COME ALIGHT! Lightwork of the common good
Within this year’s edition of the project Synchronicity, the Bęc Zmiana Foundation alongside architects, researchers, artists and urban activists explores the theme of common spaces. On the one hand, we ask about the kind of communities that the contemporary city is able to generate, on the other, we are interested in the tension stemming from the conflict between the private and the public, between the right of ownership and the common good. In Warsaw, a city that still struggles with claims of former owners of land which became the city’s property by virtue of the Bierut Decree, this conflict is experienced particularly acutely. Therefore, what emerges is the question about the collective potential, about the form of community generated by specific sites of conflict – one of them is the Królikarnia Palace in Warsaw. Since 2008, the heirs of the Krasiński family have struggled to reclaim the land. The potential loss of the park and exhibition space by the city has prompted local residents, the audience of the museum and urban activists to act. Engaged in the defence of Królikarnia is Stowarzyszenie Warszawa Społeczna [Social Warsaw Society], a grassroots social movement of residents, employees and parents for education, family, public services and dignified work. Signatures are collected under the petition Let’s Save Królikarnia, the parks, schools, clinics and kindergartens of Mokotów.
The Bęc Zmiana Foundation is engaging in the defence of Królikarnia and the debate around urban common spaces by locating in the park four neon sign installations that refer to the present situation of the place. The neon sign is for us above all a symbol of urban dynamics, energy, colour and life shared by all city dwellers.
In their installation Natalia Romik and Sebastian Kucharek use the letters from the neon sign of the railway station Warszawa Gdańska. Its original version has preserved only the three initial letters WAR, which have been installed on the fence, while the rest of the damaged elements have been scattered by the artists in an expressive gesture around the sign. Also on display at Królikarnia is the neon sign Nowe Życie [New Life] from the 1970s, which Elżbieta Jabłońska came across in a village near Bydgoszcz on the premises of an agricultural cooperative. In the space of the park, this luminous inscription seems like a harbinger of the not entirely known future, as we don’t know the form that this New Life would adopt. In turn, in his work Lenistwo [Laziness] Szymon Kobylarz tapped into a series of eight luminous objects which are remnants of neon signs and labels. The artist preserved them in their original state, which gives the entire installation an abstract, nearly fluid form. Laziness at Królikarnia becomes an appeal for the right to leisure for all residents. Finally, the work by Hubert Czerepok Inherentne światło [Inherent Light], held on deposit by Królikarnia, uses neon sign pipes to visualise the research of Dr Tekin Dereli on the notion of supersymmetry in physics, which is a proposal of a new embrace of physical relations, different from the well known spatial-temporal symmetry. Located near the palace, Czerepok’s neon sign becomes a metaphor of the invisible yet incessantly conflicted set of urban forces, which artistic activities are able to reveal.
9.08 - 5.10.2014
Other events this month
COME ALIGHT! Lightwork of the common good
Within this year’s edition of the project Synchronicity, the Bęc Zmiana Foundation alongside architects, researchers, artists and urban activists explores the theme of...
Screening of the film "Neon"
Królikarnia invites everyone to watch the film Neon Neon tells the story of neon signs in Warsaw – relics of the days of the Polish People’s Republic. They are...