BIP ERASMUS KRAKOW / schedule and map for participants

The schedule and map for participants are updated on an ongoing basis.
Participants will receive more detailed information by e-mail.
Dear participants, Please check this website and your mailboxes regularly.

You will soon receive (e-mail):

• A complete / detailed schedule
• A detailed description of the City Tour
• A description of the workshop theme
• Other relevant information

BIP CONCEPT

The city of Kraków, former capital of Poland has a distinct individuality and a rich history. It is a common tourist destination with records of well over 14 million individual visits per year. If we consider tourism as the industry of perception, then its product – mass produced individual memory – has a certain profile. First, the perception of the city by its guests is bound to somewhat schematic, point-to-point programs. These idiosyncratically include the Main Square (Rynek), the Jewish Neighborhood (Kazimierz), the Royal Castle (Wawel) and – possibly –excursions to the medieval salt mines (Wieliczka) and the German concentration camp (Auschwitz). Secondly, just as “history is written by the victor”, historical tours are made by the present. History and its tours are maps that show and validate, exclude, and omit. Thus, the first step in experiencing the city in a less algorithmic way is to look past the standard rhetoric and into its dualities. There might be further steps, but this BIP program proposes this first one:

Experience Krakow’s dualities

One could speculate that Kraków’s personality was always split. Examples:

• the parallel existence of the Jewish and Gentile cities for the best part of the last millennium,

• the urbanization of the Podgórze area, corresponding to the Austro-Hungarian occupation and the Industrial Revolution,

• the addition of the utopian satellite city of Nowa Huta, designed from scratch and build during communist times.

The cities dualities are not bound to these three directions. When creative and reflective practice comes into play, many other perspectives can be imagined or searched for. These reverberate into the psyche of its visitors, its inhabitants and into the fabric of its culture. Charting them alone could be a research field. Furthermore, it is not clear whether deep knowledge and connection to Kraków are assets or hinderances: coming from outside the phenomenon will provide new, unique viewpoints. It is clear that a multilayered nature leads to multiple memories and histories, which in turn results in contested histories, mobile histories, the contestation of memory and finally into the political instrumentalisation of memory. It is clear that the memory of the city consists of distinct yet coexisting layers. One of the forms of this coexistance is embodied in artistic practice. Your open discussion about the basis and methodology of artistic practice and research is the main expected outcome of our week-long meeting. We invite you to explore these topics, together with our students and lecturers during an intense, five-day program in Kraków, from 27 to 31 May 2024.

A MAP OF THE LOCATIONS

• pink / our studio Karmelicka 15 and welcome dinner
• purple (dog footprints) / most important WalkingTalk places (chronological numbering in the name)
• navy blue / list of selected Krakow museums and galleries

CONTACT

Project Manager: Bogdan Achimescu / bachimescu@asp.krakow.pl

Organizer from our PhD Student Union: Natalia Mecnarowska-Legutko / nlegutko@asp.krakow.pl