Polish Avondale Is Dying

By Ewa Lyczewska

“It breaks my heart. I treat Avondale like my home, this is my home,” says Stasia Jozwik, a 58-year-old owner of Szarotka, a florist shop in Avondale, who moved to Chicago from Poland 25 years ago but now lives in Niles.

According to Northwest Chicago Historical Society’s records, Poles begin to move into Avondale neighborhood in 1890s. Avondale lies west of the North Branch of the Chicago River between Addison Street on the north and Diversey Avenue on the south, stretching westward to the tracks of the Soo Line Railroad. The Polish Avondale flourished in 1980s as the martial law in Poland brought a flood of immigrants. “If you were to come on Sunday to Avondale 30 years ago, you would think you were on Marszalkowska Street [one of the main streets in Warsaw],” says Jozwik,”That ended in 2000.” As Poles are moving away from Avondale, Polish businesses are struggling and closing their doors, and the neighborhood is loosing its Polish identity.

Polski sklep (Polish store), located on 3067 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, is one of the few last Polish businesses in the area. Photo by Ewa Lyczewska.

Jozwik is just one of the many Polish business owners fighting for survival. “Everything is closing down. There used to be four Polish restaurants in this area, now there is only one,” says Ralph Pietrzyk, 65, from Mount Prospect, who works at Apteka Ziolowa, a drug store, in Avondale. “I am thinking of closing my store next year,” admits Elizabeth Krupa, 62, an owner of Eva, a Polish bookstore, who lives in Prospect Heights. “I have one customer a day, not enough to make a rent,” says Jozwik. “In the past, I had three people behind the counter and there would be 15 customers in store at one time, now it is only me and two customers a day,” says Krystyna Henia, a 58-year-old owner of Back to Nature store, who lives in Northbrook.

But not only Polish stores are struggling. Krzysiek Grot, 29, Chicago, an owner of Café Lura admits that the business is not as it used to be. The bar, which took its name after a strong and black coffee, was opened in 1986 by his parents who wanted a meet-up place for Polish artists living in Chicago. Only 10 years ago, the place was full with people, open seven days a week and serving food, says Grot. Today, the bar is open Friday through Sunday, the place often rented on weekends for events attended by Americans and Hispanics.  “I might sell the place some day,” admits Grot, “but I do have a sentiment for it.”

“There are no Polish people living in the neighborhood and the ones that are still here are an old generation that decided to stay because of St. Hyacinth Basilica, says Jozwik.“ Sister Aleksandra Antonik, 29, who works and lives in St. Hyacinth Basilica parish, admits, “We do not have families with children in the neighborhood. The benches during the mass are becoming emptier.” Henia had to get rid of the merchandize for children at her store, as no one was buying it.

The church used to be so full on Sundays that you had to stand during the mass. Today there is plenty of space and mostly old people come for the mass,” says Stasia Jozwik. St. Hyacinth Basilica is located at 3636 W. Wolfram St. in Chicago and offers four Polish masses on Sundays and two during the weekdays. Photo by Ewa Lyczewska.

MCA: “The Language of Less (Then and Now)” could have been much more

Bare white walls, a mosaic of cork triangles on the floor, tangled rubber vines hanging from the glass ceiling and a lamp tangled in them shining through them at the wall to create knotted shadows.  On one of the walls, the title: “Walk Around There. Look Through Here” by Leonor Antunes.

Antunes is one of the 40 artists featured at the new Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition “The Language of Less (Then and Now).” The exhibition, split into two parts, explores minimalism in arts. “Then” features Minimalism and post-Minimalism work from 1960s and 1970s and “Now” showcases minimalism artwork by contemporary artists. An interesting concept that unfortunately ended with a not thought out execution.

“Sleeping in the Order of the Slowing Time” by Jason Dodge, an artist featured in "Now."

Minimalism emerged in New York in 1960s as a rebellion to Abstract Expressionism. Minimalists avoided metaphorical association, symbolism and self-expressionism of the previous generation of artists. They rejected the fine arts mediums such as paintings and sculptures and chose to make specific objects. They wanted the audience to focus on shapes, patterns, proportions and structure. Donald Judd, one of the artists featured in “Then,” once said, “A shape, a volume, a color, a surface is something itself. It shouldn’t be concealed as part of a fairly different whole.” Today minimalists, although inspired by the fundamental concepts of Minimalism are not afraid to use metaphors.

Although equal in space “Then” and “Now” are unequal in the number of artists and artworks they feature. According to the exhibition’s checklist, “Then,” shows 43 artworks (all part of the permanent collection) by 35 artists while “Now,” has 23 artworks by only five artists: Leonor Antunes, Carol Bove, Jason Dodge, Gedi Sibony and Oscar Tuazon. While “Then” is organized into four themes: building blocks, measuring and limits, dimensions of space and open systems. “Now” has no organization. What would have improved this exhibition is if the artworks from “Then” and “Now” where organized together in themes to show a different approach to same topic or medium. Instead the visitors are left to draw conclusions about the contrast and similarities between Minimalism and minimalism.

MCA visitor listens to “My Flesh to Your Bare Bones” by Oscar Tuazon and Vito Acconzi

But if you are an art lover, pieces like “Sleeping in the Order of the Slowing Time” by Jason
Dodge are not to be missed. A stack of three pillows, each pillow used only by a botanist, archeologist or tectonic geophysicist, links three life cycles: plants, civilizations and earth. The artwork by Oscar Tuazon and his mentor and teacher Vito Acconzi, “My Flesh to Your Bare Bones,” makes you stop for more than a moment. From one of the speakers in the corner you hear Acconzi reading “Antarctica of the Mind,” an unrealized proposal for the Halley II Research Station. While from the speaker on the left you hear Tuazon: “I want to put something inside my body and carry something in it. I want to get inside my body and get carried in it, I’d like to get buried in it, put my head in it and get in it, I’m not scared of it.” Now, that is not Minimalism.

THREE STARS

“The Language of Less (Then and Now)” will be at MCA till April 8, 2012. For prices, hours and more information about the exhibit, please visit www.mcachicago.org.

“Walk Around There. Look Through Here” by Leonor Antunes