2019-10-10

Memory of Water EU 2nd Artistic Residency in Gdansk, Poland 14-19 October.

This 2nd Artistic Residency, which takes place in Gdansk will be hosted by R//C member - the Baltic Sea Cultural Centre (NCK). Residency is curated by Agnieszka Wołodźko and produced by Katarzyna Szewciów and Veronika Uziak. Artists from Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Scotland and Sweden will carry out artistic actions and interventions related to local cultural heritage: the former Gdańsk Shipyard will be both the subject and location of their work.

Following a research visit in June, the artists will test the potential of Gdansk post-industrial area on the quays in response to the rapid redevelopment of this part of the city. The thematic threads of their productions will reflect the topics discussed by local stakeholders during a series of Urban Labs held at the Baltic Sea Cultural Centre on the future of the Shipyard: Memory, Art, Water & Public Spaces, Production, Green Spaces & Ecology, and Dialogue.

Seed Change

Irish artist Mary Conroy will focus on the old tools used by shipyard workers. She will make casts and moulds of these bygone industrial materials to create a seeded clay sculpture that will contribute to the on-going rewilding of the Shipyard. The sculpture will be located on Martwa Wisła quay where the Forge was originally sited following the purchase of farmland in the nineteenth century. By next Spring, the sculpture will disintegrate as flowers will grow from the seeds restoring biodiversity and green habitats to the area.

Glass Water: Greening the Shipyard / Stitching the Shipyard / Mourning

Scottish-American artist t s Beall will also explore the natural environment of the Shipyard; this time, the flowers that were grown by workers. In a symbolic gesture, she will outline the footprint of a garden and greenhouse which was located next to the Director’s building in the 1950s. She will invite the public to replant the flower beds on Toolmakers Street and to take part in embroidery workshops of flower motifs on Crane M3. Through these commemorative activities, the artist honours women workers, specifically the pipe insulators who stitched with toxic materials and whose graves she will visit, leaving flowers to to pay her respects.

The Broadcast

Iwona Zając from Gdańsk will present The Broadcast in reference to the pirate Radio Solidarność (Radio Solidarity) which operated during martial law in the early 1980s. At Gate No. 2, she will organise an audience with Piotr Jagielski, who supervised the technical equipment of Radio Solidarność, and with Maciej Pawlak, who was its editor and author of the book “Radio Solidarność in the Tri-City”. During this event, the public will listen to selected archival programmes and the artist’s recordings of former shipyard workers.

VR sceening in the Shipyard

Swedish filmmaker Jonas Myrstrand will screen his film 'VR in Shipyard of Gothenburg'. Once one of the largest shipyards in the world, nothing remains of Gothenburg’s shipbuilding past as regretfully all traces of this industrial heritage have been lost. Through his virtual reality film, viewers can get a sense of the sights and sounds of the former Shipyard in Sweden. During the residency, he will also document the activities of his fellow artists in the Gdańsk Shipyard film.

Industrial Impressions: to create an artistic documentary

Siegfried Vynck from Belgium will create a bespoke mural inspired by the interior and exterior industrial spaces of the Shipyard. Using spray-can paint, he will repurpose a shipping container as his ‘canvas’ to create a collage of scenes – fragments and snippets of today’s Shipyard – which he encountered on his visit to Gdańsk. The container will be exhibited beside Crane M3, a new destination for locals and visitors to engage with the history and heritage of the site.

As above, so below

Greek artist Ira Brami will work with a retired Shipyard employee in an experimental promenade performance telling the story of her personal and professional life as a pipe insulator and light crane operator. The performance will involve local school children both as audience and participants. The goal of this project is to find creative ways to engage younger people in Gdańsk with the stories of the Solidarity movement and the legacy of the Shipyard.

For more information and event details follow Baltic Sea Cultural Center FB page.

Memory of Water EU is an artist led project that explores the impact artists can have on post-industrial waterfront heritage planning.