I ONLY WANTED TO FLY

The installation I only wanted to Fly has been made on the façade of a tenement house by 5 Jasna Street in Jelenia Góra. It belongs to the cycle of works, which I create with abandoned architecture as their basis. The implication of works is to be found in the relation to the context of the place - history of the city, district, building, people.

The house by the 5 Jasna Street witnessed the time of the past Hirschberg, in which in 1912 Hanna Reitsch was born - an exceptional German aviation pilot, flying both before and after World War II. This year her 100^th birthday anniversary is observed. In Jelenia Góra the anniversary is not celebrated due to a stain on Reitsch career - her involvement with the Nazi and her employment as a test pilot for the Third Reich. Just after the war, by the commission of the communist authorities all the documents relating to Reitsch have been taken from the national archive in Jelenia Góra. Her story has overgrown with legends, all judging her in extreme manner: from paeans glorifying her courage to deeming her equal to war criminals.

Reitsch interests me as an example of a woman disconnnected from history. On the one hand there is no place for her in the pantheon of people worth venerating. The argument of city councillors over the will of some citizens to place a commemorating plaque on her house by 11 Bankowa Street may serve as an example. On the other hand - she is present in the (sub)consciousness of the residents. For me, Reitsch is a woman who regardless of social and conventional boundaries realized her passion, craved freedom to decide for herself. To archieve this, she had to enter the masculene world and become entangled in its traps...

I chose the house by Jasna Street becouse of the corresponding old, pre-war architecture and the new architecture. Opposite the abandoned building there is a modern building with mirror facade which reflects the abandoned house. I find the motif of mirror reflection and the possibility of looking at the installation from various perspectives very important.

The quote I only wanted to fly comes from Hanna Reitsch's book titled Flying my life

inne prace site specific:

Every house needs a balcony

The house of Lilith

Shame Stones

The penitent women bridge

White Plague

Liquid Wall