Ewa Rudnicka
HERBSTFERIEN
site-specific installation / 2017
square in front of Dom Zdrojowy, Zdrojowa 2
One of the main aims of the Brzeźno edition of NARRACJE Festival is recalling the spa town atmosphere the place once evoked. Yet instead of staging a nostalgic, theatrical mystification about the Kurhaus where elegant ladies were entertained by gallant captains, this transposition is based on contemporary life in the district. More than anything else, the Festival is meant to give inhabitants of Brzeźno an opportunity to celebrate.
The map of local memories, citations and borrowings would not be complete without the former spa house (Dom Zdrojowy). Erected in the late 19th century, after World War II the building was handed over to a nursing school, and later, in the 1960s, turned into council flats. Now, the dilapidated structure is set to undergo a thorough renovation to regain its old leisure function and gain a new educational one: it will house a hotel, a restaurant and an Ecological Education Centre.
For the duration of the festival, Ewa Rudnicka decided to erect a temporary Kurhaus, or rather its artistic substitute, next to Dom Zdrojowy: a makeshift version thereof, in the form of a colony of multi-coloured greenhouses around the shabby building. The artist offers a moment of warmth and comfort during the cold November evening, an opportunity to stop for a while, become immersed in colourful light and dream about real holidays, while inhaling the smell of exotic incense…
Ewa Rudnicka
is an architect, graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris la Villette, and doctoral student at the Faculty of Artes Liberales, University of Warsaw. Her research interests include the influence of architectural and artistic actions on the creation of local communities through the introduction of the Active Architecture method. She is an enthusiast of participation-based projects, in which architects cooperate with citizens in interdisciplinary groups. She runs architectural workshops for students and citizens as well as Active Architecture projects in Poland and abroad.