#Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw

[miku-earth]

floresmartialies on twitter notes:

at the Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw we have Polish Miku btw

[selvenus]

I already made a polish Miku in a Lublin region dress, but I also had a mikufied version of the same dress sketched out literally months ago so I had to draw her again!

A silly bonus under cut

In national ethnographic museum in Warsaw there's a HUGE Miku statue!! I love it so much a huge W, I hope I can see her in person someday BUT I have some personal beef with it because of the costumes they give her, It's not that serious but this idea popped up in my head and I just had to draw it

[hiyari8]

do you like Daniwell-P ?

I LOVE DANIWELL <3

[wilcze-kudly]

Woke up in a cold sweat, remembering when I went into the Polish Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw to study traditional clothing only to be greeted by a lifesized Hatsune Miku statue.

I THOUGHT FOR YEARS THAT THIS WAS A FEVER DREAM! It's real?

They also made her sing a traditional Polish Song? And it's actually pretty good?

[zarya-zaryanitsa]

Polish paper cutouts

From a blog entry by Ethnographic Museum of Warsaw, translated by me. The pictures mostly added by me, from various sources, all linked below. The cutout instructions at the end are also by the Ethnographic Museum of Warsaw.

People usually sat down to create paper works of art before Easter and Christmas. They were not created only to decorate the interiors of houses - people believed in the magical power of cut-outs.

Polish cutouts are very diverse. Łowicz cutouts, sometimes called naklejanki („stickers”) are probably the most popular in our country. You will find them on many folk gadgets. They are multi-colored, often round, depict floral and animal motifs, or situations from the everyday life of the village (cutout of this type is called a kodra; trans. note: other common types are gwiozda and tasiemka). The characteristic rooster from Łowicz consists of several layers of cut-outs glued on top of each other and thanks to that it gains depth and catches the eye.

Łowicz cutout source

Have you ever heard of Rawa cutouts? They are usually one-color, vertical, and their upper part is topped with two symmetrical roosters - we call them rózgi (singular: rózga). Among the paper works from the vicinity of Tomaszów Mazowiecki, you will also find those created in the form of abstract patterns in the shape of symmetrical squares and circles.

Rawa cutout with rózgi

The area around Puszcza Biała and Puszcza Zielona is, in turn, a place where Kurpie cutouts are made. The so-called leluja is characteristic of this region. In these cut-outs you can see the base from which a complex, decorative tree-like form grows. On the base we often find symmetrically arranged birds or a genre scene. In Kurpie, gwiazdy are also created, i.e. round cut-outs with small, densely dotted geometric patterns.

Leluja and gwiazda patterns - source and source

These are not all types of Polish cutouts! We also distinguish Opoczno squares with cut-outs of plants or animals brought to perfection, Sieradz cut-outs combining various Polish traditions in this field, or openwork squares in Lublin with cut-outs resembling arrows.

Square Opoczno cutouts, source

It takes precision, patience and skill to create them all, but remember – practice makes perfect!

For those who’d like to practice with some simpler patterns the Ethnographic Museum offers five instruction sheets with cutouts from different regions. They’re in Polish but pretty easy to follow either way.

[morsobaby]

Some choice birds from the Warsaw Ethnographic Museum

THIS IS SO AWESOME YAYYY YIPPEEE CHIRP!! 🐦‍⬛🐦🐓 THANK YOU FOR SHARING I'm so flattered you thought of me like this <3

[wschodnipolacy]

People from the region of Grodno. From the collection of the Warsaw Ethnographic Museum.

[manabie]

ICONS exhibition from ◥ panGenerator on Vimeo.

ICONS an exhibition of panGenerator Iconic Things project by the National Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw

Icons – a set of symbols transposing the impenetrable intricacies of digital processes onto a territory accessible to our, still very much Neolithic, minds. By dragging a text file to trash, we succumb to a useful illusion. Truth be told, nothing is in transit: the trash can does not exist; even the text file does not constitute any cohesive physical entity inside any hardware. However, by performing this codified, ritual-driven dance of clicks, taps, and swipes, we conjure digital processes to bring about a happy turn of events. Our exhibition takes a closer look at our shared cultural imaginarium of digital gestures, symbols, and artefacts, dragging them out onto a physical space, enabling audiences a direct, tactile confrontation and – also literally – a different visual perspective. We dispose of the illusive permanence of digital archives, transforming a selfie into a heap of gravel. We ask: “How much of our attention do we make an offering to tech corporations, succumbing to the ritual of ceaseless scrolling?” We perform an act of iconoclasm, deconstructing the cult, iconic Nokia 3310 – the gateway drug of our present-day smartphone intoxication. We place digital icons within baroque frames, depicting emotions associated with them. Paused by our gaze, the progress bar is our way of asking whether technological advancement goes hand in hand with the rejection of magical thinking... As an artistic collective composed of Gen Y / millennials, we have experienced first-hand the dynamic growth of digital culture: from the soothing dial-up tones of modems to video conferencing via Zoom. This exhibition is no different: it touches upon both what is today considered vintage, such as the first Pegasus-compatible (Nintendo Entertainment System clone) video games, and what is currently trending – the up-to-the-minute impact of social media on inter-human communication. We hope that in our exhibition the audience will find a reflection of their own digital culture experience. Even if the mirror is slightly distorting.

[franciszek-niecz-cas]

October Service

On the 27th of October some members of my scout group and I welcomed a group of Acquisition Explorers, a group of scouts from Great Britain of similar age, visiting Poland. We took them to the National Ethnographic Museum of Warsaw, and later walked with them to Rozbrat where they had some other activities waiting for them. The whole activity was organised and coordinated by Chorągiew Stołeczna ZHP. This gave us the opportunity to not only gain knowledge about scouting in Britain, but also meet new people in our region.

[thepentangle]

https://cyfrowaetnografia.pl/collections/show/7 <- a collection of pdfs detailing costumes of various regions

https://strojeludowe.net/ <- whole site in general and in particular https://strojeludowe.net/zrodla-w-sieci/ <- a list of recommended papers you can access in the above linked digital library Cyfrowa Etnografia (sadly the links they provided don't work properly so you have to paste the titles into the search bar on the library site and then find the proper link on the list, the search engine is a bit of a mess O_o)

https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/the-state-ethnographic-museum-in-warsaw <- plenty of pics from the Warsaw museum's collections

also try typing the key phrase "strój ludowy" on polona.pl (using this digital library is a struggle sometimes tbh but the resources are vast)

and also here on tumblr if you haven't stumbled upon them already: polishcostumes and lamus-dworski used to share links, pics etc. so it's likely worth it to visit their archives.

hope this helps <3

polish followers i am on my knees begging for good resources on polish folk costume and maybe some ethnographic museums that have some of their pieces and ensembles available online, preferably 19th to 20th century... please, pdfs on my puter, please można i po polsku, połowę zrozumiem sam, połowę wrzucę do tłumacza i zajebiście 👍

[mikumoduleoftheday]

Today’s Miku Module of the Day is:

National Ethnographic Museum by Teresa Seda !

[50watts]

A detail from Procession by Miklasiewicz Jaroslaw, 1979 Poland (from The State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw). I can’t put it into words but I think I understand the symbolism of puking flowers into a toilet on wheels.

[michaelruggeriancientamericas]

From National Geographic

March 3, 2022

Ancient Peruvian Wari Queen Face Re-constructed

The Wari timeline stretched from the 7th to 12th century. A National Geographic team explored site in 2012. A team led by the University of Poland along with a Peruvian team found a passage through buried walls, Four women, including a queen and possible princesses. 54 other elite were also found.The excavations included finding a copper ceremonial ax and a silver goblet.

A forensic expert from Sweden has re-created the face of the queen who lived at the site of  El Castillo de Huarmey. They used a computed tomography (CT) scanner to make a virtual, 3D image of the skull. The data sent the digital data to a 3D printer, which made a replica of the skull in vinyl plastic. 

It's important to know the person's sex, age, weight and ethnicity — factors that influence the thickness of facial tissue

The report in Live Science states that forensic expert Nilsson knew the Huarmey Queen was at least 60 years old. Armed with that knowledge, he put 30 plastic pegs all over the queen's replica skull. After this, he sculpted the face. This was made from the 'inside out,' muscle by muscle.” He used plasticine clay to sculpt the muscles, relying on methods that help forensic artists reliably rebuild a person's eyes, nose and mouth. "The ears are more speculative," he said.

Next, he covered the muscles with a layer of skin. "Details, wrinkles and poresare sculpted to get it [to be] realistic," he said. "When I'm finished sculpting the face, I make a mold, in which I then cast the face in silicone. In this way, I can get it very realistic.  Nilsson used prosthetic eyes in the reconstruction, as well as real human hair that he inserted, strand by strand, into the silicon scalp. "We actually used Peruvian human hair, bought in Peru by the Polish archeological team," he noted. He even gave the royal woman metal earrings with a golden and worn patina. "They are an exact replica of her actual earrings, found in her tomb," he said. Nilsson spent 220 hours on the queen's reconstruction.  She looks wise [and] experienced, as well as a bit tired and maybe sad, or thoughtful," The technique Nilsson used to re-create the ancient queen's likeness is also used by law-enforcement agencies when a victim cannot be identified. About 70 percent of these cases are solved once a reconstruction is made, he said. "It is not a portrait of the deceased, but you get a good image of what the face looked like." The Wari queen's reconstruction is now on display in a new Peruvian exhibit at the National Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, Poland.

Live Science has the report here;

https://www.livescience.com/61216-ancient-wari-queen-reconstructed.html

[motherfucker-unlimited]

I really want to make a pilgrimage to the national ethnographic museum in Warsaw to pay tribute to the 3m tall statue of Hatsune Miku at the entrance

[sienkiewiczpoland]

Mobcap from Poland (back)

The collection of The State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw 

[polishcostumes]

Dzień dobry! I've had polish great grandfather who came from the Ashmyany district (Powiat oszmiański) on the turn of the 20th century. Can you suggest, what would be the type of folk costume for that region? Thank you.

Dzień dobry! :) Unfortunately, Kresy were never my area of interest and I never had the time to research much about it. As far as I know there weren’t many defined regional variants, and not much informations survived over time.

Just last month I had an ask from a fellow Polish person who informed me about a book that was released last year, entitled "Znad Niemna i Wilii. Ubiory włościańskie i drobnoszlacheckie Polaków na Grodzieńszczyźnie i Wileńszczyźnie do roku 1914“. I presume there would be some informations collected, but the book’s very hard to get (niche, released by a local cultural centre in Ełk). 

I found an excerpt from the book and translated it for you, it paints a good picture of why we don’t have much resources about the area nowadays:

The fact the traditional clothes in the Grodno area died out already at the beginning of 20th century caused huge problems in creation [of the book]. Very few artifacts and iconographic resources can be found scattered across museum in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. (…) Some of the exhibits [presented in the book] such as half-cap, blouse, kaftan, sheepskin coat, frock coat, czamara, are unique single items [suggested: hard to categorize or group]. (…) From the time when a significant number of Poles left the Vilinius region, almost 70 years have passed. There were groups of entire communities from towns, villages, mansions. What did they take with them on the journey? Most often passports, ID cards, school certificates, extracts from heraldic books, photos. Things were often taken in panic, hurry and fear, and sometimes completely inadvertently. People were leaving in a state they were found, and usually they didn’t have a large supply of clothes or festive outfits. (…) Both world wars continued the work of [cultural] destruction. The war fronts passed through towns and villages. People were losing everything. Then, during the hard postwar times people used old clothes for materials to make something new, more in-line with current fashion trends. Children’s clothes were made out of reused clothing of the adults. Very few original pieces of clothing survived to the present times in the Polish museums. Pre-war collection of the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw was completely destroyed as a result of the World War 2.

Source: http://dziedzictwosuwalszczyzny.soksuwalki.eu/ubiory-polakow-znad-niemna-i-wilii/

I only managed to find a few pictures from Oszmiana itself from the interwar period that show rather typical small-town clothing of the era which could be found across most of the country back then. But it might give you an idea of how your grandfather would have dressed like if he stayed in the region, or how people dressed like in general.

Parade in Oszmiana, 1927:

Marketplace in Oszmiana, 1930s:

Church mass, all women wearing headscarves, 1930:

A street picture of the town in 1941, with a women caught in the frame. She’s wearing a striped fabric which I would say were typical for many regions in the eastern areas of Poland:

Children in the village of Zhuprany / Żuprany, undated:

Winter in Zhuprany / Żuprany, undated:

Mass in Zhuprany / Żuprany, description says “before the war”:

And there are surely more!

The only problem with photographs like this, we often just don’t know for sure what nationality were the people portrayed there.