Openings. The programme of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Land of Zgorzelec ‘71 Open-air Festival

The starting point for the Openings programme is the 50th anniversary of one of the most important events in post-war Polish art history – the Land of Zgorzelec ‘71 Open-air Festival. The collection of Wrocław Contemporary Museum includes extensive photographic documentation made by Natalia Lach-Lachowicz, which concerns both the course of the event and the participating artists’ individual projects.

The festival, held near the open-pit lignite mine in Opolno-Zdrój in Lower Silesia, lasted almost a month. It was the first artistic event in Poland, and probably in the world, to signal concern for nature in its very motto – Science and Art in the Process of Protection of Man’s Natural Environment. Over forty people took part in it, including outstanding artists, researchers and even entrepreneurs.

The organisers of the Land of Zgorzelec ‘71 Open-air Festival expected that the event would be continued in the future, in ever closer cooperation with the hosts, but this never happened. The programme called Openings offers an opportunity to symbolically return to this idea after 50 years, providing an impulse to reconsider the role of not only art and artists, but of all of us – the inhabitants of the Earth – in the process of protecting the natural environment.

During three summer residencies, thanks to young artists – Wiktoria Kruk, the duo of Iwona Ogrodzka and Kinga Bartniak, and Natalia Komorowska – Opolno-Zdrój will again become a venue for creative investigations and artistic experiments. We hope that the programme will result in concepts and ideas that will re-open a discussion at the intersection of culture, art and ecology.
 
 
The main elements of the Openings programme include:

• Art for the Earth and Man. Competition for artistic participatory projects dedicated to the inhabitants of Opolno-Zdrój and the surrounding area
• Educational brochure: A Drop of Knowledge about the Land of Zgorzelec ’71 Open-air Festival
• Artistic residencies
• Summary conference

 
 
Organisers:
Wrocław Contemporary Museum
Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław
 
 
Media partners: ArtRadio Bogatynia, Zgorzelec.info, TVP3 Wrocław, Polskie Radio Wrocław, Radio RAM, Rynek i Sztuka.
 
 
Visual identification of the Openings programme:
Karolina Pietrzyk
 
 

 
 
Purchase of works for the MWW collection was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund – a state special purpose fund. Name of the programme: National contemporary art collection. .