Neons Are Magic [PHOTOS]

Jarek Ratajczak: That's a peculiar hobby you have. We'll, I understand collecting stamps, old cars or motorcycles, but neons?

Tomasz Kosmalski: I know that it may seem a bit dumb [laughs], but I associate neons with my childhood, the old Wrocław, and I wanted to save them from oblivion. How did this collecting passion start? Tomasz Kosmalski: - Quite accidentally, 10 years ago. The first one was from a pastry shop at ul. Nowowiejska. One day it was there, and the other it was just gone. I entered the shop, found the owner and asked what had happen to the neon. I said I'd buy it back. The owner priced it as scrap metal. I paid him a hundred and that's how it started. And what did you do with it? Tomasz Kosmalski: I hid them in a basement, in a block that I used to live. Very soon, the basement became too small, so later I started stacking them up at my friends' garages. Finally, a part of them landed up at the Museum of Motorisation in Topacz. Now I'm refurbishing my house, and I have some more space. The problem is that my house refurbishment money has dried up, because I started renovating the neons [laughs]. My dream is to finally keep my car in the garage. Now I can't, because the neons are there. Is it an expensive hobby? Tomasz Kosmalski: You can't just plug in a neon to a socket. It requires a special high voltage transformer, ca. 400 PLN a piece. And one neon can require as much as 6 transformers, depending on the size. And you also need a cable, and not just a plain home-use one, but a high voltage one. During the communist time making a neon cost a fortune, but nobody cared at the time. There was to be a neon, and that's that. We are having this conversation at a courtyard between ul. Ruska and ul. św. Antoniego. At the wall there are Wrocław neons that you've salvaged: "Grand Hotel", "Kwiaty" [Flowers], "Elektor" or "Hermes". Will they become a part of the now established Gallery Of Neons? Tomasz Kosmalski: At the end of October we want to open a gallery and light up the neons at ul. Ruska. In September we've tried them out and the effect was spectacular. Not many people know about it, but the courtyard where the Neon Gallery will be located, a company "Reklama" operated, which used to make neons for all Lower Silesia region for 50 years. For me this is a kind of return to the sources. This is where the neons came from, and this is where they return. I know you graduated of the Law Faculty of the University of Wrocław. What's so special about neons that an educated lawyer spends his free time and assets on them? Tomasz Kosmalski: [Laughs] It's magic that captivates. Of course my colleagues know that I collect neons. I haven't heard any complaints regarding my effectiveness, so I guess my hobby is not bothering them. Amy family and friends have already got used to me asking them to climb a roof with me and help dismantle a neon. Without a bunch of friends I wouldn't do much. Recently we dismantled a giant hen neon from former poultry plant at ul. Paprotna. It was 2.5 m in diameter, and the construction weighed 400 kilos. Well, you must have educated yourself on basic electrics and mechanics. Tomasz Kosmalski: Operating an angle grinder is useful at dismantling. And you need to pay really good attention to juice. When you get a shock, that may be a problem, because neons operate under high voltage. For a layman, what makes a neon glow? Tomasz Kosmalski: It's a chemical process. With the supply of electricity a short circuit takes place, and the shards of metals and gases such as neon, freon or argon light up with a certain colour, for example neon glows red. What are the most iconic neons still remaining in Wrocław? Tomasz Kosmalski: - "Złodzieje" [Thieves] at Kościuszki Sq., "Lew" [Lion] at the zoo, "Dobry wieczór we Wrocławiu" [Good Evening In Wrocław], "Fryzjer" [Hairdresser's] at pl. Orląt Lwowskich. There aren't many old neons in the streets, maybe 10 or 15. I know where they are and I keep my eye on them. How? Tomasz Kosmalski: I've cast my nets. I know where the neons are, and I'm waiting for a signal when somebody wants to get rid of one. Recently a "Salon prasowy" [Newsagent's] disappeared from Kościuszki Square. I offered 200 zlotys, but somebody outbid me and offered over 1000. Now, when neons are much talked about, the prices went up. Somebody has got "Kwiaty" [Flowers] from Kościuszki Square and "Książki" [Books] from ul. Grabiszyńska. Somebody bought and hid them, because I haven't seen them anywhere. The sentiment towards the Polish People's Republic of Poland becomes fashionable. Tomasz Kosmalski: You might be right. One hears about neon collectors in Poznan, Katowice or Sopot. The Museum of Neons is located in Warsaw. I don't like it too much, because they shouldn't be locked up as museum exhibits. To appreciated their beauty they need to hang in the streets and glow. How do you get a neon? Do you happen to do it at night, guerilla-way, just to salvage it? Tomasz Kosmalski: Absolutely not. Everything is legal. This is why I established a foundation in 2009, called Neon Side. When I said that wanted to save a neon, some looked at me like I were a lunatic or a scrap collector. Now, when I mention the foundation, they treat me more seriously. Owing to the foundation, an agreement with the city was possible. The vice-mayor, Adam Grehl, approached it very neatly. He cared much to find a place and display the neons. As a foundation, I won a tender to rent a premises at ul. Ruska 46. I put forward a programme to save neons, restore and exhibit them. Now I collaborate with some fantastic people from a city company, Wrocławska Rewitalizacja, who make sure that a kind of an artistic passage with galleries originates at ul. Ruska courtyard. It is to be ready by 2016, when Wrocław becomes the European Culture Capital. You miss neons, but those in full splendour, but you didn't see them in their best years: 1950s, 1960s or 1970s. When your year, '79, was growing up in the last years of the Polish People's Republic, the majority of them was out of order. Tomasz Kosmalski: I remember neons at Kameleon, Pedet, or Kościuszki Square. There were quite a lot of them back then. It was grey during the day, and in the evening there was an explosion of colours. It was a bit absurd, actually. Watching old photos from ul. Świerczewskiego (now ul. Piłsudskiego), you can see that no expense was spared on neons. There were ca. 20 of them between ul. Świdnicka and the Main Train Station. I've seen them fading away. They were vanishing, because companies that owned them were disappearing. At the end of 1990s young capitalism was quickly supplanting the Polish People's Republic. Chinese LEDs appeared instead of neons. Genuine neons were made by artists. Each one was specially designed. Various shapes were invented. The letters are fancy. This is why they are one-of-a-kind and special. And when you repair them, there aren't many spare parts, right? Tomasz Kosmalski: I know some craftsmen in Wrocław, the only ones in Lower Silesia, who can "light up" an old neon. What is interesting, I've been trying to reach them via brokers, who wouldn't give me direct contact to them, because this is how they earned money off me. Another neon company that I know of is located as far away as in Łódź. Do you dream about neons? Tomasz Kosmalski: Oh, come on [laughs], I dream of speedway, because that's what I've been fascinated with all my life. I tried to approach neons rationally, in order not to go crazy. But indeed, it is a piece of my life. I don't know how you look at it. It's madness, but I think you do have your own, too.

Aquarium fish recently.

Tomasz Kosmalski: And do you have neon tetras?

Of course.

Tomasz Kosmalski: I thought in the gallery at ul. Ruska we could have an aquarium tank with neon tetras and a café. This is to be a place where anyone can come and talk about neons, or places where they used to be, or help repairing them.