The conversation is led by Adam Lesniewicz, manager of the Civic Congress.
What is the social function of culture and art in the city? Can culture be regarded as a tool for social action, urban regeneration?
There are people who are rebelling against adding to the word "culture" any adjectives – committed culture, inclusive culture, revitalization through culture... I realize this kind of rebellion due to the fact that I have a large respect for culture itself and artistic activities of all kinds. The value of culture or wondering if a given action "is within the definition" is somewhat contrary to the very essence of culture – which is alive, "is happening", so it is constantly defined itself. We look at the culture as wide as possible in the City Enclosure. Large agglomerations are so diverse that we can talk about the culture of a given settlement or even a yard. In our association we make culture more flexible – to scope truly different groups with which we have contact in the revitalization processes. That's why I'm not tempted to effort to specify culture here, due to the fact that I'd most likely be mad at myself right after our interview that something's missing...
The value of culture or wondering if a given action is “in the definition” is simply a small bit contrary to the very essence of culture – which is alive, “it happens”, and thus constantly defines itself.
One cannot hide that we are most fascinated by a culture that is open to inclusive, engaging, participatory factors. What we do is to make favourable conditions for participation in culture – the closest one, to which we do not gotta prepare ourselves specially.
In the “Using the City” we especially care about close culture – our yard, everyday life and locality. It is not necessarily easy to face it, both from the point of view of the recipient and the creator. We are far from the aesthetics of life and aesthetics of culture, what we do doesn't should be good and pleasant, to stimulate creativity can be a small "enhanced" – and recipients and creators. If culture is to be a pretext for gathering – and we want it to be so – then referring to what we observe and what we should build relationships with is something intuitive.
The way you specify culture besides reflects your way as an association. Previously, it was called “Activating Art”, but you changed your name to “Activating City”. Is dealing with culture and art a natural way to tame our urban reality?
It all started in 2017 erstwhile the current squad took over the Association “Activating Art”, founded in 2011 by artists Paweł Kula and Maria Stafyniak. It was a typically artistic association focusing attention on the creative process. Its founders entrusted us with this structure for creative recycling. Then I became president of the association, and fresh people joined.
We have already treated culture and art as a tool, as an excuse for any action, a change in reality. This reflected the personality of the recently active people – they were mainly managers, animators and supporters of cultural and social activities. This fresh profile of action rather naturally directed us towards the revitalization process, which occurs in the centre of Szczecin. It is precisely about the reconstruction of the mid-urban section of the longest street in the city – Polish Army Avenue.
Revitalisation is simply a process that we have seen very widely and for which we wanted to usage this "tool" approach to culture. Our belief that we can be effective in supporting local communities, in building or strengthening their identities has contributed. That through means of artistic expression we can engage in planning, reasoning about the future, and above all, learning what is around. And that worked phenomenally.
Revitalisation is simply a process that we have seen very widely and for which we wanted to usage this "tool" approach to culture. Our belief that through widely understood culture and art, we can be effective in supporting local communities, in building or strengthening their identity.
Revitalization through alleged hard investments, i.e. infrastructure, renovations, etc., has the disadvantage that it is simply a time-detached process. Investments related to revitalization are difficult, they drag... The quality of life of residents in areas undergoing regeneration frequently deteriorates, streets are dug up, there is noise, water supply breaks, etc. What is your experience? Are cultural initiatives able to mitigate and form this process? Where do I even start?
We have participated in many projects related to the support of local communities, but our adventure with regeneration began with the fact that we competed in the competition for a city grant to run a neighbourly point, which was initially to be a consultation point. This is how the Center was created, which will turn 5 this year.
We dreamed of a place where we could host full communities where we could build a local identity together. So we figured this would be a place of local activity. Very rapidly we found that our tiny association and our tiny neighbourhood point were incapable to handle this imagination we had in our heads. The area of revitalization covers 3 immense urban settlements: the Centre, the Midtown West and Turzin. Each of them is different and it was simply impossible to scope all the yards, to all the places where we should be present.
When we confronted this, we assumed that we would prepare possible local leaders to act or catch and support leaders already present locally. due to the fact that they were everywhere. This was a common component for these 3 settlements, which are large and diverse. But apart from any framework assumptions, we were very flexible and learned by trial and error. This flexibility proved to be a force. Addressing actions to local leaders has given extraordinary synergy, due to the fact that they were people with large ideas, a large possible to scope their communities. Sometimes it was 1 building, 1 block or a community of 1 street, but it had a immense effect.
These effects coincided with my erstwhile experiences as deputy manager in the then INKU – Szczecin Culture Incubator. The willingness to act burns out very rapidly erstwhile confronted with problems, deficiency of cognition or competence – erstwhile local leaders and active groups are left to themselves. However, if they receive support tailored to their needs, their activity will abruptly explode.
We assumed that we were acting on the resources we had, that we were trying to support these possible local leaders regardless of the resources and competences they had, and whatever their willingness to act out of. What seems to have besides worked at this first phase is our openness and curiosity of another man. We like to talk and we are very curious in the stories of the inhabitants. We wanted to know why individual wanted to make a community garden in their backyard, or what motivates this man to have the energy to mobilize others and collect signatures under an idea.
The willingness to act burns out very rapidly erstwhile confronted with problems, deficiency of cognition or competence – erstwhile local leaders and active groups are left to themselves. However, if they receive support tailored to their needs, their activity will abruptly explode.
Our conversation is going a small bit towards a "caro" set of recommendations for those who would like to start akin activities in their city. Let's follow that lead. So we have a fascination with another human being, but besides with the curiosity of the world. You besides pointed out openness in sharing energy, the sensitivity to the diversity of local communities, but besides the belief in these not necessarily "manual" local leaders and the appreciation of informal groups. There is besides a request for flexibility – looking not only through the prism of a grant or task (and the objectives set there), but constantly verifying what works and redefining actions. Anything else missing on this list?
I think I would add the courage that comes with this flexibility. Courage is needed to go beyond the pattern; even erstwhile you hear that this is not a chance that “these people cannot be achieved”. It takes courage and tenacity to try. And adequate reason and "cool head" to be ready to actually fail. due to the fact that sometimes things just don't work out. And you gotta decision on, take it as an experience. Thus we built the brand of our association – on the 1 hand professionalism, on the another hand – openness.
I think we are touching the essence of this soft page of revitalization. In contrast to the large investments that take a long time, they are highly costly and happen as part of a dense plan to modify, soft actions let us to constantly change, prototyping, checking different methods. However, I wonder how much in these direct contacts with the inhabitants you must besides break through a certain barrier of distrust. The areas of regeneration are mostly heavy degraded, and there are a number of societal challenges. It is hard to believe that people surviving there are actually curious in them, that things will change. There are various disappointed hopes from erstwhile years erstwhile something was promised, but the implementation did not come, or the work was unreliable... How to fight distrust? Have you been in these communities as "reputers" of the regeneration process?
The hardest part is that a non-governmental organisation, which accepts tasks in the field of regeneration, must operate within a circumstantial framework. We have no impact on the end consequence of these "hard" revitalization activities.
That was our case. We entered the process of revitalizing this part of the city at a very delicate moment. The concept of restoring Polish tram lines in the Army Avenue was considered. A large proportion of those who participated in the consultation were behind the return of the trams. They vividly recalled the 1950s–60s erstwhile it was a kind of urban pedestrian, a “salon” of a town where people met at shopping. However, the authorities decided that the tram would not be – which was misreceived by this active group of residents. So we entered this situation of bitterness a small like a buffer between the inhabitants and the city. Our task was to rebuild trust and make a place to animated the process of this soft revitalization and fill this area with life. So we focused on local microworlds that are on both sides of the street.
The hardest part is that a non-governmental organisation, which accepts tasks in the field of regeneration, must operate within a circumstantial framework. We have no impact on the final effect of "hard" revitalization.
It was an area of truly deep problems. While 2 visions of the city’s “green surviving room” clashed in the media, people had to usage a common toilet on the corridors in the apartments on this street. To them, this dispute was completely abstract. We began empathically listening to those who functioned in these hard microworlds, but wanted to make changes in the immediate surroundings. We patched up this inconsistency a small bit – that here they repair the streets, renew the facades, and “we” were forgotten. On the another hand, we have consciously and consistently focused on building a sense of pride and a sense of belonging to this place. We wanted to show these people that it was special.
We have decided to allocate any of the funds to the direct support of local leaders and their ideas for change. We have created the “Golden Community” competition, which we carry out next years. We invitation vicinity groups, they could be 2 people, but besides 8 or fifteen. You can come up with a change of ideas for any action in your backyard. We choose ideas with the top possible – besides in the context of community building – and support its implementation. It's kind of a local initiative thing, but there's not a city office involved, it's us. We do not give these groups physically money, they do not request to formalize, we buy everything that is essential to realize their thought and support in various aspects of the action. We effort to give them an chance to talk and show them the sense of cooperation.
This turned out to be a bull's-eye, due to the fact that on the 1 hand it introduces these microchanges to the maximum close to the inhabitants, restores their sense of perpetuity, and on the another hand – identifies and supports local leaders. erstwhile they get specified encouragement, they act in a different way – e.g. in civic budgets or they are mobilizing for larger-scale activities.
We like to treat the city like a laboratory and discover what's invisible right away. This is the plan of the mid-urban mosaics, with which we are already going outside of the Midtown. Mosaics is an art dating back to ancient times, which in Poland is mainly associated with the period of the Polish People's Republic. It was a common decorative component that allowed the usage of widely available materials – remnants of glass, ceramics, etc.
The most celebrated Szczecin work of this kind is located on the facade of Kina Kosmos. It is the first cultural institution to be built after 1945, in Polish Szczecin. For those times it was a very modern cinema. Mosaic was created from ceramic elements that were found in postwar rubble. It presents an abstract scene of fun, entertainment, joy, dance – animals and people. I urge seeing, although present this building needs to be looked for, due to the fact that it was covered by an office building, built right next door.
In our task we draw a bit from this mosaic tradition, but on the another hand, we mention to how the most beautiful of them was treated. Our actions consist in creating mosaics in places that are considered unattractive. These are, for example, neglected backyards and inaccessible areas – for example partially covered walls. We want to provoke them to visit. In these activities, the question of whether revitalization is not a process that collects and uncovers the past of places and people who live around and who are worth knowing.
Our actions consist in creating mosaics in places that are considered unattractive. These are, for example, neglected courtyards and inaccessible areas – for example partially obscured walls. We want to provoke them to visit.
We're not the ones choosing the locations of the next installations. We work with a collective of graphic designers, we usually make 3 projects, which are anchored in local past and memory of the place, and then collect the votes of residents walking around the apartments or asking on the net where this task should be realized and in what form it should be realized.
For example, we made a mosaic of “Love”. It was created in the backyard, on the back of a tenement house, which is almost entirely displaced. This work is reminded by local media on the occasion of all Valentine's Day, but not only then. She's become very popular. And this makes us very happy erstwhile individual writes in a comment: “Well, well, only this mosaic is almost impossible to find!” For us, it's a pleasance to explain how to scope her, why she's there, and to make her discover the city. In the area of degraded “Love” you gotta look for a little...
Beautiful story. And like you said, a possible fresh symbol of the city. Based on tradition from more than 60 years ago, but reinterpreted in a modern way. You have managed to show large empathy in this task towards what is local, but besides to make a subject – a “Mosaic trail”, which can besides be attractive to people surviving outside this context – tourists. This immediately brings me to the association with the Wrocław dwarves, whom crowds of visitors are searching all over the city.
Indeed, I have not noticed this analogy before. In fact, a immense mosaic community developed here. At the same time, Sabina Wacławczyk (the artist) and Joanna Olszowska (the city guide) besides acted, who created a map of all the Szczecin mosaics, both historical and contemporary. The Mosaic way is actually increasingly treated as our local tourist product. “Ironic” would like to say. After all, in this way we invitation tourists to places most inaccessible, by any perceived even as dangerous. But it creates an excuse for gathering and dialogue. This is characteristic of our activities in the “Occupying the City”. We play with the past of Szczecin, it inspires us very much, due to the fact that this fresh spirit of the city is just being created. Here there is no tradition from the grandfather-great-grandfather and thus it is breathtaking to define, retell this city.
Revitalization can be an excuse to specify a city again. You can see it well in Szczecin – where this fresh spirit of the city is just creating. There's no tradition with the great-grandfather.
For specified a local community, the very fact that individual appears in their vicinity with a camera and it is not a writer looking for a sensation, but a individual actually curious about this place, it is simply a shock, a overthrow in the perception of the nearest space. It turns out that there is something of value in the immediate neighbourhood – we do not should be ashamed of where we live, we can boast.
It's true. Not only tourists come to these places, but besides residents of Szczecin who were never there! We organize regular walks and we don't aim at tourists at all, that's mostly for Szczecinians from neighbouring districts. We always have quite a few interest.
The only thing to remember here is not to make a museum. The creative activity is super important, it has large results, but it cannot end there. These courtyards, these tenements must be renovated, thoroughly renovated in the framework of the already tough activities of the city. This can be delayed over time, due to the fact that it requires projects, arrangements or an unregulated ownership situation, but in the end we only accomplish the full effect.
Is there another 1 of your well-known projects of this type, or “Gallery from the Street”? What was his idea?
This is besides an example of artistic activities as close as possible to the audience. Our projects frequently consequence from us wandering around the city and watching. Something typical of Szczecin are abandoned cellars, which have tiny sites extending somewhat above the ground. During the economical transition, these were the premises utilized by tiny private entrepreneurs, who could not afford large premises in the tenement floors. erstwhile buying malls and downtown streets came along changed their character, these spaces ceased to be used. And so they threatened, they were mourned, littered, anointed. We have come to the conclusion that they are a large space to be utilized in the urban project. We put together specified an thought to renew the windows to these premises and to devote them to a gallery for artists, to contemporary art more or little complicated, more or little readable and more pleasant. To collide with a recipient who may not be going to the gallery, not even due to his reluctance to contemporary art, but frequently due to a intellectual or economical barrier preventing him from entering specified a place.
We have done 3 minigalleries, working with invited artists, graphic designers and “city storytellers”. 2 were located on Jagiellońska Street, in an abandoned tenement house, 3rd on Rayski Street. The openings featured artists, their friends, journalists, were us, but “locals” were few. But then residents from the building other began to come there "to the cigarette", others stopped, looked... In time, these galleries began to enjoy the increasing interest of residents who felt that this was besides part of their street and that they were somewhat hosts of this place. His guardians.
Something we didn't anticipate was to improve safety. The villagers told us that. Lighting these sites and the fact that you could see that individual was taking care of them, caused space to change its character. And erstwhile we started this project, we heard that it doesn't make any sense, due to the fact that the exhibitions are about to be destroyed, there will be broken windows, kidnapped posters. It's different. Throughout these galleries there were only 2 cases of vandalism – erstwhile in fact individual kicked, but did not break the glass, only bent the component that we had to replace. Another time, scrap metallic lovers stole a part of wire that was bringing light to our windows. Besides, no aggression or destruction. Even the order was kept – if individual put posters around it, but our site was not attached.
An crucial sign that culture and artistic activities have a place for each another even in highly degraded space. But how did people react? Did you hear the comments? Modern art can be very hard to receive...
Some even talked to the artists themselves hanging their works. It was very interesting, besides for them as creators, erstwhile they heard: “old, but what is it about?”, “Why is toilet paper here, that is art?”. This provoked very interesting conversations and meetings.
In the context of these actions, I have developed the word “ground culture”. On the 1 hand, I mention here to the literal meaning of these words, due to the fact that our galleries were on the ground. But more importantly, it was a metaphorical meaning – a culture that is closest to us, with which we collide, which shapes us all day, which makes us feel part of what is around us. It was happening here. Modern art is sometimes complicated in reception, but its intent is not to decorate, but to stimulate creativity and make many explanation spaces.
A “mundane culture”, that is, a culture that is closest to us, with which we collide, which shapes us all day, which makes us feel part of what is around us.
Finally, let us go back to the regeneration process itself. You said that in 2017 you were moving in a situation of very large polarization, where the issue of the tram line was the axis of a sharp dispute. How do you view the condition of this local community today?
As far as redevelopment is concerned, we're almost finished. But I think it's truly the hardest thing yet to come. This dispute I was talking about, of course, went out due to the fact that people saw that the task without a tram was being implemented, time passed, you know how it is. Now we have another challenge ahead of us. This recently renovated street should be filled with life. Since she served as a ‘salon of the city’, decades have passed, many properties are in private hands and are located in banks, pawn shops or empty houses... The real test of the quality of revitalization will be what happens after the machines from the construction site are driven. Will life come back here, or will this place be visited willingly?
We are working on this, we are trying to talk in various city meetings about a distributed incubator of various activities. The life incubator of this street. To cover the energy of young artists, activists, entrepreneurs, these hostile spaces of emptiness. To want to be here, not to sneak in fast.
If the urban area becomes an attractive place to live, run business, spend time again, we may besides be able to master the suburbanization that we face in Szczecin and which is simply a problem for most Polish cities. If midtownity is simply a origin for pride and something attractive, the trend of spilling cities will slow down. possibly in time we can even turn it around.
