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Introduction	Stadium X, located in the center of Warsaw is a contemporary ruin. Build from the debris of the II WW was the flagship of the Stalin era. In the early 1980s, it lost its function as a sports facility to be “resuscitated” by Vietnamese and Russian traders – the pioneers of capitalism who created the biggest market in central Europe called Jarmark Europa. The area is the only “out of logic” place in the capital: overgrown with wild plants, shops open from 3 am to 12 pm, the crowd communicates in Asiatic languages while archeologists search for medieval treasures, making the place a Warsaw ‘Berlin wall’. The Stadium and the market will be replaced by a new National Stadium by the end of 2008. This (absent) presence of the ruin in the centre of a postcommunist city, the ongoing debate on Poland’s hosting of Euro 2012, lack of debate on the architectural heritage of the postwar era, the invisibility of the Vietnamese minority and a different logic of this place brought about a series of performative events titled “Finissage of the Stadium X in episodes”.

Introduction

Stadium X, located in the center of Warsaw is a contemporary ruin. Build from the debris of the II WW was the flagship of the Stalin era. In the early 1980s, it lost its function as a sports facility to be “resuscitated” by Vietnamese and Russian traders – the pioneers of capitalism who created the biggest market in central Europe called Jarmark Europa. The area is the only “out of logic” place in the capital: overgrown with wild plants, shops open from 3 am to 12 pm, the crowd communicates in Asiatic languages while archeologists search for medieval treasures, making the place a Warsaw ‘Berlin wall’. The Stadium and the market will be replaced by a new National Stadium by the end of 2008. This (absent) presence of the ruin in the centre of a postcommunist city, the ongoing debate on Poland’s hosting of Euro 2012, lack of debate on the architectural heritage of the postwar era, the invisibility of the Vietnamese minority and a different logic of this place brought about a series of performative events titled “Finissage of the Stadium X in episodes”.