The Wonders of Warsaw, 2007-08

Exhibitions, events, cultural animation, publications

The Wonders of Warsaw was a year long cultural animation project, a space for continuous exchange of experience, ideas and practices. Over 12 months, the project invited young artists and community groups to identify and celebrate local wonders with performances, installations and artworks set in different urban locations. The project acted as a mechanism to reveal and celebrate unusual and hidden aspects of everyday life – in which the observations of participants, their annotations, evocations and examinations provide a contemporary profile of the industrial, cultural and social heritage of any given area. The work was created through consultation and dialogue with interest groups and residents of an area – and with each other. It was temporary and experimental; it created content for actions in both gallery and non-gallery spaces and for a series of monthly performances called ‘Warsaw Breakfast’ held at the Theatre Institute; it created a new image of the people and their city, an alternative and intriguing ‘map’, with a different perspectives and local guides – which described something new, unexpected or extraordinary.

The work was gathered for a final city wide event - ‘PoWisle i Po Pradze’ - and a publication in April 2008. A secondary programme, The Wonders of Kaunas, was also developed with Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania as part of an ongoing cultural animation programme and exchange of skills and practice.

Partners: Institute of Polish Culture, University of Warsaw; Stowarzyszenie Katedra Kultury; Studnia O Storytelling Group, Appendix Dwa; Instytut Teatralny; School of Architecture, WUT.

Supported by European Commission programme Leonardo Da Vinci.

View Wonders publication