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A mural for the University's anniversary
The second of the murals referring to the Anniversary Year of the Nicolaus Copernicus University is now complete. The work was created on the wall of a high-rise building at 120-126 Gagarina street in Toruń.
The mural is 130 sq metres in size and is located on the eastern wall of the high-rise building, so it can easily be seen from the windows of the rectorate. The large-format graphic will be a highly visible commemoration of the Year of the Three Anniversaries: 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the Nicolaus Copernicus University, the recent 20th anniversary of the merger of the Medical Academy of Bydgoszcz with the NCU and the establishment of the Collegium Medicum, and the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Medical University of Bydgoszcz.
The two murals refer to the anniversaries being celebrated: in Bydgoszcz on the wall of the building of the NCU Collegium Medicum at 24 Karłowicza street and in the university town in Toruń's Bielany district. The projects were selected through a competition and their author and artist is Andrzej Poprostu, a well-known artist from Toruń. The competition committee appreciated the symbolism and modernist light character of the designs, as well as the subtle references to the mosaic by Stefan Knapp on the façade of the NCU Main Hall Aula.
Both works share a similar style, colour scheme and some motifs. - I wanted to create murals linking two cities: Toruń and Bydgoszcz. The element that connects these two cities is the river - and it is the river that is one of the motifs I used in my works,' explains Andrzej Poprostu.
Andrzej Romański
The artist admits that painting the Toruń mural was a big challenge. - December and January, i.e., winter months with changeable weather, are not an easy time for this type of work, the conditions can be difficult,' says Poprostu. - Secondly: such pure geometric forms are not so easy to transfer onto a large format, especially as we did not use an overhead projector, we did it using 'old school' methods - we focused on dimensions and scale, on the exact transfer of dimensions.
The result of the work has already caught the eye of passers-by. The highest quality materials were used to create the mural, so, says Poprostu, it is highly likely that the graphic will be seen at the University's next round anniversaries.
