„Wyprodukowano we Wrocławiu” – wystawa
Students of history in the public sphere at the University of Wrocław invite to see the board exhibition “Wyprodukowano we Wrocławiu. Przemysłowe marki Wrocławia po 1945” [“Made in Wrocław. Industrial brands of Wrocław after 1945”].
Factories built amid ruins played a significant role in the reality of People’s Republic of Poland, which was concentrated on the intensive development of industry. Those who based themselves in the remnants of old German facilities managed to create new successful brands. All of Poland cooked using Wrozamet stoves and travelled in Pafawag railroad cars, while the name “Fadroma” became synonymous with loading machines. It was in Wrocław where the first Polish motorbike, computer and biological powder were made – not lacking in quality compared to their foreign counterparts, which also found buyers behind the Iron Curtain. Industrial plants also contributed to the creation of a local identity for the residents of Wrocław – workers and users of the produced goods, becoming a tangible proof of the collective effort to rebuild the city. The factories also saw the local social life blooming. Although many of them did not survive the transitional period, products of the most popular Wrocław brands can be found in Polish houses to this day. The exhibition was made under the direction of dr hab. Wojciech Kucharski as part of the classes on a novelty course – History in the Public Sphere, where students make projects that popularize knowledge about the past. The exposure is intended to remind and educate the observers on this incredibly important chapter in the history of the city, as well as contribute to a change in the popular perception of material post-industrial heritage of the post-war and communist eras. The exhibition shows the rich – including the rarely published – iconography, which shows the design, production and assembly process, design of innovative products, logos of leading Wrocław brands and advertising materials. The textual layer of the exhibition, which describes often convoluted histories of businesses, was made based on, among others, workplace documentation, kept for years in archives and recovered by the creators of the exhibition. The map of Wrocław, supplemented by modern photographs of the former workplaces, will allow to locate the factories in the urban space. Consisting of 20 boards, the exhibition brings closer the origin, the operation and the current fate of the 16 of the most recognizable businesses of post-war Wrocław, representing various branches of industry, including the chemical, electronic, machine, construction and the textile. Among these businesses are: Intermoda, Wrocławska Stocznia Rzeczna, Browar Piastowski, ASPA, Fadroma, Hutmen, FAT, Elwro, Dolmel, Pafawag, PBU Wrocław, Pollena, Wrozamet, ELPO, Polar and Wel-Tex.
Prepared both in Polish and English, the board exhibition will be displayed in the northern frontage of the Market Square in Wrocław, between 8 and 31 March 2023, and then until the end of the year on the square in front of the Centrum Historii Zajezdnia museum at ul. Grabiszyńska 184. The opening of the exhibition will take place on Wednesday, 8 March, at 12:00 PM.
Translated by Adrian Sudenis (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
