Hello Helka: Nowelka na papier i wojnę

The new temporary exhibition at the Warsaw Rising Museum presents paper dolls from a collection of 500 items. They were created during the occupation by the artist Janina Giedroyć-Wawrzynowicz for her daughter Róża, to distract the little girl from the grim reality. The exhibition is an introduction to the animated series.

In 2010, the Warsaw Rising Museum bought a collection of 500 original paper dolls. Precisely painted on watercolour paper, the dolls show the inhabitants of one tenement house. It took the Museum many years to find an appropriate artistic form to show this collection properly. The creators of the exhibition wanted the manner of presentation to reflect the previous purpose of the figures cut out of paper – so that they would transport viewers into an extraordinarily colourful, rich world just as they did in the past. The paper dolls, which can now be seen at the exhibition, will become characters in an animated series about a family and its neighbours from a single tenement house during the occupation and the Warsaw Uprising. It will allow us to look at the world of old Warsaw through the eyes of 17-year-old Helka Malinowska and her friends.

The idea was born out of the desire to support young people, lonely during the isolation caused by the pandemic, whose reality resembled that of the occupation – classes and lectures were moved to virtual space, because it was impossible to meet safely; everyone had to cope with the constant sense of danger and fear of illness and death of people close to them. The series will tell the story of everyday life in a time of wartime ordeal by comparing it to the lives of young people today during a pandemic, just as full of fear, anxiety, danger. It will talk about how, despite the constant pressure, limitations and difficulties, even in such unfavourable conditions as the reality of the occupation, it was possible to be someone - to pursue one's passions and dreams, to plan, create, love and learn. Today, young people enter adulthood with a sense of uncertainty about the fate of the world and their loved ones - similar feelings were shared by their peers during World War II. Perhaps this story will help someone to realise that it is possible to emerge from a difficult situation unscathed, that it is not the end of the world – because it has happened before, extremely difficult situations did happen, but our grandparents and great-grandparents, who were young people during the occupation, did not give up, acted, created an underground state, and later fought in the name of their values in the Uprising. The form of animation was chosen because it makes it possible to tell and visualise stories that are impossible to tell in any other way. It makes it possible to show all the important emotions, events and experiences, even such as the brutality and horror of wartime.

The exhibition Hello Helka is a prelude to the series, an entrance ticket to this world. Paper dolls from the occupation period are shown in tenement houses and interiors designed by Kasia Kmita, a well-known artist from Wrocław, who created and cut out of paper old Warsaw flats, cafés and shops especially for this occasion.