Warsaw rainbow

The rainbow in May 2014

The Warsaw Rainbow was the work of the artist Julita Wójcik (* 1971). He stood on the Warsaw Redeemer Square (Polish: Plac Zbawiciela ). Since June 2012 he has been the subject of uninterrupted arguments.

The rainbow consisted of an arched steel structure with a height of 9 meters and a span of 26 meters, which was covered by 22,300 artificial flowers in rainbow colors. He stood in the middle of the round square in the MDM residential area , opposite the Catholic Church of the Redeemer .

The construction was created on the occasion of the Polish EU Council Presidency 2011 on behalf of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw and was erected on September 24, 2011 in front of the European Parliament building . After the end of the Polish Council Presidency, the rainbow was set up on June 8, 2012 at Warsaw's Redeemer Square.

In many interviews, Wójcik stated that she had no intention of ascribing any ideological or political meaning to the rainbow. Nevertheless, in Catholic circles - also because of its location in front of the Church of the Redeemer - the work of art was critically ascribed to the LGBT as a symbol of the lesbian and gay movement . Supporters of the project argued against it that in the Bible the rainbow according to Genesis is a sign of God's covenant with Noah and the people ( Gen 9.8–17 EU ).

Despite this, the rainbow was set on fire five times by November 11, 2013, the last time by participants in a right-wing extremist march. Even after the last fire, the mayor of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz , promised reconstruction. The burned-out steel structure was dismantled in early 2014 and given a new fire and rust protection coating and a sprinkler system in a workshop. After that, it received 22,300 new artificial flowers in rainbow colors and was placed in the old square on May 1, 2014 - the 10th anniversary of Poland's accession to the EU. The author and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute had rejected the suggestion of clerical circles to disguise the rainbow in white and red national colors instead of suspicious gay rainbow colors. As early as May 1, 2014, the rainbow was pelted with eggs by around a hundred ultra-nationalists. On the night of December 6th, 2014, he was set on fire again by a drunken perpetrator.

The rainbow was dismantled on the night of August 26-27, 2015. The nightly dismantling took place because there are no trams running across the square at night and dismantling during the day would have significantly impaired traffic. The artist did not explain the dismantling as a surrender to the constant pressure from conservative circles, who saw the LGBT symbol in the rainbow , but saw her action, which was intended as a temporary work from the beginning, as ended.