With the exhibition “Faces of the January Uprising”, the gallery of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (MKiDN) “Window on Culture” at Krakowskie Przedmieście 17 in Warsaw has begun its operations. The gallery is a brand-new space in which the work of Polish cultural institutions will be presented.

The first exhibition at the Gallery was opened by Minister of Culture and National Heritage Piotr Glinski. “This exhibition presents the January Uprising through individual fates. It allows to understand what is most important in that memory. We remember those difficult choices of the people who were ready to sacrifice their lives for the community. Today we want to avoid such choices. However, life, especially in the last year, forces us to return to the fundamental values for the functioning of national communities”, said the head of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

The profiles of the iconic figures of the January Uprising are the starting point for a story about the involvement of particular social groups in this national uprising. Visitors can see profiles of the leaders of the insurrection: Romuald Traugutt, Marian Langiewicz, Zygmunt Sierakowski and Konstanty Kalinowski. 

Filip Sanbra-Kahane represents the Poles of Jewish origin involved in the uprising, Father Stanislaw Brzóska represents the clergy, and François Rochebrune portrays the foreign volunteers. Anna Pustowójtówna begins a module devoted to the role of women who, in addition to caring for the wounded or supplying the troops, served as couriers and fought with weapons in hand. The exhibition is complemented by replicas of period costumes.

During the opening, the Minister of Culture also gave an overview of the operations of the new ‘Window on Culture’ gallery. He stressed that the first major renovation of the Lanci Tenement House, which houses the offices of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage since the post-war reconstruction, allowed for the creation of a completely new space to showcase the activities of Polish cultural institutions. 

Arkadiusz Słomczyński