Cooperation with the detention centre started in 2013, when Paweł Althamer, Paulina Pałka Antoniewicz, Artur Żmijewski, Rafał Żwirek, Jan Bajtlik, and the Reactor Sculpture Art organized a series of workshops for its inmates in which sculptures, installations, and plant arrangements were created at the premises of the centre.
One of the installations is a volleyball of peculiar size, with a net suspended between the poles that are in fact Paweł Althamer and Rafał Żwirek’s sculptures created with the help from the young Reactor artists. The female prisoners of the detention centre were the inspiration behind the form of the sculptures.
Besides this, a sculpture by young artist Paulina Pałka Antoniewicz and Reactor artists is also on display. What is more, Artur Żmijewski created an altar in the prison chapel with the prisoners’ help. The finishing touch of the project is reorganizing the plants and flowers alongside the prison walls. The female prisoners planted clematis grown by Polish Jesuit Stefan Franczak. The specimen are called ‘Blue Angel’, ‘Danuta’, ‘Polish Spirit’, ‘Warsaw Nike’ and ‘Stefan Franczak’.
The first official presentation of Siatkarze (Volleyballers) and a "bubble match" between the female prisoners and the artists took place on 27 June 2015. The following part of the project will be presented in the form of radio plays that will be transmitted through the prison's PA system.
Dom Kultury Foundation is an organization that engages in cultural education of those who, for various reasons, have limited access to culture: children from dysfunctional families or adult prisoners. The foundation has been cooperating with the Warsaw Grochów Detention Centre since 2013. Among the results of this work is a music video for Pustki’s ‘Się wydawało’ and the ‘E-WKRATKE’ blog.
Sources: PAP, artmuseum.pl, edit. AS, 6.07.2015
Translated by Paweł Trzaskowski, 8 June 2015