Social Museum in Wola

Students of the Culture Animation specialisation took part in a community and art project by Krzysztof Żwirblis – the Social Museum the aim of which was the integration of residents of the block between the Wolska, Skierniewicka and Płocka streets in Warsaw. 

The action was yet another instalment of the format that Krzysztof Żwirblis has been executing in different communities across Poland and abroad.

Żwirblis has assumed that everyone, every resident constitutes a personal museum, has his or her own story and keepsakes and his or her passions, hobbies or art work (whether on an amateur or professional level) and can show us around it or share even a small part of it with others.

The artists together with his team is creating a framework for residents’ activities. The most important element of the project is establishing contact permitting the making of a film about a given neihbourhood and its resident, consisting primarily of interviews. The topic of the interviews are the personal histories of the project participants, the places where they live and their creative activities. The film is later screened on a big screen set up in the neighbourhood, which on one hand elevates the significance of a personal story and on the other hand it is the application of public space to express one’s own content. If weather allows, open-air art workshops are organised for children and youth which also facilitates establishing contacts with the residents.

Usually, the interactions lead to such a degree of trust in the organisers that the project recipients lend their keepsakes, work, photographs and documents to be displayed at an exhibition held at the end of the project. The final event is advertised and open to the general public. The final evening event begins with a screening of the film made at a space whose selected elements are illuminated, and after the screening everyone visits the exhibition staged in open air as well.

More about the project:

https://zacheta.art.pl/pl/kalendarz/akcja-2

Time: April-May 2012

Venue: Warsaw, Wola

Collaboration: Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Chair of Culture Association