The European Solidarity Centre (ESC) will be a unique attraction. Dotted with indoor trees and connected by small bridges, the museum is equipped with an authentic truck manufactured by FSC Star and a shipyard crane (also authentic).
The ESC has a double agenda. It will tell the story of the Solidarity trade union movement which was ignited in Gdańsk, the museum's host city and show how it helped topple the communist government. Its second goal is to spread the ideals that Solidarity stands for - democracy, open society, dialogue, values which will never be out of date.
The building
Buolding of the European Solidarity Centre, photo press materials ESC The project that won the competition for the design of the ESC in 2007 stood out for its uncommon use of cor-ten steel for the siding. Thanks to its rusty colours, which keep changing shades, the building resembles the hull of a boat, one of many which could have docked at the neighbouring shipyard. One of the project designers on the case explains,
- The raw, industrial terrain was once strewn with similar rusty metal sheets. Figuratively speaking, the metal also alludes to the simple and raw ideas put forward by Solidarity, a movement which took shape in this shipyard landscape.
The building was built next to the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970, not far from the famous gate number two of the Vladimir Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, as it was then called. For years, the gate, now a tourist attraction, was the focus of strike. It was there that on August 31st, 1980, the striking workers signed an agreement with the leaders of the People's Republic of Poland.
Construction of the ESC commenced in the autumn of 2010, with a budget of 229 million złoty. Half of the funding came from the European Union, the other half from the budget of the city of Gdańsk.
Michał Szlaga has been taking photos of the Gdańsk Shipyard for 13 years.
