Street Art Cities

The mural directly references the aviation history of the area where the Zaspa district was established and serves as a tribute to the aesthetics of modernism and the achievements of Polish engineering during the interwar period.

The aircraft depicted is the PZL.37 Łoś, a Polish bomber designed by engineer Jerzy Dąbrowski. In many ways, it was a groundbreaking construction. The plane was painted based on a promotional poster created for the 1938 Paris Air Show and, interestingly, is shown in civilian markings rather than military ones.

The image of the female pilot in the lower part of the wall is inspired by Tamara Łempicka, a Polish modernist painter. Although Łempicka didn’t fly herself, she adored speed—famously captured in her self-portrait in a green Bugatti. Movement, velocity, machinery, and futurism were key themes of the art deco-era modernism. The patterns on Tamara’s scarf are taken directly from the visual design of the Polish pavilion at the 1925 International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris.