The Last Summer

In the summer of 1939, a fictional family from Łódź rents a villa for a holiday. The characters' different ages and interests introduce several forms of pre-war leisure. The villa itself is real: it came from Ruda Pabianicka, then a popular summer destination for Łódź residents.

The story does not reconstruct the lives of a particular household. Furnishings were chosen to suit the circumstances and lifestyles of the invented characters. Magdalena Gonera and Filip Appel designed the interiors using holiday memoirs and specialist advice on interwar homes. Material relating to Ruda, Kolumna, Świder and Otwock informed their work.

There are two ways to explore the exhibition: follow the history of the building and leisure, or take the role of a guest in a holiday home. A reading room and a section on the history of leisure provide information about pastimes in the 1930s, giving the fictional family a historical setting. Their holiday is the exhibition's storyline, not a documented stay by the villa's former owners. Alongside the imagined holidaymakers, visitors can learn about the actual building and the place it came from.