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Rajkowska’s Palm in the Land of Auschwitz In a roundabout on Warsaw’s Jerusalem Avenue, a tree’s spiny leaves mock the city’s dour winter. It’s absurdity at its best, like a boat made of lead, a road of upright nails, a dove nesting on a swastika. The tropical specter slows the cold throng, lifts their eyes to take in the proud lone mirage erupted from snow—a prayer for a people plucked out. Perhaps this palm will remind them that the ash-tinged grey painted across their town belongs to the bed of an ocean, or inside distant clouds; that time itself is a passenger inside a driverless bus, spinning out of control. “Artist Joanna Rajkowska erected her artificial canary island date palm on the 12th of December 2002, following one and a half year’s preparations. Origins of the project date back to the artist’s journey to Israel in 2001 and her attempt ‘to make people aware’ of the significance of Jerusalem Avenue to Warsaw, the street’s history and the vacuum caused by the absence of Jewish community. It was supposed to be also a social experiment, testing whether the Polish society is ready to absorb such a culturally alien item. The spot at which the palm has been placed before the year 2002 had been used for a Christmas tree.” —From the tree’s official website 63 ...

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