On 10 September 2021, during the 137th monthly commemoration of the Smolensk air disaster, activists from Lotna Brygada Opozycji (LBO) carried out a peaceful artistic intervention on Piłsudski Square in Warsaw. Next to the Pomnik Ofiar Tragedii Smoleńskiej (Monument to the Victims of the Smolensk Tragedy), they assembled a temporary structure made of cardboard boxes, referred to as the “Cardboard Stairs.”
The installation, built from around thirty-five boxes and standing four metres high, echoed the shape of the monument’s granite staircase but replaced stone with fragile cardboard. The boxes were marked with slogans questioning the lack of transparency in the ongoing investigation and the political use of the Smolensk tragedy.
Police supervised the site but did not intervene, as the action was peaceful and non-destructive. After the official ceremony ended, the activists dismantled the installation themselves. The contrast between the heavy permanence of the state monument and the ephemeral cardboard stairs symbolised the difference between official commemoration and civic expression, between fixed national narratives and independent voices calling for accountability.
Through its minimalist and ironic form, the action by Lotna Brygada Opozycji transformed public space into a site of reflection on how collective memory in Poland is shaped, performed, and contested.
