Three Cities, Rivers, Monuments / Warsaw

Banks of Praga and The Pope’s Cross

The almost complete erasure of Warsaw by Hitler towards the end of World War II aligns this city with my investigation of New York and Berlin. While the city was being destroyed, Stalin waited patiently on the other side of the river Vistula, on the banks of Praga. I posited myself as Stalin, at the banks of the Praga, and submerged my video camera into the river, catching glimpses of the new Warsaw across the river’s banks. The camera also recorded impressions of a forgotten city, Praga, and its equally forgotten monument to the Polish People’s Army.

There is one monument in Poland that could not be erased by neither Hitler nor Stalin: The Catholic Church. John Paul II was the first Polish Pope in the history of Christianity and a cause for national pride in Poland. His successor, the German-born Benedict XVI came to Warsaw for his first visit on May 28th 2006. I filmed the construction of the platform and the immense cross that became the center of a religious summit and ceremony marking the occasion.