July 28, 2022 – October 5, 2022
The exhibition titled “Recycle-Upcycle”. 30 years of BSCC” is an original account of the rich history of the Baltic Sea Cultural Centre called “Encek” by its friends. At the heart of the exhibition is a subjective choice of cultural events, organised and co-created by a group of institutions for many years. Thanks to their form, innovativeness and artistic and intellectual value, these events are particularly memorable to us and our audience. Assembled and presented together, they are intended to capture a certain distinctive trait of Encek. The choice was not easy. For 30 years, our activities have focused on promoting the cultural heritage of the
Baltic Sea region and the Pomeranian region in Poland and abroad. Every day our audience can explore the rich world of music, literature, visual arts, folk art and film. We meet with you within the walls of the renovated Old Town Hall and St. John’s Centre, which we rehabilitated and have since then treated as our home, in need of care and attention. For these 30 years, we have had, to put it metaphorically, a sea of opportunities to meet you – our audience – as well as associates from friendly institutions and a large number of artists, culture workers and researchers.
The title of the exhibition is multi-dimensional. On the one hand, it indicates a cyclic pattern and refers to the elapse of time. The words “Recycle-Upcycle” are used to make a reference to an environmentally-friendly approach to things that are no longer useful. At a symbolic level, they reflect our concern about the well-being of the non-human world surrounding us, which is inundated with countless man-made things. While working on the exhibition, we were reflecting on the production of printed materials or collection of items that never get to be used again in any way. Having looked through the archives and numerous mysterious storage rooms of our institution (which was a fantastic adventure in itself), we subjected the discovered materials as well as ordinary objects (e.g. structural components used in past exhibitions) to actual recycling. The word “recycling” has an additional metaphorical meaning in the context of the exhibition, since it conveys the sentimental process undergone by the facts and memories being the subject matter of this exhibition. In its literal meaning, recycling denotes „reusing, returning to a cycle”. So we have revived the uncovered stories, projects, photos, recordings and publications to present them to you again.
The second theme of the exhibition is upcycling. This word refers to the processing of objects that are apparently useless and worthless in order to give them a new quality and a second life. Two Tricity artists were invited to take up this challenge, in line with their interests and art practices: Agnieszka Wołodźko and Patrycja Orzechowska, who had already worked with BSCC on several occasions. Their artistic explorations and reflections gave rise to two installations. The first looks into the past and celebrates the memory of one of our past employees. Based on a metaphorical recycling of memories, the installation tells the story of an extraordinary and tender relationship between a man and the building he was looking after. The second, drawing on the material legacy of the past, consists in its form mainly of the items found in our warehouses and attempts to divine the future challenges we will face as an institution.
When creating the jubilee exhibition, we were guided by three main thoughts:
BSCC means the audience to whom we owe our existence
BSCC means the artists and culture workers who inspire us
BSCC means our employees without whom no plan would succeed.
I hope you will see the reflection of these thoughts in the exhibition which we are pleased to present to you.
Anna Zalewska-Andruszkiewicz
Exhibition curator