Introduction

"Träumgutstrasse" is the name of a fictitious street and a phonetic combination of the words: Traugutt, Trauma, träum gut (sweet dreams) and the word strasse (street). The entrance to the Salon Galeria Akademii (in Warsaw, where the work was shown last year) is on Trauguttstrasse, named after the Polish general Romuald Traugutt. Robert Kuśmirowski has written a manifesto on this work, the chapter titles of which give a first impression of the themes of this work: "The Truth of Deception", "The Fascination of the Ruin", "To Dream Clearly" or "Mirrors".

The work circles philosophically, emotionally and visually around the destroyed Czapski Palace. The Krasiński library in its south wing, where the Salon Galeria Akademii is located today, was a centre of social, political and cultural life in Warsaw between 1862 and 1913. It was destroyed in the bombing raids of 1939.

Traumgutstrasse represents a silent image of lost life. By imitating the pornographic strategy of visualization Kuśmirowski encourages us to dream and project our unconscious into the past.

Robert Kuśmirowski (b. 1973 in Łódź, Poland) studied sculpture at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin and spent a year on a scholarship at the University of Rennes. His works have been shown at Center for Contemporary Art Warsaw, Kunstverein Hamburg, Stedelijk Van Abbe Museum Eindhoven, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich; Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, Barbican Art Gallery, London and Galleria Civica, Trento among others. Robert Kuśmirowski lives and works in Lublin.