in the sense of a place where people from many different nations live together. Not yet. It is a city where everybody comes from somewhere else, though. People were forced to come here by the Communist authorities in the 1950s to help reconstruct Warsaw, and there are people who were forced to come here to find work in the 1990s. You will hardly find anybody whose grandfather was Varsovian, and you can hardly any native who survived World War II in Warsaw.
G.P.: Are there no Varsovian families in Warsaw?
B.CH.: There are a few. I have a great respect for their heroic tradition but it is the new arrivals which make this a city, and which make it vibrant.
G.P.: What are the common features of a citizen of Warsaw? Is he cunning, as he used to be in the past?
B.CH.: I wouldn’t say so, but he is definitely not ashamed of making money. Selling bras in streets, covering buildings with enormous adverts… Whatever he does, he does it to make a profit. On the other hand, he is very curious about people. It’s a point of honour with him to help a stranger. Maybe it’s because he feels a little bit like a stranger too...
BARTEK’S WARSAW:
For supper with wife – “Smaki Warszawy”, a very typical Warsaw restaurant; www.smakiwarszawy.pl
In the open air – The Forts: in Sanguszki St. and Racławicka St.- good bars
Some music – Side One, a tiny music shop in one of Chmielna St.’s backyards, www.sideone.pl
Bartek’s city centre Plac Trzech Krzyży (Three Crosses Square), Warszawka’s favourite area and a simply beautiful place. I am happy I work nearby.
* Interview by Gosia Piłacińska - Owner of Hostel Helvetia www.hostel-helvetia.pl
