Application - summary

Remarks

On the website the summary has remained unchanged until 10.4.2011

Critical evaluation question:

- has this been validated by due process and if yes, what changes were made to indicate a learning process has taken place

- between the first and second bid have there been introduced new elements, if any e.g. partnership with Spain to include the Kids' Guernica dimension?

Our city

Wrocław, a Polish city with a cosmopolitan history, is a reduced model of Europe where the greatest diversity has accumulated within a small space. Openness has been a constitutive feature of our city throughout its history. Wrocław is also a cultural laboratory, in which a process of mutual metamorphoses of various cultures, coming into contact in this city in the past and today, goes on continuously.

Our – 'claiming possession' but who is 'we'?

The claim to be 'our city' should be put into a self critical context, given the history of Wroclaw being until 1945 Breslau.

- it is also not a reduced model of Europe

- cultural diversity does not exist in places of consumer conformity

- openness is very doubtful

- it is said Wroclaw reinvents itself all the time but to describe this as metamorphoses means something after Kafka, Goethe and George Steiner used this term as well

- there is much more confusion and cynicism prevailing as evident in the suburban sprawl as if nothing has learned from Socialist housing policy

- the scenery of the old town may appear as a startling reconstruction but it is a mere front with a need to prove what substances exist behind it

- if a city of 'journey', then restlessness, indeed a coming and going would make it into a place with economic opportunities being grapped but hardly in consideration of what impact that has upon the city and its surrounding

- the city is rightly so described as a metropolis in midst a provincial setting

- the lack of major transportation links cannot be glossed over by the construction of a new airport and the holding in part of the World football games in 2012, it is still difficult to be reached, especially if public transport systems are expected to break down in near future e.g. Polish railway system

- its water ways are not accessible, and this state prevails since 1945 with the bombed bridge underneath the peace bridge but one example

- the scandal of finances around the university library is also a symptom just as the congested roads by endless trucks indicating no innovative concept for the circulation of goods and people exists for this city.

Our goals

The citizens of Wrocław – inhabitants of a city with a past and a city of the future – apply for the title of European Capital of Culture because they:

feel that they have obligations towards the historical heritage and contemporary cultural achievements and to its past and present creators representing many nations;

wish to support the process of cultural integration of Polish society with the peoples of Europe, a process that lags behind economic and political integration;

believe that a life devoid of contact with works of authentic art is impoverished and incomplete;

think that culture is not merely a supplement to the material aspects of the lives of individuals and social groups, which they can do without with little damage to the quality of their lives;

are against the instrumentalisation of cultural goods and works of art and against harnessing them in the service of other goals;

stand up in defence of genuine freedom of art from economic, political, and ideological pressures.

Intentions are not aims

It cannot be claimed that the citizens are making this application. It is a small team of at most thre persons working together with the philosopher Adam Chmielewski who formulates the bid.

There is no feeling of obligation towards the past. The idea of taking up the cultural heritage linked to past achievements of the university came up once, but never realized.

A wish may be translated into a goal but cultural integration is not needed; rather cultural diversity and cohesion with cultural competence to be upgraded to the same level as for the environment.

Here is the crucial term 'authentic art' but what is meant by this, was never taken up – see article by Bart Verschaffel. Moroever cynicism prevails in the city since festivals and the like allow politicians to stage big mass events but hardly with any element of sincerity. At least, it would mean starting a citizen movement to collect art as has been the case in Leipzig.

There is a confusion about the concept of culture since even daily language used by taxi drivers reflects a part of culture. The art of swearing can be included in that. In view of the dismal living conditions of many people inside and outside the city, it is more a matter whether cheap richness and enormous poverty reinforce each other and propagate such misunderstandings.

If it has been attained this is the case due to political interference, what shall be done to rectify the situation?

Precisely by accepting the advice of Bob Scott, the Wroclaw 2016 organisation has given in completely to political pressure. Everything else follows from this in a disasterous way.

Our reasons

The citizens of Wrocław want their city to become a European City of Culture for nine reasons:

The fabric of our history: We want to tell Europe about the fabric of extremely complex history that has been woven by the past and the present inhabitants of the city;

Overcoming enigmaticity:Polish inhabitants of polysemiotic Wrocław desire to overcome the enigmaticity of their city and take up a permanent place in European consciousness as a Polish and European city;

Building a multiple identity:Having created our separate, unique ‘multiple identity’, we want to take part in building a new multiple identity of a united Europe;

The flower and emerald of Europe: Wrocław, ‘the flower of Europe’, wants to be ambassador for the region of Lower Silesia, ‘the emerald of Europe’, and the Silesian architectural heritage, which urgently needs preserving; we want to restore it to Polish and European culture;

Culture against exclusion: We want to actively combat social exclusion and exclusion from participation in culture, which affect young people, the unemployed, families with many children, seniors, and people with disabilities;

Against commodification of culture: We want to combat the financial barriers that bar democratic access to works of authentic art and deriving joy from getting to know them;

Culture against public agoraphobia: The spaces of today’s cities often fill their residents with fear – a public agoraphobia; as a result they withdraw to their own privacy or emigrate; we want culture to restore their sense of being authentic co-owners of their cities;

Culture against interpassivity: Instead of promoting interactive relationships among people, cutting-edge technology often strips them of their autonomy and individuality and creates a new phenomenon: interpassivity; we want cyberspace to be an ally of free artistic creation;

Eco-aesthetics in defence of nature: Wrocław, a modern and innovative city, wants to seek genuinely innovative solutions that will be friendly to the environment.

Our guiding concept

The butterfly emblem symbolises our guiding concept: Metamorphoses of Cultures. We want this concept to be understood as referring to the real processes that shaped all of Europe in the past and those that are shaping it at present. Globalisation processes result in dynamic transformations of traditional cultural patterns and customs. European cultures are undergoing metamorphoses under the influence of pressures exerted by the immigration of various ethnic groups and followers of various religions. They are also undergoing metamorphoses as a result of the territorial enlargement of the European Union through the inclusion of new countries. Today’s Europe is a laboratory of change, in which the cultures of all the peoples of Europe – both ‘old’ Europe and ‘new’ Europe – undergo metamorphoses.

Our slogan

Spaces for Beauty is the slogan we want to propose to Europe.
Nowadays, people move in multiple spaces: the space of nature, social space, public space, private space, intimate space, and cyberspace. Our aim is to create sustainable and friendly spaces that will serve to satisfy the human craving for communion with art and culture. We are guided by a desire to establish the presence of beauty in social and personal lives. We intend to create spaces within which to restore a sustainable presence of beauty in public life and in daily habits. We want each of these spaces, in which present-day people live their lives, to be filled with what is beautiful and what is good, because we believe that good cannot exist without beautiful: Nulla ethica sine aesthetica.

Our partner region

The geographical area to be involved in Wrocław’s 2016 European Capital of Culture event is the region of Lower Silesia plus the Czech city of Hradec Králové and the eastern German city of Görlitz, both historically associated with Lower Silesia.

Our Spanish Delegate

Wrocław’s cooperation with the European Capital of Culture in Spain will be symbolised by a gnome character, a descendant of the artistic Orange Alternative movement. Wrocław will present its twin European Capital of Culture in Spain the figure of a gnome named Delegate.

Our public support

The Wrocław Culture Stakeholder Platform is a space for action and activation for thousands of Wrocław citizens. It is also a platform for dialogue and exchange of ideas among independent cultural circles, artists, and all inhabitants of Wrocław. The Children’s Culture Stakeholder Platform is a programme for the youngest citizens of Wrocław, our future, who help to shape the programme of the Wrocław culture festival.

Our programmes

We offer our European partners a number of themes and lead programmes. Through them we want to build spaces for beauty in Wrocław, in Lower Silesia, and in the living spaces of each and every person.

Opening up Spaces
Inculturator
Cultural Bond
European Cultural Passport
Church: Beauty, and Kitsch

Beauty in Sight
Concrete and Greenery
City Figures
Art in Space
Presence of Form

Intimate Beauty
Home for Art – Art for Home
Human Body: Artefact–Economy–Politics
Culture of Table and Wine
Parenting Culture

Beauty in Cyberspace
Wrocław Museum Pavilion
CulTube
LiveArtNet
CyberArchive of Art

Forces of Nature – Power of Culture
City of Parks and Gardens
Human Needs – Animal Rights
River of Culture
Energy Recycling

Our operator

Instytucja Kultury Wrocław 2016.

The organisation of Wroclaw 2016 has only a capacity to do things at medium level of competence. Its greatest weakness is no communication concept. The failure to realise the conference in May an indication that it shall not be able to handle bigger demands as it shows all the weakness of an one man show.

Our strength

Our strength stems from our enthusiasm, the creativity of our artists, and the support of our citizens.

Instead of openness based on friedliness and cheerfulness, there prevails something like a professional coldness. It gives rise to misunderstandings and reproduces a weakness leading to fatigue due to making certain problems into philosophical absolutes as if everything is well known while resenting when others offer opinions as if they seem to know better. This polarisation at the level of knowledge is a serious weakness almost impossible to be overcome in such a philosophical determined context.

Our synthesis

Spanish temperament and Polish daring.

A cultural, never mind political synthesis is a most complex and nearly impossible achievement, never mind that such a synthesis would inscribe itself with national categories when in fact Europe and a synthesis of different cultural influences in order to create a European identity would have to be a bottom-up acculturation process and away from Europe as a political project. Thus this misses the point about cultural cooperation between a Polish and Spanish city when both are designated to be European Capitals of Culture in the same year. And cooperation is not the same as the people in these two cities working (not cooperating) together.

Our Eutopia

A Europe of diversity, opportunity, and responsibility.