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. 

24.09.2021

17:00–18.45

 „Seduct­ive or fright­en­ing? The gentri­fic­a­tion and revital­iz­a­tion of con­tem­por­ary cit­ies of Poland, Ger­many and Austria”

speak­ers: 

Robert Huber

Chris­ti­an Hanus

Jacek Gądecki

mod­er­at­or – Michał Wiśniewski

With­in the last four dec­ades, cit­ies in Europe saw a dra­mat­ic shift in the eco­nomy and social life. De-indus­tri­al­iz­a­tion pushed the entire met­ro­pol­it­an area into a new dir­ec­tion of eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment based on ser­vices, high mobil­ity and fre­quent change. Forced to com­pete for invest­ments and tour­ists, cit­ies star­ted to build their brands and devel­op their vis­ib­il­ity. One of the res­ults of this mod­el was linked with the rise of the real estate mar­ket and deep changes in the social struc­ture of his­tor­ic city centres. The postin­dus­tri­al trans­form­a­tion that occurred in West­ern Europe already dur­ing the 1980s today plays a cru­cial role in the devel­op­ment of Cent­ral and East­ern European cit­ies as well. The city of Krakow with its still grow­ing tour­ism mar­ket and its highly gentri­fied city centre is the per­fect place for research and obser­va­tion ded­ic­ated to the res­ults of postin­dus­tri­al change and the con­tem­por­ary mod­el of city devel­op­ment. The pan­el aims to dis­cuss the nature of this change and look at Nowa Huta as a place that – des­pite its prox­im­ity to Krakow city centre – has still kept its genu­ine fla­vour of the 1950s indus­tri­al set­tle­ment. The guest speak­ers will dis­cuss case stud­ies from Ger­many and Aus­tria as well as the changes that have taken place in the life of Nowa Huta so far.

18:45–20:30

„Bil­bao Effect – Nowa Huta”

speak­er: 

José Miguel Fernán­dez Güell

mod­er­at­or – Diego Llorente Domínguez

The steel industry was the eco­nom­ic base of both Bil­bao and Nowa Huta, a risky bet on the basis of which both cit­ies were con­sol­id­ated and a cause of their prob­lems in times of lower demand in the sector.The urb­an plan­ner Jose Miguel Güell, a key ele­ment of the Bil­bao Stra­tegic Plan – togeth­er with the Span­ish archi­tect Diego Llorente liv­ing in Poland – will try to explain the reas­ons why the „Bil­bao Effect” is a glob­al bench­mark in con­tem­por­ary urb­an planning.Jose Miguel Güell will be able to explain first-hand how this ambi­tious plan was con­ceived from the very begin­ning and what its effects are today.We will ana­lyze the con­sequences that each decision in the urb­an area has for our cit­ies and there­fore for our lives. How the chosen mod­el, its mis­takes and suc­cesses determ­ine the iden­tity of the city and ours.

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