Paweł Starzec

Documentalist, sociologist, academic teacher.

Anew
Makeshift
DC
Zersetzung
A Mountain
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Default City is a conventionally pejorative term for the Polish capital in everyday language. Warsaw's default attitude seems to reflect the assumption that if something happens, it's always there, so there's no point even mentioning the city's name. I used to be someone whom Warsaw itself calls equally pejoratively. According to the University of Warsaw Linguistic Observatory, the definition of a "jar" is "a young person from a small town who settles in Warsaw, to study or work." The word comes from the name of a glass vessel – a jar – in which people so referred to bring food after visiting their family home. I have been living in Warsaw for over a decade and have tried to closely observe its mannerisms and changes. This is the first attempt to gather these smaller stories into one larger one.

Chapters: I II III IV V

2013 – ongoing.

©2026 Copyright Paweł Starzec.