workshop

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!

We received 114 applications. The applicants define the field of artistic research in diverse ways, situating it within a broad spectrum of institutional and non-institutional practices and subjecting them to critical analysis. Reading the applications has already given us the opportunity to explore this field. The large number and high quality of the submissions show how necessary reflection on artistic research is in Poland and how many people wish to pursue this path in their practice.

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.

A meeting of the dance community with Maciej Siuda, architect and author of the Vistula Pavilion's functional and utility plan (PFU), was held at the WOK Lab space at ul. Marszałkowska 34/50 on 12 February. The plan’s development was preceded by workshops at the MSN (Museum of Contemporary Art) premises and study visits to the Pavillon ADC and Uferstudios and Radialsystem in Berlin).

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.

Elise Bernhardt led a workshop which launched a study aimed at facilitating the process of modelling a dance institution in Warsaw.

In October, the second workshop for the dance community took place at the Warsaw Observatory of Culture. This is the next stage of the work on modelling a new dance institution in Warsaw. The meeting was attended by representatives of dance organisations, the Culture Bureau of the City of Warsaw and WOK. The workshop was chaired by Joanna Leśnierowska.

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.

On Friday, 22 September 2023, it was possible to join a story circle about relationships with plants and their healing powers.

On the 16th and 17th of September 2023 at the WOK Lab we invited actors and actresses to take part in a workshop led by Agnieszka Glińska and Weronika Pelczyńska. During the workshop, we looked for tools and methods for inner stabilisation and stimulation.