Opolno Is the Future
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Project Description
“Opolno Is the Future” is a series of environmental, social, educational, artistic and design ecents and activities. The project aims at bringing together different actors: artists, designers, ecological activists, academics and the local community to work collectively on a vision for a beautiful, sustainable and just future for Opolno-Zdrój – a former spa town located just beside the Turów coal mine and powerplant, where in 1971 the first Polish ecological artistic assembly took place.
Geographical Scope
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Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
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Description of the project
Summary
Opolno-Zdrój is a former spa town located at the edge of the Turów open pit coal mine. In 1971 a group of artists, theoreticians and critics organized there the first ever Polish artistic ecological assembly. The imminence of the industrial landscape and the ecologically-focused program inspired the participants to propose new solutions for Opolno-Zdrój and the whole region.
Our project aims at reviving this tradition, bringing together arts, research, science and local knowledge to envision a just social, cultural and ecological transition for Opolno-Zdrój. We’ve built a wide coalition around the project – our partners include NGOs Eko-Unia and Greenpeace Poland, Extinction Rebellion, Fridays for Future, academics; artists, designers and researchers from all over Poland as well as representatives of the Opolno-Zdrój community – the mayor, leaders of local associations and many of its inhabitants. The project will take the form of a long-term exchange between this interdisciplinary group of and the local community of the town. Over two years (2022-2023) they will collectively realize a series of events and activities – assemblies; workshops; artistic residencies; cultural, educational and social projects; design and artistic interventions - working on devising and implementing a vision of a beautiful, sustainable and just future for Opolno-Zdrój.
The main goals of the project are to a) enrich the cultural and social life in Opolno-Zdrój through artistic, social and educational projects; b) help the local community to reinvigorate, regain the sense of belonging and reconnect with their land and unique heritage by mobilization around environmental, social and cultural projects; c) use interdisciplinary knowledge and tools to devise and implement a vision for a beautiful, sustainable and just future for Opolno-Zdrój and the whole region; d) attract more attention to the unique historical and cultural heritage of Opolno-Zdrój, as well as it’s contemporary situa
Key objectives for sustainability
Our project aims to mobilize tools of art, design, education, cultural animation, science, research as well as the knowledge and experience of the community of Opolno-Zdrój to participate in the ongoing debate on the European Green Deal, just transition and its social costs. The case of Opolno-Zdrój and Turów mine, which has been widely discussed since the Czech government brought a case against Poland in the EU Court of Justice, highlights all of its key tensions and problems. Continuing the operation of the mine stands in direct conflict with just transition goals and causes damage to the landscape, environment and communities of the region – including the destruction of half of the town of Opolno-Zdrój. Many precious buildings, including 19th century spa facilities, will be demolished; the social tensions and problems of the community will escalate; opposition to any kind of environmental politics will rise and the local landscape will suffer.
Working in this context, our aim is to mobilize creative forces and tools to facilitate the process of Opolno-Zdrój’s transition to a sustainable, beautiful and just future. We want to come up with new ideas and plans for the future and commission and realize new sustainable designs, ecological artworks, workshops and long-term social, educational and cultural animation projects. All of these will have minimal environmental impact – we will follow the guidance of our partners from the ecological NGO sector and use local materials to work directly with the social and natural environment. We aim at refraining from practices that are costly from an ecological point of view, prioritizing fostering social bonds, raising awareness, educating, producing knowledge and stimulating the imagination over material intervention. Our project is exemplary in terms of sustainability as it is founded on the innovative idea of forging strong, sustainable, long-term relationships between participants of the project and the local community.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The “Opolno Is the Future” project is organized by the Office for Postartistic Services – a division of the NGO Foundation Bęc Zmiana, that focuses on supporting social movements, including ecological activists and environmental organizations, with artistic imagination and creative tools of arts and design. It’s activities focus on using art beyond the artworld as a tool to support social action and change. The Office’s network encompasses over 400 artists, designers, scientists, educators, academics, researchers and activists from all over Poland, including some of the country’s best and most-recognized thinkers, practitioners and creators. Most of the participants are recruited via this extensive network, ensuring a high level of aesthetics and quality of experience and content of the project.
In our activities we take inspiration from the outstanding, environmentally-conscious Polish artists from the 1960/70’s who participated in the seminal 1971 plein-air. The projects we plan to realize in the scope of “Opolno Is the Future” (such as residencies, workshops, exhibitions, public performances, discussions, screenings, artistic walks, site-specific artworks design and architectural interventions) aim at enriching the cultural landscape of the town, stimulating the imagination of the local community and addressing the very real and pressing local social, cultural and environmental concerns. We will also realize the ideas proposed by the inhabitants of Opolno Zdrój, responding to their cultural and aesthetic needs. We also want to use our artistic skills to create spectacular and attractive images of Opolno-Zdrój that can help to tell the story of the town in the media as well as be used for the campaigning purposes of our partners. Our project is exemplary in terms of aesthetics, as it proposes an innovative strategy of mobilizing the creative forces of arts, design, education and academia to address concrete, situated social, cultural and environmental problems.
Key objectives for inclusion
The people of Opolno-Zdrój, who live directly at the edge of the Turów mine have been feeling silenced and ignored for decades. They are caught in a deadlock: they are dependent on the biggest employer in the region – the mine and powerplant; on the other – but they know that the complex degrades the environment, threatens their well-being, shatters social bonds and destroys their land and homes.
Our project aims at using interdisciplinary tools to give voice to the community of Opolno Zdrój, which is often untruthfully portrayed in the media as the people who fiercely oppose the just transition of the region. We want to give them the opportunity to imagine, devise and express their own vision of the future life in their town. Our project will connect the center of Poland with its peripheries: we will bring established artists, designers, educators, activists, scientists and academics from big municipalities to the peripheral region of the country to use their skills and experience to convey the story of Opolno Zdrój to the public and amplify the voices of its inhabitants.
All of the projects that we will realize in the frame of “Opolno Is the Future” assume the participation of the local community. To foster and encourage participation we’re cooperating with academics specializing in ethnography and cultural animation as well as the leaders of the Opolno-Zdrój community, who will facilitate the process. Together with them we’ve come up with a number of activities and projects that directly address the needs of the community and focus on archiving and preserving the social memory of Opolno-Zdrój and its valuable spa architecture. Our project is exemplary in terms of inclusion, as it involves participation of a struggling community in every phase. Our approach is grounded in an innovative idea of “lending” artistic, design, activist, educational and research skills to the local community to help it assemble a vision for a beautiful, sustainable and just future.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
The three dimensions will be combined through a holistic approach to Opolno-Zdrój as a complex natural-cultural ecosystem, where social and cultural needs of the community are as important as the environmental and ecological concerns. Our main idea is to bring together cutting-edge contemporary artists, designers, ecological NGOs, researchers, educators, activists and academics (aesthetics and quality of experience) to work with and for the local community (inclusion) to devise and implement a vision for sustainable, beautiful and just future for the town (sustainability). To assure a high level of participation of the inhabitants, the whole process will be facilitated by the leaders of the local community as well as experienced educators and ethnographers, specializing in social animation of struggling communities.
The local community will be included in every phase of the project – we will be listening to their voices, opinions and wishes while co-designing, co-developing and co implementing our ideas and activities, aiming at addressing the concerns that are most important to them. All of the projects realized in the frame of “Opolno Is the Future” will be sustainable and environmentally friendly. This will be assured by the participation of scholars specializing in ecology and NGOs such as Greenpeace and Eko Unia as well as focusing on cultural enrichment, dissemination of knowledge, education and artistic projects, rather than material interventions. The aesthetic component of the project will be supplied by the participation of some of the most talented Polish artists and designers, who work at the intersection of arts, ecology/climate and social issues.Our project is exemplary in combining the three key dimensions of New European Bauhaus, as it is based on an innovative model for using the imagination and tools of arts, design, education and academia to support a local community in transitioning to a beautiful, sustainable and just future.
