CENSORED!

Performance Control. In simplified terms, for the following decades this would become the epicentre of Polish state censorship.

Employing just under 500 people, it’s here that texts would be redacted and photos edited to scrub people out. Finally, on June 6th, 1990, the office was abolished. Slipping into anonymity thereafter, it wasn’t until 2012 that Mysia returned to the news, this time after No. 3 was converted into what remains to this day Warsaw’s trendiest department store – decorated with a wayfinding system that hints at the building’s previous role as a censorship office, this once secretive bastion of Communism now thrives as a multi-floor consumer experience whose units include a cult Leica store, a vinyl den and a string of high-end fashion shops.

Warsaw does irony well, let it not be said otherwise. For a case in point, one need only to look to the carbuncle that stands at Nowy Świat 6/12. Formerly the HQ of the Communist Party, today it’s an entirely different party that you’ll find here – now in-filled with youthful bars, this blockish building is one of the main social points on Warsaw’s nocturnal map.

Altogether less obvious, though, are the buildings on the funnel-shaped Mysia street. Rebuilt post-war in Socialist Realist style, originally the first and second floors overlooking the road were reserved for American companies with a presence on the Polish market. This idea did not last long, however, and it wasn’t long until the building – now Mysia 3 and Mysia 5 – was overtaken by the Main Office of Press, Publication and

Fittingly, and in a nod to its previous role, the exterior has also been reinvented to feature a free speech memorial that was unveiled on June 5th, 2014. Ninety metres in length, it takes the form of a censor’s black line. Found on what has been rechristened Free Word Square, its debut was marked by a speech delivered by Bronisław Komorowski. “Free speech was the dynamite that blew up the Communist system,” he said. “We should remember that freedom began in Poland.”