Museum Night in Warsaw, Photo: Wojciech Olszanka / East News
What better way to spend a steamy summer evening than imbibing from a full menu of cultural delights? All over Europe, Museum Night opens up galleries to night crawling art lovers - even certain doors that have remained locked - and Culture.pl has compiled must-see lists for three major metropolises: Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław
WARSAW
Art Yard Sale at Ufficio Primo
The third edition of this grass-roots initiative brings together works of over 70 artists and designers, presenting the best the nation has to offer under the theme Made in Poland. The event showcases prominent contemporary artists curated by the Raster Gallery team, alongside young talents in graphic design, illustration, fashion and photography. Art Yard Sale 2013 takes place in the Ufficio Primo office building designed by Marek Leykam in 1952 and recently renovated.
Ada Buchholc, illustration from Przekrój magazine, 12.11. 2012, courtesy of Art Yard Sale press
Museum of the History of Polish Jews
The most highly-anticipated cultural institution of recent years opens its doors, welcoming visitors to delve into the impressive site's design and its significance. Events include a talk with the museum's architect Rainerem Mahlamäki, and Péter Forgács' multimedia installation of archival documentation of Jewish life in interwar Poland, set to music by the band the Klezmatics, and a concert by Alte Zachen (Yiddish for "Old Things"), a contemporary band that's been called "Jewish surfer music", made up of guitarist Raphael Rogiński, Ola Rzepka, Bartek Tyciński and Macio Moretti. Together they create a sound that unites sacral music with rock and psychodelic rhythms.
Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Photo: Wojciech Kryński / Forum
Concerts in the IAM Courtyard
The Adam Mickiewicz Institute opens the courtyard of its Sugar Palace to unique performances of classical greats. The El Derwid project presents neglected radio songs of Witold Lutosławski, written under the pseudonym Derwid, featuring the "eletrovocce" herself, Agata Zubel. Later that evening female vocal group Translola brings back the sound of Russian singer and poet Janka Diagilev. The finale features special guest NOM from the alternative performance scene in St. Petersburg, in town for the ongoing Da!Da!Da! theatre festival, with their characteristic black, surrealist humour.
El Derwid in concert (Andrzej Bauer, Cezary Duchnowski, Agata Zubel), Photo: Konrad Ćwik / IAM
Riverside charm
The Ja Wisła foundation revives the Vistula's bankside with nighttime strolls along the river and a campfire at the beach. Unexpected treasures drawn from the riverbed are on show at Warsaw University.
Vistula river, photo by Rafał Łapiński / Fundacja Ja Wisła
Back to PRL
Adventure Warsaw brings back the spirit of socialism with a programme of commie-inspired activities, such as a joyride in a Nyska 522 van through Warsaw and a stop at the Apartment-Museum, decorated top-to-bottom in PRL style, with 1960s and '70s-era hits playing on the radio, and propaganda films. Visitors can even take souvenir photos of themselves in full militia gear.
Enter the Nyska, Photo courtesy of adventurewarsaw.pl
KRAKÓW
Audio art tour
The city's Reminiscencje theatre and the National Museum invite visitors to explore the Planty park encircling the Old Town, with guided tours courtesy of Artistic City Trips that bring back the golden age of the interwar era. See the map at krt-festival.pl.
Explore the Planty Promenade, Photo: Monika Oleksy / Forum
Nowa Huta revisited
The city east of Kraków was begun in 1949 to achieve the social-realist ideals of the previous century and house labourers from the massive local steel mills. This "garden city", with architecture in an imposing modern guise that refers to a mix of Renaissance, Baroque and Classicist styles, is a snapshot of history. The Historical Museum of Kraków is hosting a series of documentary and feature films about Nowa Huta (or New Mill), directed by greats including Andrzej Munk and Wajda, along with walking tours of the modernist city.
Administrative Centre, Nowa Huta, photo courtesy of MHMK
Re-scribing the Torah
The Gothic-Renaissance structure of the Old Synagogue, today part of the Historical Museum of Kraków, welcomes volunteers to participate in a rewriting of the text of the Torah in any of 11 languages. The site also hosts exhibitions on Jewish culture and leisure.
Re-scribing the Torah, photo courtesy of MHMK
Antoniszczak's kinetics
After a successful stint in Warsaw, the retrospective exhibit devoted to Julian Antoniszczak (Antonisz), one of Poland's most ingenious animation pioneers, has traveled south. Tracing original methods utilised by the experimental filmmaker, video artist and inventor (born 1941) through the artifacts of his creative process - from concept, notes, sketches and his amazing devices to the finished films - the exhibition provides a rare glimpse into ideas and tools behind his unusual cinematic practice. It also gives a portrait of the times he lived in - socialist Poland in the late 20th century.
Fragments of the original film tapes of Julian Antonisz, © ownership of Danuta, Malwina and Sabina Antoniszczak. Photo: Weronika Łodzińska
Kantor's room
The Cricoteka - Documentation Centre for the Art of Tadeusz Kantor (Workshop/Gallery, ul. Sienna 7/5) was established on the site where Kantor worked for the last years of his life. It remains unchanged since those days, with furnishings, books, drawings and personal items that reveal an intimate side of the artist and theatre legend.
Tadeusz Kantor rehearsing "The Dead Class" in Kraków, 20 January 1988, Photo: Włodzimierz Wasyluk
WROCŁAW
Mickiewicz's silent gem
The National Ossoliński Centre screens a rare gem of the Silent Film Era - Ryszard Ordyński's Pan Tadeusz (1928), based on the epic by Adam Mickiewicz. The screening takes place at the Stara Plebania and Baroque Garden. The director is credited for having discovered actress Pola Negri, and later moved to Hollywood to collaborate with Bernard Shaw and Charlie Chaplin (Ordyński served as resident director at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York between 1917 and1920). The recently recovered film was remastered and re-premiered in November 2012 in Warsaw.
Song of the Goat in the orchard
The legendary Song of the Goat theatre presents a series of theatrical and musical performances based on their work in preparation for the staging of Anton Chekhov's Cherry Orchard. British pianist and composer Guy Pearson will lead the musical programme.
Rehearsals for "Portraits of the Cherry Orchard", Photo: Teatr Pieśń Kozła / www.facebook.com/maetuszbralphotography
National Luxus
The Contemporary Museum hosts a show devoted to the rebellious artistic activities of the LUXUS group of the 1980s and '90s. The show revisits the time of spontaneous street art, anti-establishment painting and performance, splashy "zines" and social gatherings punctuated by the sounds of reggae and punk.
The first "zine" produced by the LUXUS group, 1982, Photo courtesy of the Contemporary Museum in Wrocław
New media 2013
WRO 2013, Poland's biggest survey of new media art, features ten new works by world-renowned artist Mirosław Bałka, inviting visitors to follow him on noctural strolls through the spaces of his life and work. This year marks the 50th anniversary of digital art, celebrating the works of renowned artists of previous generations alongside those of the younger generation, with even the latest works of fresh Polish and international artists welcomed to participate.
Mirosław Bałka during installation of "Nachtgesichten" exhibition, fot. Z. Kupisz / WRO 2013
Fashion forward
Polish Wardrobe is the first major exposition of Polish fashion design post-1989, with mannequins dolled up in the most exquisite fashions by the most happening designers of the moment - Gosia Baczyńska, Arkadius, Ania Kuczyńska, Marios and Joanna Klimas. The interiors of the Design Gallery get lit up by the restored Moda Polska neon, originally produced in 1956.
From the "Polish Wardrobe" exhibition, courtesy of Galeria Design
Museum Night 2013 is on across Europe between the 18th-19th of May. In Poland the event attracts close to one million visitors each year.
Author: Agnieszka Sural, May 2013. Translated by Agnieszka Le Nart
Source: Krakowskie Reminiscencje Teatralne, Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Krakowa, Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie, Ośrodek Dokumentacji Sztuki Tadeusza Kantora Cricoteka, Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, Teatr Pieśń Kozła, Muzeum Współczesne Wrocław, Centrum Sztuki WRO, Galeria Design – BWA Wrocław, Art Yard Sale, Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich, Instytut Adama Mickiewicza, Fundacja Ja Wisła, Muzeum Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Adventure Warsaw, culture.pl
14.05.2013