Networking meeting in Poland. Public event with Joanna Wawrzyniak and Paulina Olszewska

We keep moving on our journey of "Decolonising Cultures of Remembrance". Together with our project partners we are meeting in Poland to get deeper into the topic of decolonial work. We will explore it on different levels: how it is implemented in art, in the work of the museums, in the academic research, in collective practices and in daily activism. One of the inputs is by Joanna Wawrzyniak and Paulina Olszewska on "Duality of Decolonizing and Decolonial Currents in Curatorial Practice"

We will meet and learn together in Warsaw from 15th till 19th of October. The participants of the trip are project partners and also external people, with whom we want to work closely on the topic in the next year. We will collect the perspectives from Belarus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.

Inputs and public events

Most of our events are public. So, if you are in Warsaw or have friends/colleagues, who might be interested in joining our discussions on site, please, feel free to join or spread the word.

Duality of Decolonizing and Decolonial Currents in Curatorial Practice

Who: Joanna Wawrzyniak and Paulina Olszewska

When: 16th October (Thursday) 12:30-14:00

Where: MIT Space, Stalowa 36, Warsaw

On the dark background there is a title. Decolonising Cultures of Remembrance. Networking meeting. 16th October, 12:30-14:00, MIT Space, Stalowa 36, Warsaw
On the dark background there is a title. Offline public events. Series of public events with input and discussions on decolonial perspectives
On the dark background there is a text. Input Joanna Wawrzyniak. A sociologist and historian, specializes in East-Central European memory processes. Her current projects include research on memories of socialism, neoliberal transformation, and deindustrialization in Poland and contributions to collaborative research on cultural heritage and memory processes in Eastern Europe, Western Europe and East and South Asia. Joanna has long standing expertise in oral history and museum research.
Joanna Wawrzyniak. There is a picture of a smiling woman. She had shoulder long dark hair, she is wearing red earrings and smiling friendly. She is wearing a blue blouse.
On the dark background there is a text. Input Paulina Olszewska. An art curator, producer of artistic projects and author of texts. In her work, she focuses on work of female artists from different generations, embedding their practices in contemporary contexts. She is particularly interested in the Bauhaus heritage and its contemporary reinterpretations. Since 2019 she has been a curator of Galeria Studio in Warsaw. In 2022 she curated a project “The Future Should Always Be Better” by Sharon Lockhart, presented on the facade of the Palace of Culture and Science.
On the dark background there is a picture of a person - Paulina Olszewska. She has a pony, wears earrings and has a wide smile with white teeth visible. She is wearing a black shirt.
On the dark background there is a text On duality of decolonizing and decolonial currents in curatorial practice
On the dark background there is a summary of the event. 16th October, 12:30-14:00, Stalowa 36, Warsaw. There is a logo of Cultures of remembrance in the top right corner. There is a text: public event on Duality of decolonizing and decolonial curatorial practice with Joanna Wawrzyniak Paulina Olszewska

Estimated Work Amount

There is no prior reading or preparation required.

Barriers

All bodies, backgrounds, and levels of experience are welcome.

  • the venue MIT Space is located on the forth floor of an old building. To get there, you will have to climb rather steep wooden stairs. There is no elevator available. To get into the yard, you have to enter the code #1981# on the wooden door. Once you are in, go through the arch into the inner yard. There turn right to another entrance with three small stairs. The code to this door is #1410#. You can look through the instruction once again here if you have an instagram account https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE4MDE3MTA1MjQ5MTk5NzE5?story_media_id=3508296398101558357_66168615150&igsh=MXN4NDdscWJrM3VjZw==

Language

English spoken language.

Costs

The event is free of charge. If you feel like you want to support the project, feel free to donate though 🙂 E.g. on Betterplace with a click on the following link: https://www.betterplace.org/de/projects/85789-educat-e-v-politische-bildung-in-ostdeutschland

Facilitators

Joanna Wawrzyniak

Joanna Wawrzyniak, sociologist and historian, specializes in East-Central European memory processes. Her current projects include research on memories of socialism, neoliberal transformation, and deindustrialization in Poland and contributions to collaborative research on cultural heritage and memory processes in Eastern Europe, Western Europe and East and South Asia. Joanna has long standing expertise in oral history and museum research. She has published, among others, in Heritage and Society; Memory Studies; Contemporary European History; East European Politics and Societies; and Polish Sociological Review. Her books in English include co-edited Memory and Change in Europe: Eastern Perspectives (2016); co-authored The Enemy on Display: The Second World War in Eastern European Museums (2015); and Veterans, Victims and Memory: The Politics of the Second World War in Communist Poland (2015).Her most recent co-authored book in Polish Cięcia. Mówiona historia transformacji(Cuts: Oral History of Post-Socialism, Wyd. Krytyka Polityczna 2020) won an award of POLITYKA weekly for the best historical book of 2020.

Paulina Olszewska

Paulina Olszewska is a curator, producer of artistic projects and author of texts. In her work, she focuses on work of female artists from different generations, embedding their practices in contemporary contexts. She is particularly interested in the Bauhaus heritage and its contemporary reinterpretations. She collaborated with, among others, Neues Museum in Nuremberg, Jindřich Chalupecky Association in Prague, Prater Galerie in Berlin, OP ENHEIM in Wrocław, Haus am Lützowplatz in Berlin, Kunstfest Weimar, Boris Lurie Art Foundation in New York, BWA Wrocław and Krakauer Haus in Nuremberg. Since 2019 she has been a curator of Galeria Studio in Warsaw. In 2022 she curated a project “The Future Should Always Be Better” by Sharon Lockhart, presented on the facade of the Palace of Culture and Science. In 2024, together with the Feminist Seminar, she organised an exhibition “We Want the Whole Life. Feminisms in Polish Art” at the State Art Gallery in Sopot. She lives in Berlin and Warsaw.

Photo: Sisi Cecylia

Initiators

Educat – Educational Collective

Educat e.V. is a collective of education workers from Dresden, Rostock and Berlin, who do diversity- conscious and critical education, work on remembrance and emancipatory and experimental educational formats. Together with a lot of partners and comrades Educat is facilitating Cultures of Remembrance since 2021.

Project partners

The project has been carried and inspired by a huge network of comrades, activists, artists and educators. For the recent episode of “Cultures of Remembrance” together with Educat Collective, there is Art Platforma, Human Constanta, Prismatica and Solidarity Collectives involved as main partners.

Logo of prismatica. the word written in different colors.
Logo Human Constanta - white H with green and orange in it and the rest of the words written in purple.
art platforma logo - art in red, platforma written in black
in pink written letters QUEER, in black letters CAFE - Queer Cafe Logo

Cultures of remembrance