SURVIVAL Art Review is an annual contemporary art festival organised by the Art Transparent Foundation in Wrocław. The first edition took place in 2003, and ever since, it has been happening in locations scattered around the city, taking art out of institutions and formal exhibition spaces.
The main goal of this festival is to bring the voices of young artists into the public debate. Every edition’s framework concerns post-1989 transformation at different scales and contexts, such as “neoliberal management, the treatment of architectural and urban heritage, or concepts of public space.”
This year’s SURVIVAL 22 will reflect on Romanticism—its values, meanings, and shadows that period cast over local, national, and European perceptions of identity. The event locations will be scattered around Brochów, one of Wrocław’s districts.
Karolina Bieniek, the foundation’s director and Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz, the curator of the festival, talked to Anna Halek about the motivations and aims of the public programme – a crucial part of the SURVIVAL Art Review.
Anna Halek: Part of the social programme of the 22nd SURVIVAL Art Review will be a discussion “about challenges, problems and joys encountered during intercontinental artistic activities” with participants from Europe and Africa. Given the continent’s colonial past, what tools or methods can we learn from local cultures as we attempt to deconstruct our own historical narrative and rebuild our national identity?
Karolina Bieniek: One of the projects we are currently running at the foundation focuses on building new cultural relations between social-cultural figures in the European Union and African countries. The project ‘Deconfining -Arts, Culture and Policies in Europe and Africa’ aims to test new intercontinental connections in three dimensions: spatial, environmental and artistic. For more than two years, organisations from 12 countries in Europe and 11 in Africa, with significant support from Creative Europe, have been implementing a series of activities to deepen our understanding of the ‘other’. Hence, Art Transparent’s collaboration with partners from Tanzania – Nafasi Dar Space and Zambia – Women’s History Museum. So far, we have completed two residency series and presented an intercontinental publication consisting of eight texts by male and female authors from Central Europe and East Africa. We are currently preparing for another residency, which will be launched by three artists from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda during the 22nd SURVIVAL Art Review in Brochów, Wrocław.
Last year’s festival focused on a conversation about decolonising thinking in our geographical areas, with speakers including Samba Yonga and Natasha Omakhodion Kalulu-Bandka from Zambia and Lilian Hipolyte and Fifi Mbogo from Tanzania talking about their experiences in this area. This year, Survival Sunday will be dedicated to the work of our resident artists. The artists we selected in the open call of the Deconfining project will come to Wrocław. Thus, Naitiemu Nyanjom (Kenya), Michalina Musielak (Poland), Jan Moss (Poland), ‘Teflon’ Kizza Moses (Uganda), Lindi Dedek (Czech Republic), Josephine ‘Kia’ Kiaga (Tanzania) will talk about their projects, which will be fully presented on the basis of their residency experiences happening 2025. So far, we have only been introduced to an overview of their activities. Our intention is to look deeper into the ins and outs of the activities of the individual artists. We are also keen to build synergy between the people participating in our activities; thus, this meeting will be the first of its kind for our entire resident group.
AH: How does your experience of coordinating international projects and working with African countries shape and change your approach to organising the SURVIVAL Art Review and running the ART TRANSPARENT Foundation? How many cultural and social similarities can you see while working on such diverse scales- from local to global?
KB: I think there are two important aspects. Firstly, why does such a small foundation like Art Transparent operate on so many levels? Secondly, why is it so important to include in the scope of its activities projects that are atypical, unconventional, and those that break us out of the usual paths?
I have been working on the topic of internationalising foundation activities since 2011. We are keen to place our activities in a broader geographical context every year. Sometimes, we focus on our direct neighbourhood, i.e., on activities with partners from Germany or the Visegrad Group. But for several years now, we have also been expanding our projects to include an intercontinental dimension. The latter are often so challenging that convincing larger institutions to get involved becomes extremely difficult. The prospect of entering activities laced with uncertainty often discourages the stable structures of large cultural organisations. It is also challenging for them to engage in the increasingly important debate about the decolonisation of thinking, including Central Europe. Small- to medium-scale NGOs have remarkable flexibility that allows them to act unconventionally. We are, therefore, taking quite a risk.
Regarding content, activities outside the so-called mainstream are very close to us. We want to bring the public closer to art in its various dimensions to address issues that are not only important in our local bubble but also affect us globally. Hence the decision to get involved in the Deconfining project. This unique, time-extended activity allows us to contribute to the debate on decolonisation not only in a broader geographical context than we might be used to but also on our local ground.
However, most importantly for me, it allows us to juxtapose our knowledge and experiences with practitioners from different places in the world. It seems incredibly important to me to listen to the voices of cultural figures, mainly from the African continent, and to develop a common narrative regarding our collaboration. We have spent a lot of time getting to know each other, familiarising ourselves with the concepts of how our organisations operate, and ultimately exchanging views on the ongoing debate on decolonising thinking.
From a practical point of view, this project, like probably no other, carries a tremendous amount of uncertainty and risks. We are dealing with massive economic variables. In order to get Creative Europe support, large-scale projects are often prepared months in advance. Events such as a global pandemic or worldwide inflation are difficult to predict. And even if we assume such factors in our risk analysis, we still know that they will not be a reason to increase grants. However, this opportunity to implement a cultural action that is secured by a four-year contract makes us willing to take risks. Working on this project teaches us a lot and is very rewarding. It also gives a lot of energy and a desire to play the system (if one is a proponent of the theory of system change, as I am).
AH: Each year, the themes of the reviews address political and social issues. The Social Forum of the 22nd edition will host, among other things, a discussion “about public space, violence and anger”. During the events, the chosen public space becomes a protagonist, thus part of the narrative of the Reviews. How are the locations selected in relation to the themes? To what extent do the locations reflect the themes addressed, or does the inspiration come precisely from the history of the specific spaces? Where does the process of selecting themes and locations start when organising successive editions of SURVIVAL?
KB: We try to address topics that are important to us, i.e. relevant from the perspective of the festival’s content. The theoretical underpinnings of each Review are always just as important as the individual locations. They are also current and occurring in the social debate at the time, as well as those that concern us organisers personally.
This year, our audience will have a chance to focus on several themes. The first of these is related to localism—as the Organizer, we have proposed some specific activities for Brochow and Brochowians. On the one hand, we invite people to get to know this unusual place on the map of Wrocław, hence the audio guide and historical walks, but also the presentation and final selection of the project for Brochow, which was commissioned through the International Institute for Community Commissioned of the Arts (IICCA).
An important aspect of this project is the involvement of the local community and the communal search for solutions for urban spaces. This, with international guests from Riga and Budapest, will take place on Saturday, 22.06.2024. On the same day, after a lecture on the unorthodox promotion of artistic activities, the discussion you mentioned- about space, violence and anger. For me and for the whole team, this is an important time of reckoning with the difficult situation we had to face a few weeks ago, when, through an organised disinformation campaign, our foundation, together with the artists and the curator, became the victim of a nationwide hate campaign. Since that story was told without us, this time, we want to draw the public’s attention to our version of events and, above all, to show the pattern of such actions. And this pattern is being used by hate-mongers in many corners of the world.
The following days of this year’s SURVIVAL Social Forum will be devoted to intercontinental cooperation and Deconfining, as well as to cooperation with Wrocław’s SWPS University and the psychological aspects of freneticism and independence.
We will conclude Tuesday not only with the awarding of the Audience Award by the Mayor of Wrocław but also by inviting the audience to the “Brochów_ka. Places of memory, natural and cultural heritage and the production of locality”, a lecture by Professor Wojciech Browarny, University of Wrocław, who, together with his team, will guide us through the memory of this local watercourse.
AH: The title of this year’s edition of the 22nd SURVIVAL Art Review -“FRENZY AND INDEPENDENCE”-refers to Maria Janion’s text entitled. “Romantic Fever”. In the historical-literary context of the passage from which this quotation comes, we can understand it in terms of the multidimensionality of the experiences of Romantic fever. How might this title be read by a visitor unfamiliar with the text from which the words come? What intentions does the curatorial team have with regard to the audience of the title-identification of this year’s SURVIVAL Art Review?
Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz: At Survival, we pay a lot of attention to accessibility and, at the same time, have confidence in our viewers. Years of experience have shown us that people who visit our exhibitions approach the works and themes we present with commitment, understanding and an individual point of view. Therefore, we are not afraid to refer to non-obvious sources and by trying to work through certain themes, we trust that our visitors are willing to look from a new perspective.
Romanticism as a trend in art is one of the key elements of the Polish educational programme; most people living in this country have had some exposure to either its works or its principles. This is one of the reasons why we decided to take up this topic – instilled as fundamental to national identity, it is rarely treated with critical reflection.
The question is how many of these 19th-century beliefs we unreflectively repeat or take for granted. The works prepared for the exhibition show not only how many contemporary problems are still preoccupied with romantic fever but also offer an opportunity to reinterpret Romantic assumptions such as the nation, wilderness, spirituality, mystery, or independence.
AH: The curatorial text interestingly weaves together the nineteenth-century feminist theme of women’s role as mediums (gaining financial independence and social standing) with Brochow’s self-sufficient and independent role at the time. In the context of the theme of this year’s festival, what is the role of its main protagonist, Brochow? How does the location and dispersed nature of this year’s edition reinforce/enter into a dialogue with the theme-reflection on the perception of Romanticism?
MM: The transformation of Brochów over the 19th century is a good example of how major social and political changes occurred during this period. From a church-owned farming village near Wroclaw, Brochów became a key node of the Prussian railway infrastructure (1896 saw the opening of the largest marshalling yard in central Europe) used, among other things, for the transport of coal from Silesia, and thus a major workers’ settlement. Industrialisation, democratisation, and the formulation of the concept of nation-states – accompanied by Romanticism – are just some of the processes influencing both emancipation movements and the transformation of urban spaces.
At the same time, it is important to recognise that these processes did not proceed in the same way everywhere, as can be seen in the jokes about the contemporary traces of partition. The Germanness of Wrocław and Lower Silesia has already been discussed and theorised about many times, and in this context, Brochów, with its unusual architecture and past, may appear to be peculiarly different. I think that for many people living in Wrocław today, Brochów has remained a blank spot on the map, a place far away from the centre, a place where there was no reason to go and which did not have the best reputation.
Today, Brochów, whose development was based on the garden city concept and later associated with council housing and exclusionary urban policies, is undergoing another transformation, with new development replacing green spaces. This is probably a crucial moment to observe not only the transformation’s direction but also its gradually vanishing multi-ethnic heritage.
I don’t think self-sufficiency is the best term for Brochow; I would rather use distinctiveness or singularity. Perhaps this way, it becomes a good ground for discussing the contemporary heritage of Romanticism, which sought knowledge in the mysterious, the dark, and the non-obvious.
The 22nd SURVIVAL Art Review will take place from 21 to 25 June 2024 in the Brochów housing estate.
