Od-Nowa Huta

Od-Nowa Huta updates the views on Nowa Huta, tak­ing into account its past and evol­u­tion, which it has exper­i­enced so far, and the one that is yet to come. It presents Nowa Huta against the back­drop of a broad­er exper­i­ence of mod­ern­ity, both engaged by author­it­ari­an regimes, but also in the con­text of post-indus­tri­al evol­u­tion, which has largely become an exper­i­ence shared by many European cit­ies over the past 30 years, for which Nowa Huta works as an mir­ror. Od-Nowa Huta ana­lyzes European paths by dis­cuss­ing the dis­trict of Krakow against the back­drop of pre-war Rome or post-indus­tri­al Bil­bao. Re-Nowa Huta fol­lows the scen­ari­os of gentri­fic­a­tion that have irre­voc­ably marked the cen­ters of many European cit­ies, without spar­ing Krakow, at the same time anti­cip­at­ing poten­tial paths of the fur­ther evol­u­tion of the dis­trict in search of its new eco­nom­ic, social and artist­ic functions.

Con­trary to the top-down scen­ari­os that determ­ined the cre­ation of the dis­trict, Od-Nowa Huta reverses the per­spect­ive, espe­cially tak­ing into account the social one.

What does Nowa Huta com­munity exper­i­ence today and how can the com­mon voice of the inhab­it­ants determ­ine the devel­op­ment and evol­u­tion of the city? On 25^th of Septem­ber, two days of expert pan­els will find their con­tinu­ation in con­nec­ted cul­tur­al activities.

Experts from 6 coun­tries that make up the EUNIC cluster in Krakow will lead the dis­cus­sions, shar­ing the exper­i­ences of their home coun­tries that can be applied in Nowa Huta. 

23.09.2021 

17:00–18:45

„From Uto­pia to reality”

speak­ers: 

Géry Lel­outre

Geor­gios Maïllis

Georgi Stan­ishev

mod­er­at­or – Pio­tr Lewicki

The first dis­cus­sion, inaug­ur­at­ing a series of debates ded­ic­ated to cit­ies sim­il­ar to Nowa Huta – planned from above, devel­ops a reflec­tion on their ideo­lo­gic­al, cul­tur­al and his­tor­ic­al leaven, as well as con­tem­por­ary forms into which they are evolving. How did their visu­al cul­ture change and adapt to the new con­text in these con­di­tions? Dunaújvaros, Por­uba, Dimitro­v­grad, New Bel­grade, and New Zagreb were cre­ated in the spir­it of social­ist real­ism, while on the wave of cap­it­al­ist indus­tri­al­iz­a­tion com­pletely new cit­ies or dis­tricts were built, as in the case of Charleroi. After the eco­nom­ic and social upheavals, these vari­ous places now require a new polit­ic­al com­mit­ment that con­nects the pub­lic and private sec­tors. What will these old-new cit­ies look like in the future?

18:45–20:30

 “Mod­ern­ismo architettonico del Novecento”

speak­ers:

Luca Pal­mar­ini 

Luigi Valerio 

mod­er­at­or – Ugo Rufino

Mod­ern­ist archi­tec­ture in the first half of the Twen­ti­eth Cen­tury accel­er­ated the pro­cess of renov­a­tion of European cit­ies, “soar­ing” in some cases, while cre­at­ing a pro­cess of urb­an­isa­tion with a new res­id­en­tial and plan­ning per­spect­ive in oth­ers. In Italy, we saw the estab­lish­ment of new neigh­bour­hoods such as EUR and the cre­ation of urb­an pat­terns with archi­tec­tur­al struc­tures abso­lutely innov­at­ive from the point of view of live­ab­il­ity and tech­no­lo­gic­al pro­gress. It can be argued that such changes in the pro­cess of urb­an­iz­a­tion derive from a new State-Form of author­it­ari­an states emer­ging all over Europe, like in Italy, Ger­many and the Soviet Uni­on, which are some­how com­pet­ing with each oth­er for a new concept of city and social gath­er­ing, like in the case of the city of Nowa Huta in Poland. The Itali­an Insti­tute of Cul­ture in Krakow is host­ing a roundtable led by archi­tect Luigi Valerio, Pro­fess­or Luca Pal­mar­ini, who is present­ing his book on Nowa Huta, and the Dir­ect­or of the Itali­an Insti­tute of Cul­ture Ugo Rufino.

Dis­cus­sions will be trans­lated into Polish.

Num­ber of par­ti­cipants is lim­ited, please book your place at rezerwacja@domutopii.pl

Tables of debate to be held on Septem­ber 23–24^th at the Uto­pia Home – Inter­na­tion­al Empathy Centre, ini­ti­ated and imple­men­ted jointly by the Insti­tuto Cer­vantes, Insti­tut français de Pologne, Isti­tuto Itali­ano di Cul­tura, Bur­eau Wal­lonie-Bruxelles à Var­so­vie, Goethe-Insti­tut, Öster­reichisches Gen­eralkon­su­lat Krakau with the stra­tegic sup­port of EUNIC, will be pre­ceded by an exhib­i­tion organ­ized by Insti­tut français de Pologne à Cra­cov­ie and Isti­tuto Itali­ano di Cul­tura Cra­covia (avail­able for pub­lic from Septem­ber 7^th). Pan­dem­ic pan­or­a­mas of depop­u­lated city squares in Itali­an cit­ies, hid­ing their actu­al life behind the walls, will be jux­ta­posed with the his­tor­ic­al pho­to­graphs present­ing the crowds filling the streets of Nowa Huta in a ges­ture of social solidarity.

assist­ing events:

exhib­i­tion „In Front of and Behind the Cur­tain – Scen­ari­os of Social Solid­ar­ity”: Uto­pia Home – Inter­na­tion­al Empathy Centre (23.09 – 3.10.2021)

„Con­cert of Wishes” spec­tacle by Yana Ross with Danuta Sten­ka – Łaźnia Nowa Theat­er 25.09.2021 18.00 / 20.30

Organ­izers Od-Nowa Huta: Insti­tuto Cer­vantes, Insti­tut français de Pologne, Isti­tuto Itali­ano di Cul­tura, Bur­eau Wal­lonie-Bruxelles à Var­so­vie, Goethe-Insti­tut, Öster­reichisches Gen­eralkon­su­lat Krakau przy stra­tegicznym wspar­ciu EUNIC.

EUNIC (The European Uni­on Nation­al Insti­tutes for Cul­ture) is a Brus­sels based net­work of European nation­al cul­tur­al insti­tutes and oth­er pub­lic organ­iz­a­tions engaged in cul­tur­al activ­it­ies out­side their coun­try aim­ing to pro­mote European cul­ture and lan­guages. EUNIC brings togeth­er organ­iz­a­tions from all 27 Mem­ber States of the European Uni­on. By pool­ing the resources and expert­ise of its mem­bers, con­ducts work in com­mon areas of interest, sup­port­ing the defin­i­tion and imple­ment­a­tion of a European cul­tur­al policy for cul­ture in the EU and beyond.

coöper­a­tion: Łaźnia Nowa Theatre / Uto­pia Home – Inter­na­tion­al Empathy Centre