We are pleased to inform that the International
Visual Art Festival Alternativa, honored with the tittle of the “revelation of the year” in the culture ranking of the portal Trojmiasto.pl, as well as the
Solidarity Camp - prepared as a part of Alternativa - placed itself among the ‘hits’ of
Polish Presidency of the European Union, according to
Roman Pawłowski’s listing made for
Gazeta Wyborcza (leading Polish newspaper).
Trójmiasto.pl
Does anyone have doubts that postindustrial shipyard areas in Gdańsk are perfect place for contemporary art? With this new and fresh festival- Alternativa, Szyłak/ Klaman duet prooved again that they have plenty of good ideas how to arrange this seemingly lifeless grounds of the Gdańsk Shipyard with contemporary art- as well as in Wyspa Institute of Art, in Hall 90B, and also in between them by organizing the Subjective Bus Line, thanks to which we can have a close-up view on the post-industrial areas. (AL)
Gazeta Wyborcza
Undoubtedly the heaviest project of the Polish Presidency. Wyspa Institute of Art and the New Theatre from Warsaw sent on a trip around Europe five steel houses from the Gdansk Shipyard, each weighing several tons. Once they used to function as a place of rest and conspiracy for the Shipyard workers, now became a mobile venue for exibitions, concerts and meetings devoted to heritage of Polish revolution of 1980. The strenght of the project consisted on the clash of art, politics and personal experience of history. On the one hand installation by Marek Sobczyk "Soliterność" bringing up the subject of former activists of "Solidarity", who after 1989 did not enter the political elites, on the other hand meeting with Henryka Krzywonos, who talks to the Spanish public about the strike in Gdańsk, while cooking the soup after the recipe of the times of the war. Question about solidarity proved to be significant in the context of today’s crisis, which Europe is experiencing. (RP)