Artistic and Research Projects
We observe phenomena and processes occurring in contemporary culture and society. We identify problems and issues that need exploring by adopting a new approach or analysing from an off-beat angle. We observe them through the initiation of artistic and research processes.
We believe that knowledge and culture have much to offer and can serve as a platform for mutual conversation and formulating an outlook for the future. We also want to create a space for experimentation and exploration for people working in art and involved in research work. We are interested in non-obvious forms and formats in projects that bridge local practice and global discourse. Like us, our research and artistic processes change over time. In 2023, are core areas of interest include: change, migration, and cultural education.
REPORT: Who are we all? The Experience of Cooperation on Theatre Projects between Polish Cultural Organisations and Belarusian Artists
The publication Jacy tacy nowacy? Doświadczenia współpracy polskich organizacji kulturalnych z białuskimi artystami w zakresie projektów teatralnych [Who are we all? The Experience of Cooperation on Theatre Projects between Polish Cultural Organisations and Belarusian Artists] attempts to observe the cooperation of Belarusian artists and artist groups with Warsaw-based cultural institutions on theatre projects. We are primarily interested in the challenges and possibilities of supporting artists.
How to conduct research through images? Movement and visuality of the city. Register for the seminar at the Warsaw Observatory of Culture!
What if you left a quiet room and conducted an interview in a bustling city environment? At the Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK), we are offering a three-day methodological seminar, during which we will embrace not only words, but also the movement, image and ambience of the city. They are an integral part of the research material. We will hold workshops with practitioners, and then try our hand at a walking-with-video research in Warsaw. The call is open, feel free to fill out the form!
WOK at the International Conference on Cultural Policy Research
This year’s edition of the International Conference on Cultural Policy Research (ICCPR) will take place at the University of Warsaw from 19–23 August. Anna Galas-Kosil, Deputy Director of the Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK), will lead a dedicated panel discussion on how cultural policies can support artists with migration experience.
Warsaw reading education in the age of digital revolution
How is the digital revolution changing reading practices? Which diegetic worlds are young people eager to visit and which are no longer accessible to them? The resting education research project, carried out in collaboration with the Culture Bureau of the capital city of Warsaw, provides an opportunity to take a closer look at these questions and juxtapose them with an interdisciplinary reflection on the reading competences of today's readers.
ICORN
Warsaw became one of over 70 cities globally that offer refuge to artists and activists. The Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK) was appointed the coordinating institution of residencies executed as part of the ICORN (International Cities of Refuge Network).
Cultural Education
The study of cultural education in Warsaw is a study of the city itself: its radically changing community; its shifts and uncertainties in the face of global challenges; as well as its local conditions and their impact on the lives of Warsaw’s residents. WOK presents the report Cultural Education in Research and Action, which concludes the second phase of our study on cultural education practices in Warsaw.
Stepping to a dance institution in Warsaw
Since September 2023, Warsaw Observatory of Culture has been supporting a process of establishing Warsaw’s Pavilion of Dance. So far we were bringing together the Warsaw’s dance community, Bureau of Culture, and Museum of Modern Art to work out the terms of the open call for the pilot programming at the Pavilion and to discuss the needs for accommodating the building of Pavilion on the Vistula to the needs of dance communit. We were also fueling the dance community with knowledge during the workshops we organized.
Co-thinking: open call for the process of artistic research and networking
In Poland, artistic research has been developing for years on the margins of art and science institutions. Although these ephemeral practices are an inexhaustible source of new cognitive strategies, they have not yet found their own place in the cultural field. Their creators lack funding and institutional support, and their work has not received much critical or scholarly commentary that could help deepen our understanding of these practices.
WOK.cast: Being a Director
Today, culture is at a crossroads. On the one hand, old practices are still in use; on the other, new values supporting equality and diversity are being promoted. Cultural institutions are particular in that they are the sites of the struggle to change attitudes and ways of working. In a new series of WOK.casts entitled Being a Director, Olga Wysocka and Igor Stokfiszewski attempt to find out how the directors of Warsaw’s cultural institutions are handling change. What strategies do they use in the face of this challenge? What emotions does this provoke?
A postcard from Warsaw, or just relations
On Thursday, 6 June 2024, we had the pleasure of tasting chilled kombucha and sampling vegan delicacies at the Warsaw Observatory of Culture, all thanks to the annual meeting with the winners of the City of Warsaw's artistic scholarships, as well as directors and representatives of cultural institutions. We can humbly say that the invited guests had a great time listening to the achievements of the 55 scholarship holders.
Study on the Situation of Artists and Artist-Parents of Children Aged 0–6 in the Creative Labor Market
The Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK) is launching a research project dedicated to the situation of parents working in creative professions. We are witnessing a paradigm shift for mother/father/parent-artistic individuals—from the historical exclusion of combining a career in the arts with caregiving responsibilities to an increasingly common need to function in both realms and to fulfil the role of practising artist on an equal footing with the role of a parent.
My Back Tells the Story. Narratives of women with scoliosis
We are taking the subject of scoliosis out of hospitals and doctors' surgeries and into the public space. The exhibition is the result of five months of meetings aimed at creating a space to share the experience of being a woman with scoliosis. During this participatory process, we met other women with the condition for the first time.
The Warsaw Observatory of Culture at the Cultural Mobility Forum 2024 in Caernafron
At the end of 2023, the Warsaw Observatory of Culture became a member of the international information network supporting artistic and cultural mobility. Today, the network consists of 69 members from 23 countries. Its main objective is to support various stakeholders in the field of culture and arts and to promote mobility as a universal value of professional development.
WOK at the Women in Arts International Conference in Brno
This year, the second edition of the Women in Arts conference was organised in Brno, Czechia by the CO.LABS independent space. The key theme of this edition was Motherhood/Parenthood. WOK was represented by Anna Galas-Kosil.
In Warsaw
We invited artists with a migration or refugee experience to walk around Warsaw, to places that are important to them. Their stories, anecdotes and digressions, opinions and emotions are an attempt to answer the question again: how else could it be In Warsaw? Now ahead is a three-day methodological seminar.
SPLOT Open: openness in culture, science, design, art and social activities
The open-source movement and grassroots creators (makers) have revolutionised the way we think about the creation and distribution of knowledge, technology and products. But what does OPENNESS mean for the creative world today? On April 25th at 18:00, the Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK) will host the first event in the SPLOT Open series. The event is dedicated to the theme of OPENNESS and will explore initiatives that embody an open approach in various fields including science, culture, design, art, production, programming and social engagement.
Connections
As part of our partnership with Fundacja Stocznia, we are showing the exhibition Connections at WOK Lab. This exhibition is about connections. About combining art with activism, about creating conditions for collective action, but also about constructing narratives that help bridge different contexts. We believe in the importance of polyphony, but also in the search for common ground.
It’s just chaos!
The slogan “It’s just chaos!” is more than the title of an exhibition presented at the WOK Lab space. Each of the exhibited works is an attempt to tell the story of the process of the emergence of an idea and the experience of young artists from the Młodzieżowa Koalicja Performatywna [Youth Performative Coalition].
Building Back Better. An International Workshop exploring solutions for the sustainable rebuilding of Ukraine
From January 22nd to February 2nd, 2024, a cohort of 100 professionals, students, and teachers from Ukraine, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, and the UK converged in Warsaw and Lviv with a collective mission to create sustainable solutions addressing Ukraine’s urgent need for a sustainable recovery. Workshop activities took place daily at the WOK Lab space. The main project partners were Umeå University, Umeå School of Architecture, University of Limerick, and Kharkiv School of Architecture.
How to avoid the exclusion of mothers and carers working in the arts and how to support their professional development?
The paradigm of the artist-mother (and other parents) is changing from one that has historically excluded combining a career in the art world with caring responsibilities, to the increasingly common need to function in both worlds and to fulfil the role of a practising artist on an equal footing with that of a parent.
Municipal Fellowships 2023/2024
The Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK) is the thematic partner of the 5th edition of the Municipal Scholarship Programme. The aim of the programme, which supports doctoral students from all over Poland, is to deepen our understanding of the processes and challenges facing the changing Warsaw and its inhabitants, and to use this knowledge in the development of municipal policies.
React! Open network of culture organisers
The Warsaw Observatory of Culture is one of the members of the React! network of culture organisers.
Archiwum 2023
In 2023, we were particularly interested in areas related to the topics of change and migration.
Artistic, Collective, Metropolitan. Warsaw art studios as micro-institutions
The Warsaw Observatory of Culture is researching the local artistic community and its needs by observing the municipal infrastructure of art studios. The aim of the project is to increase the visibility of art studios and empower artists by highlighting the importance of these premises to the functioning of the city’s cultural scene.
List of Shortcomings
List of Shortcomings is an interdisciplinary theatre project developed by a team of community artists from the Association of Theatre Educators and the Warsaw Observatory of Culture. Together we want to discuss culture as a working environment, the prevalence of precariat as a form of (un)employment in culture and the conditions, hierarchies and the discrepancies between stated values and their realisation.
Warsaw in Sociological Studies
What do migrants in the capital do for a living? How does housing insecurity affect the lives of Varsovians? Do we feel responsible for the quality of the air in our city? These are just some of the questions we tried to answer during the national scientific conference Warsaw in Sociological Studies. The event, organised by the Warsaw Observatory of Culture, the Institute of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw and the Polish Sociological Association was held in late November.
“Nothing about us without us”. Summary of the Culture. Migrations. Institutional Strategies meeting
How can immigrant artistic communities be integrated into the structure of Warsaw's cultural institutions? Can art be used as a tool for integration? This is a summary of a series of presentations held as part of the Future of Culture Forum 2022. The event was organised by the Powszechny Theatre in cooperation with the Warsaw Observatory of Culture.
Visual identification that works
In December 2022, the Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK) concluded a contest for the design of the institution’s visual identity. It was a process we wanted to run in a model-based way, and, as time has shown, the model works. We are sharing our knowledge and expertise to develop best practices in the cooperation between cultural institutions and graphic designers.
Artwork. A work of art as a practice
In late October, the WOK Lab hosted a presentation of Artwork by Florin Flueras. In it, Florin Flueras shifts the focus from the final product of art to the process of experiencing it and asks whether art that transcends consumption is possible. The show featured Eliza Trefas, Martina Piazzi and Florin Flueras.
A networking for members of the Belarusian photography community living in Poland
WOK Lab host the FSH1 platform for Belarusian photographers. On July 12, 2023, a networking meeting was held aimed at people from the Belarusian art community interested in contemporary photography.
We are too young for this sh*t. Ukrainian youth on life, friendship and refugeeship
From 28 to 30 July, the WOK Lab was handed over to Ukrainian youth, who, under the supervision of Oksana Kolisnyk, a student of Social Arts at the University of Warsaw, who is the author of the exhibition and invites everyone to take part in the upcoming programme.
Sara Tokina’s residency at WOK
Warsaw Observatory of Culture takes part in an artistic residency programme for creators from Belarus and Ukraine, organised by the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute. As a host institution we provide care and support, we try to include the Resident in our networks and partnerships, as well as in the rhythm of the institution's daily work by giving her a chance to get to know how a public cultural institution in Poland functions.
Virtual experiences at WOK. Reality Bender graduation project exhibition
Experience the world of virtual reality and generative digital environments at the Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK) during the Reality Bender graduation project exhibition. The exhibition was feature the latest graduation projects from the 3D and Virtual Events Studio II, part of the Media Arts Department at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts.
At the WOK Lab – on culture and Warsaw now and in 150 years
On May 31, the Warsaw Observatory of Culture (WOK) held a meeting between the holders of the City of Warsaw scholarship with directors of cultural institutions. Its purpose was to encourage discussion on matters important to culture in Warsaw now and from a long-term perspective of 150 years. The experts from infuture.institute, whose report served as inspiration, estimated that adopting this long-term perspective is crucial for ensuring a positive future for our cities and culture, benefiting our children and grandchildren.
Curatorial and research meetings at the WOK
On 17–28 March, WOK Lab hosted eighteen participants and four mentors for the curatorial and research activities of Territory in/out.
Secondary Archive at the Warsaw Observatory of Culture
A showcase of the work Secondary Archive: Ukrainian artists' sound statements was shown in the WOK's front window from 23 February until 5 March 2023. The installation could be seen and heard from 34/50 Marszałkowska Street.
Change: Institutions of Culture
Institutions of culture worldwide have found themselves at a watershed moment. They can pursue their mission and realise their growth potential at a time of unprecedented accumulation of negative external factors, which we have not seen for many years. On top of the challenges related to the development of technology, climate change, armed conflicts, and subsequent waves of migration, we now have to deal with the tensions connected with the populist turn and, as a consequence, the change of priorities in cultural policy.
A conference on the creation of an independent Belarusian Institute of Theatre
On 7–9 September, a conference on the creation of the Belarusian Institute of Theatre (BIT) was held at WOK.
Evaluation of temporary exhibitions production
At the invitation of the Museum of Warsaw, the WOK project team developed and executed a pilot evaluation process of the production of the Museum's temporary exhibitions.