In the air, on land and at sea.
Curator, arrangement: Jakub Woynarowski75 years ago the Sejm adopted a plan for the construction of the Central Industrial District – the largest Polish investment of the interwar period, which permanently changed Poland’s economic image.
The noble idea behind the originators and builders of the CID and the perseverance with which it was implemented continues to inspire to this day. Also artists who, drawing on the past, translate it into the language of modern art.
The new exhibition in the Regional Museum, designed by Jakub Woynarowski, who comes from Stalowa Wola, refers to issues connected with the history of the Central Industrial District, being at the same time an attempt at its commemoration and remembrance. It is an old idea presented in an innovative form of thoroughly contemporary works and installations.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication – a comic book – as a thematic supplement to the exhibition, related to the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Central Industrial District.
The starting point for the exhibition are themes related to the history of the Central Industrial District and Stalowa Wola – the last of the Polish cities that were designed and built from scratch before 1939.
Although the concepts of pre-war architects have already passed into history, they still attract attention today for their modern solutions, skillfully combining the vision of an ecological garden city with that of a high-class industrial center, in line with the military strategy of that time. The location of the settlement in the middle of the forest not only enhanced the aesthetic of the living space but also facilitated camouflage in the event of an enemy attack. A noteworthy fact with symbolic significance is that before the war, every family in Stalowa Wola could have access to both a radio receiver and an air raid shelter.
Thus, two fundamental threads intertwine in the history of Stalowa Wola, which can also be symbolically related to the global history of human civilization: the confrontation of wild nature with modern technology and the clash of technological utopia with the war machine. This struggle of elements is aptly captured by the concise phrase from a pre-war slogan: “In the air, on land, and at sea.” These words resonate with the timeless ambition of humankind to dominate the world, as well as the threat posed by the uncontrollable non-human forces.
In the framework of the exhibition, this tension is expressed through graphic narration that utilizes abstract symbolism – similar to how El Lissitzky did in his pre-war suprematist tale “About Two Squares,” which tells the story of the struggle between the “new” and the “old,” as well as the confrontation between a well-known reality and the unknown that emerges from a new order.
Jakub Woynarowski (1982) – illustrator, designer, independent curator; he creates films, animations, installations, and engages in site-specific projects in urban spaces. He is the author of experimental comics (Hikikomori, Historia Ogrodów, Maszyny samotnicze, Gizela 1989). He lives and works in Krakow. He studied at the Faculty of Graphic Arts (graduating from the Animation Studio of Professor Jerzy Kucia in 2007) and at the Intermedia Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow; he currently teaches in the Narrative Drawing Studio. His works have been published in magazines such as Lampa, Ha!art, Autoportret, Exclusiv, POKA POKA, as well as on websites like Art Bazaar, Liternet, and Piana Magazine. He co-created the graphic novel Soldiers (with Juliusz Strachota) and authored the album Manggha based on essays by Feliks Jasieński, as well as the booklet The Story of Gardens, published by the Latvian publisher Kuš! He participated in experimental film projects, including those by Wilhelm Sasnal (Opad) and Zenon Fajfer (Primum Mobile). He is a member of the film think tank RESTART and has authored theoretical works on story art, publishing in Ha!art, MOCAK Forum, and Tygodnik Powszechny. He curated the Orbis Pictus project and co-organized the Short Stories fair. He has collaborated with TVP Kultura, F2F TV, MFK in Łódź, MFKK Ligatura in Poznań, the Małopolska Institute of Culture, the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology, the National Museum in Krakow, and the Ha!art Corporation.
The exhibition will be open to visitors from September 30 to October 28, 2012.
Galeria Warsztat, ul. Hutnicza 17 (exhibition building “COP for the Future”)
Open: Tuesday 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM; Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM; Sunday 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM; closed Monday and Saturday.
For additional information:
Joanna Wójcik
jwojcik@muzeum.stalowawola.pl
tel. 15 844 85 56
