05 Nov 2019

Reflection: Gdańsk through a Govan Lens

Some personal reflections from Govan based cultural planner, Liz Gardiner who is the Scottish partner on this Memory of Water project, is in charge of the communications for the project and is an artist turned academic in the Scottish context.


Whilst the production residency in Levadia had resonance for Govan in its links to textile making with its focus on the stories of local people and their ordinary traditions like washing cloth in the river, the Gdansk situation has more of a mirroring with Govan. Govan and Gdansk share histories in the development and decline of shipbuilding accompanied by protest. All of our six city artists reflected these aspects of Gdansk shipyard’s industrial history in their interventions.
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03 Nov 2019

Reflection: The Broadcast

I presented an event titled “The Broadcast” in reference to the pirate Radio Solidarność (Radio Solidarity) which operated during martial law in the early 1980s in Poland. For Memory of Water, I organised an audience at the historic Gate No. 2 of the Gdańsk Shipyard with Piotr Jagielski, who supervised the technical equipment of Radio Solidarność, and with Maciej Pawlak, who was its editor and author of the book “Radio Solidarność in the Tri-City”. The Gate No. 2 is the place where Lech Wałęsa stood to announce to the waiting crowds the deal that had been struck with the Communist government in 1980.

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03 Nov 2019

Reflection: Industrial Impressions

During our research residency in Gdańsk (June 2019), we decided to hop on this pirate ship to explore the shipyard from the water. This simple tourist attraction would turn out to be one the most inspiring moments ever for me. Besides the hundreds of pictures I took during the sailing along the waterfront, I was blown away, not only by the industrial aesthetic, but especially by the randomness of all the colours there. As an artist, that was so interesting for me, I immediately knew these wild colour combinations would play a dominant role in my planned artistic intervention.

Back home I made designs by mixing up fragments of my colourful documentation. Industrial Impressions began to form. The design was ready but finding a wall to paint it on was the biggest challenge. One wall was cancelled because of imminent demolition. Other walls were too vulnerable to vandalism. Just two weeks before the production residency, the Polish team proposed a shipping container as a canvas for the artwork. There are easier surfaces to paint on! The ribbed structure is far from ideal, especially for the linework. But the shipping container was a fantastic deep blue water colour and since shipping containers are so prominent in the shipyard, turning one into a piece of arts was the last piece to fit the puzzle.

Siegfried Vynck

 

03 Nov 2019

Reflection: Shipyard Footage

I continued my process of gathering footage to tell the story of our two-year journey of discovery together. This includes documenting the projects by the other Memory of Water artists. I am shooting one film in each city, so now I’m starting to edit the film for Gdańsk, but I will gradually stitch the shorter films together into a longer feature.

This was our second Memory of Water residency in Gdańsk, but I have been there several times before. I am always so glad to see the cranes in the skyline and the shipyard still working. The schedule was intense with many parallel events going on, but for me the hardest part was walking the vast shipyard with the camera equipment! My brief was to cover the artists’ process and activities throughout the week as well as the partners’ meetings.

I didn’t have a resolved visual concept before arriving in Gdańsk. The main focus, of course, was the thematics of the Memory of Water project. In Levadia, I started and finished in the River Erkyna itself. The camera (GoPro) emerged from the water to witness the actions, and then returned, submerged back in the river. In Gdańsk, I got the idea of walking – tracing my steps – through the Shipyard, up from the river, feet walking around the events, and then down into the water again at Martwa Wisła quay, where local artist, Czesław Podleśny, has installed a group of steel-robots sculptures at the water’s edge. There was a lot of walking! I had great assistance from local film-maker  miss Anna Domanska over three days who helped me to cover parallel events. Each of the artists is working on separate projects so I’m trying to connect them spatially through the film for the audience.

At the same time, during this week and the whole experience in Gdańsk, I was collecting “good examples” of developing shipyard heritage. To show how culture and the art scene can grow and evolve with regeneration. I have the opposite experience unfortunately in Gothenburg, where the shipyard disappeared over ten years and nothing of the tangible or intangible heritage was saved.

There are many exciting things happening to protect and rethink shipyard heritage in Gdańsk, like with Stocznia Cesarka, for example. These sustainable approaches are here to stay! For one thing, the shipyard area is now more accessible for locals and tourists. I think a mobile application with archival pictures, maps and guided tours would be a popular idea.

Jonas Myrstrand

31 Oct 2019

Reflection: Seed Change

I wasn’t sure what to expect at Stocznia Gdańska. From the historical images I’d seen of the cranes, the industry and the crowds during the events of the solidarity movement, I could imagine the shouting, the clanging of iron, workers and machines noisily building gigantic ships to travel the globe.Read More

16 Oct 2019

City Lab: Dreams to Fulfill in Gdańsk

MEMORY OF WATER // SHIPYARD A/NEW

CITY LAB: DREAMS TO FULFILL

18 OCTOBER 2019 r. / Piątek

Old Towna Hall, 33/35 Korzenna Street, Gdańsk

Part 1: Heritage For Future (Session in Polish except for*)

10:00 Official Opening and Welcoming of Guests

Introduction:

  • Lawrence Ugwu, Director, The Baltic Sea Cultural Centre in Gdańsk,
  • Iwona Preis, Intercult, Stockholm, Coordinator, European Project “Memory of Water”
  • Agnieszka Wołodźko, Curator of Art Residencies, MoW in Gdańsk

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11 Oct 2019

City Lab: Transformation of the Gdańsk Shipyard

The Baltic Sea Cultural Centre will host a discussion forum about the future transformation of the shipyard area in Gdańsk. It will be an opportunity to meet with various representatives of stakeholders in the process of transformation of the shipyard's post-industrial areas. This City Lab will take place during the Gdańsk Production Residency in October 2019.

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11 Oct 2019

City Lab: Shipyard Anew

On 17 December in Gdańsk we summed up the project Memory of Water EU Creative Europe Shipyard aNew. We have collected and presented proposals for development of post-shipyard areas in Gdańsk – our common “dreams to fulfill”.

Dreams to fulfilRead More

02 Oct 2019

Residency: Gdańsk Production Residency

Memory of Water is an artist led project that explores the impact artists can have on post-industrial waterfront heritage planning.

Memory of Water: Shipyard

From 14 to 19 October, the Baltic Sea Cultural Centre hosted the second artistic residency curated by Agnieszka Wołodźko and produced by

Katarzyna Szewciów for the Creative Europe project, Memory of Water. Artists from Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Scotland and Sweden carried out artistic actions and interventions related to local cultural heritage: the former Gdańsk Shipyard was both the subject and location of their work.

Following a research visit in June, the artists tested the potential of the post-industrial area on the quays in response to the rapid redevelop

ment of this part of the city. The thematic threads of their productions reflected the topics discussed by local stakeholders during a series of Urban Labs held at the Baltic Sea Cultural Centre on the future of the Shipyard: Memory, Art, Water & Public Spaces, Production, Green Spaces & Ecology, and Dialogue.

Irish artist Mary Conroy focused on the tools used by shipyard workers. She made casts and molds of these industrial materials to create seed-bomb sculptures that contributed to the on-going rewilding of the Shipyard. The sculptures were be located on Martwa Wisła quay where the Forge was originally sited following the purchase of farmland. By next Spring, the sculptures will disintegrate as flowers will grow from the seeds restoring biodiversity and green habitats to the area.

 

Scottish-American artist ts Beall also explored the natural environment of the Shipyard; this time, the vegetables and flowers that were grown there by workers. In a symbolic gesture, she outlined with coloured chalks the footprint of a greenhouse which, in the 1950s, was located next to the building of the Directorate. She also replanted the flower beds on Toolmakers Street and invited the public to take part in embroidering napkins with floral motifs. Through these activities, she wanted to commemorate the women workers of the Shipyard who were employed in pipe insulation. This work was carried out using toxic asbestos-containing materials, which resulted in illness and many early deaths. As a mark of respect, the artist has identified and visited the graves of the women.

 

Iwona Zając from Gdańsk  presented The Broadcast in reference to the pirate Radio Solidarność (Radio Solidarity) which operated during martial law in the early 1980s. At Gate No. 2, she organised an audience with Piotr Jagielski, who supervised the technical equipment of Radio Solidarność, and with Maciej Pawlak, who was its editor and author of the book “Radio Solidarność in the Tri-City”. Over three hours, the public could listen to selected archival programmes and recordings. The artist shared her recordings of former shipyard workers from her Stocznia w eterze website, as well as access to recordings collected as part of the “Stocznia w eterze”, “Radio Solidarność Gdańsk” and “Stocznia jest kobietą” projects.

 

Swedish documentary filmmaker Jonas Myrstrand screened his film VR in Shipyard of Gothenburg at the Baltic Sea Cultural Center. Once one of the largest shipyards in the world, nothing remains of Gothenburg’s shipbuilding past as regretfully all traces of this industrial heritage have been lost. Through his virtual reality film, viewers could get a sense of the sights and sounds of the former Shipyard in Sweden and became acquainted with both mistakes and successes of redevelopments in post-shipyard areas. During the residency, he also made film recordings of the activities of his fellow artists.

 

Siegfried Vynck from Belgium created a bespoke mural inspired by the interior and exterior industrial spaces of the Shipyard. He repurposed shipping containers as his ‘canvas’ to create scenes from the shipyard past and present using spray-can paint. These containers will then be exhibited by Crane M3, a new destination for locals and visitors to engage with the history and heritage of the site.

 

Greek artist Ira Brami worked with a retired Shipyard employee in a performance telling the story of her personal and professional life as a light crane operator to local school children. The goal of this project was to find creative ways to engage younger audiences with stories about the legacy of the Shipyard and the ethics of the Solidarity movement.

 

DJ Burning Woman / Kateryna Kostrova created this sound art work performed during #MemoryofwaterEU artist residency in Gdańsk in October 2019 . Visuals by Violetta Tarasenko

Being born and raised in Eastern Ukraine, the industrial heart of the country, Burning Woman was exposed to gloomy atmosphere of large-scale manufacturing plants and noisy environment of ever-growing construction sites since early childhood. At some point, she learned to love the decadent sight, and especially the sound of her hometown, developing a taste to experimental electronic, noise, dark ambient, drone, and techno, and unusual forms and methods of creative self-expression.

As a DJ and musician, Burning Woman draws inspiration from various sources and constantly develops her own sounding, trying different methods of digital audio processing and synthesis. She frequently uses field recordings to express her individual experience of interaction with the world and her perception of it through music. This is how she connects her ideas, states, and feelings with the existing reality, making them conceivable for the audience.

Apart from making her own music and djing, Burning Woman actively participates in the development of Ukrainian electronic and experimental scene, working as a curator with cultural organizations and platforms, such as “Women’s sound” project , “Platform Tiu” in Mariupol, and Institute of Sound in Kyiv. She also collaborates with other artists, musicians, and performers on various multidisciplinary art-projects.
Magda Zakrzewska Duda #MorecultureinEurope

 

 

PROGRAMME

13 October 2019, Sunday

GLASS WATER, t s Beall (Govan, Glasgow, Scotland)
5:00 pm -7:30 pm Embroidering the Shipyard. Tribute to women pipe insulators.
Workshop embroidery, European Solidarity Centre
registration: warsztaty@nck.org.pl

 

14 October 2019, Monday

GLASS WATER, t s Beall (Govan, Glasgow, Scotland)
10:00 am – 5:00 pm Greening the Shipyard
Preparatory gardening works
Narzędziowców St.
3.00 pm -4.00 pm
Embroidering the Shipyard. Tribute to women pipe insulators.
Joint embroidering
Crane M3, Nabrzeże 17A

15 October 2019, Tuesday

10:00 am-6:00 pm INDUSTRIAL IMPRESSIONS, Siegfried Vynck (Ostende, Belgium) Painting a mural on a container
Narzędziowców St.

GLASS WATER, t s Beall (Govan, Glasgow, Scotland)
10:00 am-2:00 pm Greening the Shipyard
Planting flower beds
Narzędziowców St.
3.00-4.00 Embroidering the Shipyard…
Joint embroidering
Crane M3, Nabrzeże 17A

16 October 2019, Wednesday

10:00 am-6:00 pm INDUSTRIAL IMPRESSIONS, Siegfried Vynck (Ostende, Belgium) Painting a mural on a container
Narzędziowców St.

GLASS WATER, t s Beall (Govan, Glasgow, Scotland)
10:00 am-5:00 pm Greening the Shipyard
Planting flower beds
Narzędziowców St.
3.00-4.00 Embroidering the Shipyard…
Joint embroidering
Crane M3, Nabrzeże 17A


17 October 2019, Thursday

10:00 am-6:00 pm INDUSTRIAL IMPRESSIONS, Siegfried Vynck (Ostende, Belgium) Painting a mural on a container
Narzędziowców St.

10:00 am -5:00 pm SEED CHANGE, Mary Conroy (Limerick, Irland)
closed workshops – sculpting – seed bombs (shipbuilders’ tools)
WL4 Milk Peter, Popiełuszki St.

GLASS WATER, t s Beall (Govan, Glasgow, Scotland)
3.00-4.00 Embroidering the Shipyard…
Joint embroidering
Crane M3, Nabrzeże 17A

2:00 pm-5:00 pm BROADCAST: RADIO SOLIDARNOSC, Iwona Zając, (Gdańsk, Poland)
Wydział Remontowy Bar
Doki 1 St.

10:00 am -6:00 pm PROJECT PARTNERS’ MEETING – MEMORY OF WATER (closed for public)

18 OCTOBER 2019, Friday

10:00 am -1:00 pm SEED CHANGE, Mary Conroy (Limerick, Irland)
open workshops – sculpting – seed bombs (shipbuilders’ tools)
WL4 Milk Peter, Popiełuszki St.

10:00 am-1:00 pm INDUSTRIAL IMPRESSIONS, Siegfried Vynck (Ostende, Belgium) Painting a mural on a container
Narzędziowców St.

10:00 am-1:30 pm CITY LAB: DREAMS TO FULFILL
Morning session „Heritage for Future”
Key-note speech Trevor Davies (Metropolis.dk)
Project summary: curators and project experts
BSCC/ Old Town Hall

3:00 pm-5:45 pm CITY LAB: DREAMS TO FULFILL
Afternoon session „Beyond Borders”
Key-note speech prof. Katarzyna Kosmala (The University of the West of Scotland)
presentations of MoW’s artistic interventions – meeting with artists residents of MoW
meeting with experts and artists from Georgia and Ukraine
BSCC/ Old Town Hall

6:00 pm-6:30 pm „VR in Shipyard of Gothenburg”, Jonas Myrstrand (Sweden)
films screening
BSCC/ Old Town Hall


19 October 2019, Saturday

10:00 am-3:00 pm INDUSTRIAL IMPRESSIONS, Siegfried Vynck (Ostende, Belgium) Painting a mural on a container
Narzędziowców St.

GLASS WATER, t s Beall (Govan, Glasgow, Scotland)
11:30 am-1:00 pm Greening the Shipyard
Planting flower beds
Narzędziowców St. (a meeting at the former fire station building)
1:00 pm-2:00 pm Greening the Shipyard
The old garden’s boundaries’ marking with chalk-paints,
near The Director’s Office, Doki 1 St.

2:00 pm-3:00 pm SEED CHANGE, Mary Conroy (Limerick, Irland)
Seed-tools setting
the Vistula canal waterfront, next to Milk Peter, Popiełuszki St.

3:30 pm INDUSTRIAL IMPRESSIONS, Siegfried Vynck (Ostende, Belgium)
Mural’s “Baptising”
Narzędziowców St.

4:00 pm-5:45 pm CityLAB “Shipyard a/New. Dreams to fulfill”
registration: rsebastyanski@gmail.com
ESC, auditorium 3.36

6:00 pm-7:00 pm AS ABOVE, SO BELOW, Ira Brami (Levadia, Greece)
Performance,
Drizzly Grizzly, Elektryków St.

Accompanying event:
8:00 pm BURNING WOMAN (Ukraine)
Live Act concert

For more information and event details, you can visit the Memory of Water website (www.memoryofwater.eu)

The Project Manager in Gdańsk for Memory of Water is Magda Zakrzewska-Duda (magdalena.zakrzewska@nck.org.pl)

For more information, you can visit the Memory of Water website here.

 

11 Sep 2019

Reflection: On Govan

This was my first visit to Govan and the River Clyde and it was an eye opener for me in many ways. I had just visited Edinburgh and in contrast Govan seemed poor and under-resourced. We heard dark stories of the dangerous river with underwater currents, suicides and poisoned waters. It was not a friendly way to look upon the river, even many buildings didn’t have windows toward the water. We learned that the city had a difficult time after the shipyard industry declined. It never really recovered from that.

But it felt very hopeful for the future. We explored the river by bike, on foot and even by row-boat and canoe. Dr. Alan Lesley and Ingrid Shearer shared the fascinating history and geography of the river when we visited the Clydesdale Rowing Club. We met many innovative organisations and people supporting local crafts people and cultural operators as well as social enterprises. We met the team at the Kinning Park Complex, a truly unique and pioneering organisation for the local community. There, I screened my first film from Levadia in Greece for everybody for the first time.

The Urban Lab was really inspiring with lots of examples of projects, events, and cultural heritage research that are flourishing there. It really sparked ideas and gave us deeper, insightful perspectives to develop ideas. We were also invited to the astonishing City Chambers in Glasgow for a civic reception where we met the Lord Provost – she was Swedish too! The building was constructed by slaves back when the port was an important trading route for goods and slaves.

The artists met regularly at the welcoming home of community activist Helen Kyle, and on the first night Liz Gardiner invited us to try the traditional Scottish Haggis – unforgettable! We also took part in ts Beall’s performative walk: The Strong Women of the Clydeside. The Fairfield Heritage Museum had a huge impact on me as it resonated with the history of the Gothenburg Shipyard and I plan to go deeper into archival research for my next visit.

The weather was exactly as I expected… our first gift was a umbrella! The shipyard area, the Govan Dry Docks, the River Clyde and Doomster Hill were very inspiring and I would like to explore the possibility of an Augmented Reality (AR) experience. Thanks to Liz, Hamish, Tara and everyone we met in Govan, I’m looking forward to the next time in Govan!

Jonas Myrstrand