A Monument to Something That Never Happened
Pomnik czegoś, co nigdy się nie wydarzyło
28.03.1983
A general view of the monument from Chemiczna Street, with Tarnów Mościce railway station visible in the background, 2026
Map
Interactive map of A Monument to Something That Never Happened
Location Tarnów, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland
Designer Wilhelm Sasnal
Type Sculpture
Material Concrete rings
Height ~4 meters
Completion date 2010
Opening date 28 August 2010

A Monument to Something That Never Happened (28 March 1983); Polish: Pomnik czegoś, co nigdy się nie wydarzyło (28.03.1983)) is a sculpture designed by Wilhelm Sasnal located in Mościce, Poland.

Location

The sculpture is located in Mościce, a district in the western side of Tarnów. It has been installed in the green space on Chemiczna Street, near the tracks of railway line 91, close to Tarnów Mościce station and Jaskółcze Gniazdo Municipal Stadium.[1][2][3]

Design

Detail showing the joints between the rings, held together with black adhesive.
The surroundings of the sculpture, with noise barriers visible in the background along railway line 91

The sculptor, Wilhelm Sasnal, is a Polish artist from Mościce. His 4-metre high (13 ft) creation is made of 14 concrete sewer rings, arranged in the shape of a pyramid and coated with adhesive. A random date is inscribed in one of the circles: 28.03.1983. According to Sasnal, this is the moment when a major disaster could have occurred, but it never materialised. The artwork was unveiled on 28 August 2010 as part of the Tarnów project 1000 lat nowoczesności (English: 1000 Years of Modernity).[3][4][5][6][7]

Meaning

The sculpture from behind

The monument is intended to evoke a sense of threat that was ever-present in Mościce’s social landscape prior to 1989, and thus during the Cold War, prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain and the political transformation in Poland. Sasnal claimed that this fear stemmed from the potential danger posed to the town by the nearby large chemical plant – the Nitrogen Works in Tarnów-Mościce. In addition to chemical hazards, residents were also terrified by rumours of American long-range missiles targeting the factory – a strategic facility. The monument is intended to present an alternative vision of the past, in which an unspecified but tragically devastating apocalypse has occurred.[1][5][6][8]

The location was deliberately chosen for its seclusion, as Sasnal intends for it to be hidden, eventually overgrown with grass and other vegetation, and ultimately forgotten.[6][8][9]

Reception

The sculpture, in keeping with its original intention, looks temporary. As a result, some residents view it merely as material left behind for the construction of the pipeline, and not a work of art. The development was controversial because of its location: it was ideally situated for the failed expansion of the car park at the nearby football and speedway stadium.[1][10] The monument has attracted attention within academic and artistic circles. References to the work have appeared in academic publications as well as in specialist media covering Polish culture and architecture.[5][6][7][9]

See also

  • Found object
  • Anti-monumentalism

References

  1. ^ a b c Urszula Wolak (15 February 2016), "Sztuka (nie) przeszkadza", Dziennik Polski (in Polish)
  2. ^ "Wilhelm Sasnal", kultura.tarnów (in Polish), archived from the original on 18 May 2026, retrieved 30 April 2026
  3. ^ a b Dorota Jarecka (4 September 2010), "Pomnik w trawie", Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish), archived from the original on 18 May 2026, retrieved 30 April 2026
  4. ^ Dawid Drwal (22 April 2021), "Dziwne miejsca w Tarnowie – "betonowe cuda"", TEMI – Twoje Media Informacyjne (in Polish)
  5. ^ a b c Marcin Laberschek (2020), "W cieniu fabryki. Wizja katastrofy Zakładów Azotowych w Mościcach w pomniku Wilhelma Sasnala", Zarządzanie w Kulturze (in Polish), 21 (4): 325–346, doi:10.4467/20843976ZK.20.026.13044, archived from the original on 17 May 2026, retrieved 30 April 2026
  6. ^ a b c d Anastazja Smagacz, Irena Bończyk, Beata Dziduszko, ed. (2008), Tarnowskie pomniki: przewodnik (in Polish), Tarnów: Polskie Towarzystwo Turystyczno-Krajoznawcze. Oddział „Ziemi Tarnowskiej”, p. 130, ISBN 978-83-903260-7-8{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  7. ^ a b Karolina Krasny (23 June 2025), "Tę przemysłową utopię zbudowano w 4 lata. Zieleń miała chronić przed toksynami", architektura.muratorplus.pl (in Polish), archived from the original on 19 May 2026, retrieved 30 April 2026
  8. ^ a b "Pomnik czegoś, co nigdy się nie wydarzyło", Tarnowskie Centrum Informacji (in Polish), 30 August 2010, archived from the original on 19 May 2026, retrieved 30 April 2026
  9. ^ a b Piotr Policht, "Artystyczny przewodnik po Tarnowie", Culture.pl (in Polish), archived from the original on 18 May 2026, retrieved 30 April 2026
  10. ^ "Protokół Nr IV/2019 z sesji Rady Miejskiej w Tarnowie z dnia 3 stycznia 2019 r." (PDF), Urząd Miasta Tarnowa (in Polish), p. 64, 3 January 2019, archived (PDF) from the original on 18 May 2026, retrieved 30 April 2026

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