‘– 7 – 13 –’ by Nelly Agassi at Labirynt Plaza Gallery

Aleksandra Skrabek, Blok, July 22, 2018
– 7 – 13 – is founded on the artist’s reflection on history of the place where the Labirynt Plaza Gallery is seated. Nelly Agassi was inspired by the original use of the area in Lipowa Street and its later changes, focussing primarily on the fading memory of the history of the site.
 
In 1939, the SS set up a labour camp here for both civilian and military prisoners, which operated until the autumn of 1943. It was the longest functioning labour camp in the Lublin region; it also served as a penal and transit camp where prisoners were sifted to select those able to work. In 1941, it was taken over by the German Equipment Works (DAW), which extended the entire complex – a manufacturing part was separated as well as prisoner quarters in parallelly situated barracks. The history and function of the place has changed several times thenceforth. The site belonged to the armed forces after the war and began to serve commercial purposes in the 1960s – shops and pawnbrokers, alongside art studios, opened in the barracks of the former camp.
 
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