POLAND AFTER NATURE
The concept of „nature“ is inseparably linked to the process of industrialization. Industry tends to tranform the very ressources it exploits into sublime images, such as „nature“, „memory“, and „subjectivity“. The search for „nature“ is there- fore a journey both into the past and into the future. What will we discover in Białowieża forest in Eastern Poland — the so called „last primary forest“ in Europe? Will it be the key to under- stand the complexity of Poland‘s history, the wars, the holocaust, the division of Europe? Will we discover an untouched site, a paradisiac place? Will we see our own mirror images? Starting from the darkness of the forests, our expedition will take us to Łódź, the former center of Poland‘s industry and then to the lights of Warsaw, site of the „future of Europe“ (according to an EU meeting in 2012).
Programm
DAY 1 BIALOWIEZA
On our way to Bialowieza, stopping at an orthodox church
Streching legs at a bonfire after a hearty dinner at Hotel Wejmtka.
DAY 2 BIALOWIEZA
Experiment of the week: One watercolour a day!
Having our second breakfast at the Tsars Restaurant (http://www.restauracjacarska.pl/index_en.html), where our guide Eunice Blavascunas sends us off on to explorationtours of the village in small groups.
There are many quirky details to discover in the village. The inhabitants have rediscovered the Polish folklore style, which was frowned upon during communism. Now even ready-made houses can be bought in this style. Many houses are for rented out to tourists, who increasingly experience the Bialowieza forest as an attraction.
Visting the sawmill-owners Ela and Marek Poleszuk. Now that the wood from the commercial part of the Bialowieza forest has become too expensive for their clients such as IKEA, they now import their wood (mostly oak) from the Ukraine.
Later we meet up with the villagers to talk about their relationship to the forest. Apart from the forest’s many roles such as an economic source or a historical stage, we were interested to hear, that the inhabitants maintain a quite romantic understanding of the forest as nature in which one can relax.
DAY 3 LODZ
We meet up our new guides Kaja Pawelek, Lukasz Biskupsi and Aleksandra Jach in front of the gigantic revitalized textile factory complex „Manufaktura“ and cross the street to an old jewish ghetto, which is part of the municipality renovation project „Lodz – City of 100 Apartment Houses“.
Lodz still suffers from a shrinking population in the city center and the abandonement of many industrial sites. On the other hand new housing projects are realised at the periphery of Lodz for the new middle class. We visit one of these projects which also includes the renaturalization of a river landscape.
Wonderful ruin on the way, we stop and make our aquarelles.
Scavenging for materials in where a party might have taken place…
Beautiful encounter with an old bookbinder vis-a-vis the worn down factory:
There are some atttempts to tap on the great ressource of the abandoned spaces in Lodz. Projects such as the Art_Inkubators at Fabryka Sztuki try reactivation through cultural events. The municipal strategy is to give fincancial incentives to areas called Lodz Special Economic Zones for the developement of industrial ruins.
Later that evening we visit the Museum of Modern Art Lodz which includes a neo-plastisism Gesamtkunstwerk.
DAY 4 WARSAWA
Driving through the night and arriving in Warsaw where we meet up with Simone de Iacobis and Malgorzata Kuciewicz from CENTRALA who call themselves a „designers task force“. Together we reach the rooftop floor of the Palace of Culture and Science, which is still in use and dominates the center of Warsaw.
Moving ahead to visit two of the few completed newer projects: The Kerethouse by Jakub Szczęsny (http://kerethouse.com/) imbedded in (or between) a socialhousing district and the Jewish Museum by the Finnish architects Rainer Mahlamäki and Ilmari Lahdelma, which was build on the site of a former jewish ghetto.
We then are intrigued and puzzled by a visit to Stare Miasto which is the reconstructed Old Town of Warsaw which was destroyed in World War 2. There we join the curator Tomasz Fudala to see the „under construction“ festival exhibition and talk about the current role of the architect in Poland. http://artmuseum.pl/en/wystawy/zawod-architekt
After dinner we are invited to a performance in the temporary exhibition called „Learning from Warsaw“ which takes place in both Warsaw and Zurich and was curated by Nele Dechmann, Nicola Ruffo & Agnieszka Sosnowska. http://www.learningfromwarsaw.com/
DAY 5 WARSAWA
Last day in Poland and we make for another former industrial district named Ursus, where we discover factory ruins taken over by nature and others taken over by investors. There is then just enough time to visit an informal market and see a diverse array of projects on social housing.
