Artists to teach empathy in Nowa Huta

Małgorzata Wach: Was Nowa Huta a good place to cre­ate Uto­pia Home?

Małgorzata Szy­dłowska,  Dir­ect­or of Uto­pia Home – Inter­na­tion­al Empathy Centre: Perfect!

Why?

When people hear the word «uto­pia», they often think of some­thing unreal. Mean­while, uto­pia – as envi­sioned by Thomas More – is simply a good place to be. One based on justice, solid­ar­ity and equal­ity. The build­ing of Nowa Huta was based on sim­il­ar ideas. These were not just empty words. People were giv­en a chance to have a home of their own. It may not have been a per­fect one, but for many it was still a dream come true.

The key word in this pro­ject was, in my opin­ion, home.

Many people may claim that it was actu­ally «social­ism».

Nowa Huta was built under the aus­pices of the com­mun­ist gov­ern­ment, but the build­ers were not inspired by the idea of social­ism. In my opin­ion, most of them worked because someone prom­ised them their own home.

Among the people who built it were those who had lost entire fam­il­ies dur­ing the war, repat­ri­ates from the East, and the inhab­it­ants of poor vil­lages who were giv­en the chance to escape poverty. At one point there were 30,000 people build­ing the dis­trict, and most of them remained in Nowa Huta. Today their chil­dren and grand­chil­dren live here and they think it is a great place to be. Many of them can­not ima­gine liv­ing elsewhere.

It is worth adding that last year the Brit­ish news­pa­per «The Guard­i­an» ranked Nowa Huta as the best dis­trict to live in Europe.

Let’s talk about Uto­pia Home – the Inter­na­tion­al Empathy Centre, which was estab­lished in the Szkolne 26 dis­trict. What will it be like?

It was pre­vi­ously one of the wings of Elec­tric­al School Com­plex No 2, which closed due to a demo­graph­ic decline. The build­ing remained empty for many years. 

We pro­posed obtain­ing EU fund­ing to allow us to revital­ise it, so that it could serve the needs of the inhab­it­ants. This is how the idea for the Inter­na­tion­al Empathy Centre was born.

We felt that this was the right place to pro­mote and devel­op this idea.

Why?

The idea of empathy and art has accom­pan­ied Bar­tosz and I since we began our artist­ic activ­it­ies, which was over 25 years ago. The theatres we cre­ated, first in Kraków’s Kazi­mierz dis­trict and later in Nowa Huta, were not theatres in the tra­di­tion­al sense of the word. From the very begin­nings we thought of them as places where cul­ture as it is broadly under­stood could involve the loc­al res­id­ents. They hos­ted not only per­form­ances, but also con­certs, per­form­ances with crowd par­ti­cip­a­tion, film screen­ings, lit­er­ary meet­ings, dis­cus­sions and much more.

Over time, Łaźnia Nowa became a muni­cip­al theatre. Its main task was the pro­duc­tion of plays. Oth­er pro­jects, obvi­ously, had to take a back seat. We began to carry some of them out dur­ing an event known as Bulwar[t] Sztuki («Art Boulevard»).

Tell us about this project.

Since 2016, over a two sum­mer month peri­od, we organ­ised nearly a hun­dred dif­fer­ent cul­tur­al events at the Nowa Huta Reser­voir – from per­form­ances to con­certs, film screen­ings, lit­er­ary meet­ings and work­shops. The pan­dem­ic thwarted our plans last year, but we still man­aged to pro­duce a sig­ni­fic­ant part of the pro­gramme. We did it in the safe space of Łaźnia Nowa’s garden. Bulwar[t] is addressed mainly to adults, but we also have some­thing to offer chil­dren and teenagers.

You could say that in a sense Uto­pia Home con­tin­ues the idea of Bulwar[t] through­out the year, yet at the same time offer­ing some­thing more.

What do you mean?

It will be the first place in Nowa Huta to offer artist­ic res­id­en­cies, includ­ing the facil­it­ies for artists» stu­di­os. It will be a place for the inhab­it­ants of Nowa Huta to meet artists, ama­teurs with pro­fes­sion­als from not just dif­fer­ent parts of Poland but also from around the world.

Who will stay at Uto­pia Home?

Primar­ily artists rep­res­ent­ing vari­ous fields of art, includ­ing theatre dir­ect­ors, cho­reo­graph­ers, musi­cians, visu­al artists and per­formers, those who are inter­ested in inter­ac­tion, the clashes between concept and real­ity. Togeth­er with the inhab­it­ants of Nowa Huta, we will seek answers to the ques­tions: what is the role of art today, do humans still need it? If yes, then what should it be nowadays, such that it can become part of every­day life?

I would like the works cre­ated as part of the res­id­ency to be deeply rooted in Nowa Huta, res­ult­ing from the spa­tial arrange­ments, his­tory and meet­ings with inhab­it­ants, so that the artists under­stand what is import­ant for the people who live in Nowa Huta today.

Sounds uto­pi­an.

The search for deep­er ties between art and every­day life is an inter­est­ing cur­rent trend that is devel­op­ing all over the world.

One might say that Uto­pia Home is a return to the roots of the Łaźnia?

The idea is the same, but it’s some­where that’s burst­ing with new energy.

We would like Uto­pia Home to become an artist­ic think tank, an exchange of com­pet­ences between the view­er and the artist. The inhab­it­ants of Nowa Huta, loc­al non-gov­ern­ment­al organ­isa­tions as well as artists who can find here a place for their activities.

The key words while think­ing about this place are: home, dia­logue and trust.

In our activ­it­ies we attempt to refer to the his­tory of Nowa Huta, but doing so in a cre­at­ive way. These ref­er­ences to his­tory are evid­ent both in the design of the interi­or and the façade of the build­ing, which com­prises, for example, steel and large win­dows offer­ing views of the Nowa Huta Reser­voir. Steel refers to the his­tory of the Conglomerate.

What exactly does the Uto­pia Home build­ing comprise?

Uto­pia Home has four floors, which at the level of ideas can be described as: act­ing, think­ing, empath­ising and living.

There will be, for example, craft and mul­ti­me­dia stu­di­os, meet­ing rooms, as well as a fit­ness room and apart­ments for residents.

Uto­pia Home will also fea­ture a usable roof with a min­im­al­ist garden and fountain.

Let us add that this will not be an ordin­ary fountain.

That’s true. This will be the «Foun­tain of the Future» from 2014, the fig­ure of a pee­ing Len­in, about which the for­eign press has writ­ten so much.

I won­der how fit­ness rooms could be con­nec­ted with artist­ic activities?

The concept of the space in Uto­pia Home refers to a hol­ist­ic vis­ion of human beings and their devel­op­ment. It com­bines spir­itu­al and intel­lec­tu­al devel­op­ment with an aware­ness of the body and its con­di­tion. The aware­ness of shap­ing the qual­ity of life should be a very import­ant ele­ment of artists» meet­ings with the inhab­it­ants of Nowa Huta. We will seek deep­er ties between art and every­day life.

There is no con­tra­dic­tion with the artist­ic activ­it­ies here. On the con­trary, I believe that move­ment can stim­u­late cre­at­ive activities.

We want to devel­op a new lan­guage of art. Uto­pia Home is about to become a kind of labor­at­ory for new aes­thet­ic val­ues, atti­tudes and rela­tion­ships. It is to intro­duce ele­ments of every­day life into con­tem­por­ary art in such a way that the two spheres intermingle.

Let us return for a moment to Len­in and the Foun­tain of the Future, which will be loc­ated on the roof of Uto­pia Home. Where does this idea come from?

The fig­ure of a pee­ing Len­in fits per­fectly with the concept of a uto­pi­an project.

It is a meta­phor that reminds us that we should read Nowa Huta anew. It can­not be con­stantly talked about as a rel­ic of the Pol­ish People’s Repub­lic, which serves as a con­stant remainder of the idea of social­ism, the Len­in monu­ment and the Conglomerate.

The Len­in monu­ment is asso­ci­ated with an oppress­ive régime, but by tak­ing a humor­ous approach we give it new mean­ing. Pre­tend­ing that it is not a part of Nowa Huta’s his­tory makes no sense. The more we pre­tend that some­thing does not exist, the more it affects our lives. The pee­ing Len­in is a meta­phor for break­ing free from the old trau­mas. It shows that we can tame the demons of history.

One of the first decisions you made dur­ing the renov­a­tion of the build­ing was to remove the fence. Why?

I want Uto­pia Home to become an open place. One that the people of Nowa Huta can vis­it dur­ing a cas­u­al walk, to sit on a bench, enter the build­ing, read a book, drink a cof­fee, or have a con­ver­sa­tion. Such a vis­it does not have to be con­nec­ted with a spe­cif­ic activ­ity or work­shop. Fen­cing is a kind of bar­ri­er. It is inher­ently a phys­ic­al bar­ri­er, but in some way it also becomes a men­tal bar­ri­er. It sig­nals that the build­ing has a strictly defined func­tion and is there­fore only access­ible to a select few.

You men­tioned that the key word in think­ing about this place is the word «home». What does that mean?

When cre­at­ing this place, I was guided from the begin­ning by the slo­gans: «A home where you can feel. A home where you can think. A home where you can act».

Home is a very spe­cif­ic kind of place in space. The point from which we set off and return. In my opin­ion, it is primar­ily a place to build relationships.

It is not only a phys­ic­al space, but also an emo­tion­al one. A space where people come togeth­er and build a com­munity, which can­not hap­pen without empathy. I believe that empathy is the one con­di­tion for cre­at­ing a home where we feel com­fort­able and safe. Without it, home is just a place. Like many oth­er places.

On the oth­er hand, a home should inspire, be a place for indi­vidu­al cre­ation, as Oskar Hansen used to say: «Be an effect­ive tool for visu­al impact».

How do you under­stand this?

Uto­pia Home is inten­ded to provide users with a vari­ety of exper­i­ences, but also to give them the feel­ing that they are co-cre­at­ors of this place, to which they can con­trib­ute their energy and ideas. That they can leave their own mark there. All «house­hold mem­bers» can enjoy equal rights dur­ing their visit.

Hansen’s vis­ion of the «Open Form» was at the heart of the think­ing about the per­spect­ive of devel­op­ment for this place. It is primar­ily about stim­u­lat­ing the ima­gin­a­tion. Show­ing that flex­ib­il­ity in space can be an area of human development.

In the his­tory of Nowa Huta, there have already been such innov­at­ive pro­jects in which all the «house­hold mem­bers» had equal rights. It can be said that the whole of Nowa Huta was such a pro­ject but, as we know, the pur­suit of this vis­ion ended in failure.

I think one of the reas­ons for this fail­ure was the pro­pa­ganda that pro­moted shock work­ers, which is con­trary to the idea of per­son­al rest after work. People wanted time for them­selves, they wanted a space that was purely private, not shared.

Before the renov­a­tion began, the build­ing served as a school of sorts.

That’s true. In Feb­ru­ary 2017, the pro­ject «School of Uto­pia» was launched in aban­doned classrooms, where the cre­at­ors were Marek Chlanda and his son Marcin.

Marek is a visu­al artist. Mar­cin is a stage design­er. Over sev­er­al months the former school space was trans­formed from a vacant build­ing into an object of research, mater­i­al for recyc­ling, an idea. A year later, Mag­da Szpecht dir­ec­ted the play «The Last Anim­als» in this space. So it can be said that the build­ing has been a liv­ing place since we took it over, not since the renov­a­tion began.

The visu­al con­cepts of Mark Chlanda and his son were used, for example, in the spa­cial arrange­ment of Uto­pia Home.

The first pro­ject you ini­ti­ated 16 years ago in Łaźnia Nowa was called «I live here». What will be the first pro­ject for Uto­pia Home?

In 2004 the inhab­it­ants of Nowa Huta were encour­aged to bring items that were of spe­cial import­ance to them to Łaźnia and to tell stor­ies related to them. Based on these stor­ies, five one-act plays were cre­ated and com­bined into a per­form­ance dir­ec­ted by Jacek Papis and entitled: «I live here».

For the first pro­ject at Uto­pia Home we invited ama­teur act­ors from Nowa Huta, who have been work­ing with Łaźnia since its incep­tion. So we can say that in a sense we will repeat the invit­a­tion from 16 years ago. The pro­ject will be titled «Archae­ology of Every­day Life» and per­man­ently included in the pro­gramme of Uto­pia Home.

Can we dis­cuss it?

In the Archae­ology of Every­day Life – as the name sug­gests – we will emphas­ise the dis­cov­ery of every­day life. Find­ing in it new meanings.

The pro­gramme will include work­shops in artist­ic stu­di­os, but an import­ant ele­ment will also be going out into the city, meet­ing people who live here, then cre­at­ing joint pro­jects and art install­a­tions that will become a per­man­ent ele­ment of the land­scape of Nowa Huta.

I don’t want to say too much about what will hap­pen in the first instal­ment of Archae­ology, because the activ­ity is sup­posed to surprise. 

Anoth­er import­ant pro­ject of Uto­pia Home will be the Uni­ver­sity of Look­ing Through Theatre.

Who will be the teach­ers and the stu­dents of this university?

We will use the exper­i­ence gathered, from Łaźnia over the 16 years of its exist­ence. Dur­ing this time, almost 600 artists have con­trib­uted to its pro­jects: act­ors, dir­ect­ors, stage design­ers, cho­reo­graph­ers, musi­cians, light­ing dir­ect­ors, and so on. Among them were such well-known names as Krys­ti­an Lupa, Jan Peszek and Jerzy Stuhr, but also very young artists who had only just begun their careers.

We want to use the poten­tial and know­ledge of these people to cre­ate a place for the exchange of exper­i­ences in the field of theatre craft. Expand­ing this concept in the con­text of con­tem­por­ary art and new ways of com­mu­nic­at­ing with the viewer.

What will such classes be like?

Łaźnia has fant­ast­ic tech­nic­al facil­it­ies for using the­at­ric­al facil­it­ies. We are going to make use of them. The «stu­dents» of the Uni­ver­sity of Look­ing Through Theatre will not only gain the­or­et­ic­al know­ledge about the vari­ous artist­ic activ­it­ies and the pro­cess of cre­at­ing per­form­ances, but will also learn how these pro­cesses are implemented.

The cur­riculum of the Uni­ver­sity of Look­ing Through Theatre will be aimed primar­ily at stage design­ers, cos­tume design­ers, light­ing and video engin­eers, cho­reo­graph­ers, ward­robe assist­ants, prop makers, grips, as well as pro­du­cers and stage man­agers. The intern­ship will be open to every­one, depend­ing on their interest in any giv­en field. We will start slowly and gradu­ally expand our activ­it­ies. Everything depends on what fin­an­cial sup­port we can get from the city to carry out these plans.

I under­stand that for this uni­ver­sity the «stu­dents» will primar­ily be people who are already act­ive in the world of theatre and would like to broaden their knowledge?

Oth­ers will be able to join as well. People who love theatre who are not dir­ectly involved in theatre will also be able to take advant­age of the uni­versity’s work­shops and meet­ings. They will learn, for example, that theatre pro­duc­tions are not made by «magic», but by the efforts of spe­cif­ic people using pro­cesses that can be defined.

I believe that these pro­cesses should be open and access­ible. In this way, the audi­ence gains know­ledge that makes them more con­scious receiv­ers of art.

Can we reveal some names of lec­tur­ers of the Uni­ver­sity of Look­ing Through Theatre?

We will not lim­it ourselves to theatre only. The list of our lec­tur­ers will also include cur­at­ors con­nec­ted with Bulwar[t] Sztuki. The list includes Łukasz Maciejew­ski, who runs the Pol­ish Film Academy, cine­ma­to­graph­er and dir­ect­or Mar­cin Kosz­a­łka, dir­ect­or Michał Buszewicz, who runs a stage for young people, and Domin­ik Strycharski, who is a musi­cian and com­poser of theatre music.

We will also invite to Uto­pia Home experts from fields that are not dir­ectly related to art. Such as sci­ent­ists, philo­soph­ers and spe­cial­ists in new tech­no­lo­gies. I believe that theatre should go bey­ond its own frame­work and res­on­ate with what is cur­rently hap­pen­ing in the world, in a much broad­er context.

Uto­pia Home also has stu­di­os for artist­ic crafts, such as ceram­ics, uphol­stery and tail­or­ing. Who will run these workshops?

The instruct­ors will include both theatre crafts­men and artists who use crafts for cre­at­ive activities.

Those who take part in the work­shops can learn, for example, how cer­tain artist­ic tech­niques may be applied to domest­ic needs. They can learn not only how to make their own table­ware and orna­ment­al prints, or sew cur­tains or a sofa bed­spread, but also dis­cov­er what con­tem­por­ary art is all about and that they too can be its co-creators.

The work­shops will also be open to people with motor, visu­al and hear­ing impair­ments, as well as those with intel­lec­tu­al disabilities.

How does the space at Uto­pia Home dif­fer from that of Łaźnia Nowa?

Cre­at­ing Łaźnia and adapt­ing it to the needs of the theatre was a com­pletely dif­fer­ent pro­cess. We star­ted to func­tion there while the build­ing was in ruins. We trans­formed the space gradu­ally, sim­ul­tan­eously car­ry­ing out artist­ic activities.

Uto­pia Home is a whole new space. We began the trans­form­a­tion with a renov­a­tion. Although – as we have already men­tioned – there were also artist­ic activ­it­ies that pre­ceded this renovation.

Łaźnia Nowa clearly evokes the atmo­sphere of the Pol­ish People’s Repub­lic. It con­tains, for example, fur­niture and arte­facts from that peri­od. Uto­pia Home does not evoke this atmosphere.

The Uto­pia Home build­ing is not a his­tor­ic one. It has a com­pletely dif­fer­ent vibe. The func­tions of the rooms are also dif­fer­ent. Above all, there is no theatre stage.

In design­ing this place, I tried to ensure that both the inhab­it­ants of Nowa Huta and the artists who come from dif­fer­ent parts of the world feel com­fort­able there.

This place is inten­ded to con­nect the past, present and future. That is why the ques­tion of what kind of a place Nowa Huta is today is so import­ant to me. Who are the people who live in Nowa Huta today? Why did they decide to stay or live here? What are their expect­a­tions of this place? What do they miss, what do they dream about?

After 16 years in Nowa Huta, I still believe that it has a lot to offer. Kraków can envy Nowa Huta not only its green spaces, but also loc­al act­iv­ists and thriv­ing NGOs.

It was the act­iv­ists and NGO rep­res­ent­at­ives you invited to Uto­pia Home in the first place. Even before the offi­cial opening.

I believe these people are Nowa Huta’s great asset. They have a real impact not only on how the dis­trict looks, but also on what is import­ant for it. When we cre­ated Uto­pia Home, we wanted the NGOs to find here a space for their own activ­it­ies. We are already think­ing about the first joint pro­jects. I hope the city will sup­port these initiatives.

Aren’t you afraid that Uto­pia Home’s dis­tance from the centre of Kraków might mean that it becomes a place only where the cit­izens of Nowa Huta and the artists you invite will be active?

When Bar­tosz and I star­ted cre­at­ing Łaźnia in 2005, we felt that Nowa Huta was an island which would con­demn us to artist­ic isol­a­tion. And this is what actu­ally happened. For the first four years, Kraków was far from us, but when the Inter­na­tion­al Theatre Fest­iv­al Divine Com­edy appeared on the hori­zon, of which Bar­tosz is the artist­ic dir­ect­or, that dis­tance ceased to mat­ter. Sud­denly we were vis­ited not only by people from Kraków, but also by the most out­stand­ing theatre artists from all over Poland.

I believe that thanks to innov­at­ive pro­jects, Uto­pia Home will also become an import­ant place on the cul­tur­al map of Poland, and the artists who come here will appre­ci­ate the cre­at­ive poten­tial of Nowa Huta and its inhabitants.

The cul­min­a­tion of the joint activ­it­ies at Uto­pia Home will be the «Nowa Huta Bien­nale». What lies behind this name?

We will reveal the details of this pro­ject in the autumn, when we present the DU pro­gramme. For now I will only say that we want to organ­ise an inter­na­tion­al fest­iv­al every two years, inten­ded to present the effects of the work by artists and the cit­izens who work with them. The people of Nowa Huta will host this event.

The themes of the fest­iv­al will be very var­ied – from simple stor­ies of every­day life, describ­ing life and ini­ti­at­ives ori­gin­at­ing from the blocks of flats, to large artist­ic pro­jects, which I hope will get a lot of pub­li­city and not only in Poland.

The inhab­it­ants of Nowa Huta, under the guid­ance of pro­fes­sion­al artists, will pre­pare plays, films, exhib­i­tions and vari­ous types of per­form­ance art. We will not lim­it our actions solely to the build­ing of Uto­pia Home. We will also appear in the city space.

We hope that the Nowa Huta Bien­nale will attract not only the inhab­it­ants of Nowa Huta, but also vis­it­ors from elsewhere.

How can you be sure that the inhab­it­ants of Nowa Huta will want to get involved in your artist­ic activities?

From the very begin­ning we’ve tried to involve loc­al people in Łaźni­a’s activ­it­ies, such as the idea to involve ama­teur act­ors in our per­form­ances. At the same time we ini­ti­ated a num­ber of artist­ic and social actions, which are still bear­ing fruit today. Some of the act­iv­ists men­tioned earli­er became infec­ted with a pas­sion for social action dur­ing the «Łaźnioak­ty­wni» project.

People who are not very famil­i­ar with the his­tory of Nowa Huta asso­ci­ate it mainly with the Con­glom­er­ate and work­ers. It is still little known that Nowa Huta was home to many artist­ic activ­it­ies. In the 1950s, the first ama­teur theatre oper­ated at the Szkolne 25 dis­trict, the address where Łaźnia is situ­ated today. It was called the Nurt Theatre and was cre­ated by the work­ers who were build­ing Nowa Huta. Togeth­er they built a block which could accom­mod­ate over 200 people. They sac­ri­ficed their free time to do so. The group was led by Jan Kur­czab, who was also Nurt’s artist­ic dir­ect­or. The per­form­ances were so pop­u­lar that there were not enough seats available.

There were many more such ini­ti­at­ives in Nowa Huta in the 1950s.

That’s true. I think we should remind people of the theatres, cinemas, cul­tur­al centres and artists who settled and cre­ated in this area. After all, courses in graph­ic design, the plastic arts and sculp­ture were organ­ised here. There were bal­let and recit­a­tion troupes. In the sum­mer, film screen­ings and dance parties were organ­ised with­in the city, with musi­cians from Nowa Huta. Many young men from the Vol­un­tary Work Corps atten­ded classes with stu­dents of the Academy of Fine Arts.

We want to recall this part of his­tory and refer to it in our activ­it­ies.  In order to do so, we have, for example, signed an agree­ment for coöper­a­tion between the Academy of Fine Arts and Uto­pia Home.

What do you expect from this place?

I would like to make use of all the exper­i­ence that Bar­tosz and I have gained in Nowa Huta and else­where. Nearly thirty years of work­ing in theatre shows me that there is a need for cre­at­ive activ­ity in every human being. When we’re chil­dren, it seems nat­ur­al. Unfor­tu­nately, school does­n’t encour­age us to devel­op this need. Later on we are con­stantly busy and we simply for­get about the things we once dreamt about. Someone wanted to paint or make ceram­ics, someone else wanted to write poetry or short stor­ies, yet anoth­er per­son wanted to try his or her hand at theatre. With time, most of these people decide that art is only for artists, while the rest are doomed to a mundane every­day life.

Uto­pia Home will try to remove this ste­reo­typ­ic­al think­ing about art. It will not be a place solely for artists. The pleas­ure of art will be avail­able here for any­one who feels a need to enjoy it. I believe that the num­ber of people will­ing to vis­it will be much high­er than the num­ber of places we will be able to provide.

Małgorzata Szy­dłowska – stage design­er, Łaźnia Nowa Theatre’s Deputy Dir­ect­or for the­at­ric­al pro­duc­tions, Dir­ect­or of Uto­pia Home – Inter­na­tion­al Empathy Centre. She is a gradu­ate of stage design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków She is also an author of an innov­at­ive concept of rebuild­ing and adapt­ing the post-indus­tri­al space of rooms that once belonged to a loc­al school for the needs of the Łaźnia Nowa Theatre and arran­ging its interi­ors and stages. She has cre­ated stage design and cos­tumes for dozens of per­form­ances in drama, opera and music theatres in Poland and abroad. She cre­ates art install­a­tions, exhib­i­tions and mul­ti­me­dia pro­jects. The ori­gin­at­or and cur­at­or of the edu­ca­tion­al series «Myśląca ręka» («Think­ing Hand»), car­ried out at the Juli­usz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków. Cur­at­or and author of the arrange­ment of the exhib­i­tion «Think­ing Hand», presen­ted at the House of Theatre Crafts in Kraków.