keyword: In the face of water
term: 11-31.10.2024
Organizer: Provincial Public Library and Center for Animation of Culture in Poznan
Subsidized with funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Fund for Promotion of Culture - state purpose fund
Co-financed from the funds of the Local Government of the Wielkopolska Region
Gniezno, Kalisz, Konin, Krotoszyn, Pleszew, Pobiedziska, Poznań, Sieraków, Śrem, Września, Wylatkowo
The Ireneusz Zjeżdżałka Wielkopolska Festival of Photography is being held in 2024 for the seventh time. The ideas guiding this initiative from the very beginning are localism, cooperation and the desire to record the achievements of the photographic creative community in Greater Poland. As part of the festival, we try to present various forms of involvement of male and female artists, researchers, activists in the life of local communities and documenting the changes taking place in the region and contemporary reality. This year is no different, and our theme is "Facing Water." Preparing the festival, we didn't know that first due to the drought, and immediately afterwards the devastating floods - it would become so topical.
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For years, the effects of environmentally destructive human activities and the associated warming of our climate have been observed with growing concern. In our region, this is particularly true of water - low levels of water resources, their poor condition, destruction of ecosystems, irrational management. In the face of the increasingly real threat of a water crisis and extreme weather events in Poland, it is necessary to transform our attitude to water and rebuild our relationship with nature. We need a fundamental cultural change, which is why it is so important to involve a variety of communities - including art and culture - in wide-ranging conservation and environmental education. We want to believe in the causal power of art and its ability to transform the ways of thinking about the world. Therefore - bearing in mind that Wielkopolska is one of the regions most threatened by the problem of drought, and that extreme phenomena related to the element of water are becoming more and more frequent in Poland and around the world - we decided to take up this subject during the 7th edition of the Wielkopolska Festival of Photography.
As part of the 7th edition of the Festival, which will take place from October 11-31, 2024, in eleven towns and cities in Greater Poland, we are looking at the relationship that we and local communities have with water or various water ecosystems. Through the presentation of photographic and artistic projects that document and analyze the situation of water around us, we want to consider what meanings and values it carries. With the slogan "Facing Water," we ask about individual and social attitudes toward water, the place it occupies in our culture and daily life, and provoke us to take a stand in the face of the growing threat of its scarcity.
The 7th Wielkopolska Festival of Photography was divided into the Mainstream and Regional strands.
The Mainstream will feature three exhibitions and the premiere of a film:
- project Rivers of Poznan, in which Dagmara Baranska-Morzy, Katarzyna Wąsowska, Igor Zielinski, Pawel Jaskiewicz and Mateusz Kiszka look at smaller rivers, watercourses and streams in Poznan (Provincial Public Library and Cultural Animation Center in Poznan).
- Worth. An exercise in imagination, organized by the Poznań Heritage Center and curated by Michał Kępski, touching on the phenomenon of the middle section of the river (Sluza Gallery, Poznań),
- documentary-photographic project 0169-8629 5223-01750 Karol Szymkowiak on Powidz Lake and its proximity to the 33rd Transport Aviation Base (Stop Piraeus, Poznan),
- film by Martyna Nitkowska After water, addressing the problems of transformation and reclamation of post-mining areas in the Konin region (Center for Culture and Art in Konin)
The Regional Current is co-founded with us, among others:
- Public Library of the City and Municipality of Pleszew,
- Blenda Club / Krotoszyn Cultural Center,
- Club Moment / Regional Museum named after the Children of Wrzesnia (Września),
- Sierakow Municipality Public Library,
- Śrem Photo Group / H. Święcicki Public Library in Śrem,
- Faculty of Pedagogy and Artistry of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Kalisz,
- Gniezno Municipal Cultural Center,
- Pobiedziski Cultural Center,
- Pix.House (Poznań),
- Rat Gallery (Poznań),
- Pora Kolektyw / Pyramida Gallery (Poznan)
- Centrala Gallery (Poznań),
- Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology, Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznań),
- Raczynski Library (Poznan).
Media patronage: Czas Kultury, IKS / Kulturapoznan.pl, Kultura u Podstaw, Kwartalnik Fotografia, Notes Na 6 Tygodni, Radio Afera, TVP3
