When we started our cooperation with the participants of this edition of the Open Institute in October 2021, there was a crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border. Thousands of people were trying to get to Europe as a result of armed conflicts in their regions, including the war in Afghanistan and the Taliban occupation of the country. Therefore we started working on the topics of the border, refugees, hospitality, the sense of security and its lack. We did not think that six months later, when we meet to present the effects of our work in public, there will be a war in Ukraine, armed conflicts will not only concern remote parts of the globe, and refugees will become an everyday reality.
The topics we dealt with are not only still relevant, but they have also become painfully intense. The participants of this edition of the Open Institute come from Belarus, Poland and Ukraine. The have worked with migrant and refugee communities also from Afghanistan, Cuba, Sub-Saharan Africa. Confronting the story of their own migration or the desire to leave, fearing for their relatives in war-torn areas, they tried to listen to the stories of others and create a safe space for them to resonate. Our desire is that the activities that have been created during the six months of our cooperation become a testimony to our striving for a hospitable, compassionate, helpful world despite adversities, wars and the lack of hope.
Alicja Borkowska, Agnieszka Róż, Igor Stokfiszewski
curatorial care:
Alicja Borkowska, Agnieszka Róż, Igor Stokfiszewski
substantive support:
Anna Alboth, Agnieszka Bułacik, Pietro Floridia, Kris Łukomski, Paweł Mościcki, Margaret Amaka Ohia-Nowak, Sara Pour, Jaśmina Wójcik
conceptual and artistic cooperation:
School of Form (Klaudia Adamek, Kornelia Błoch, Maria Sadowska, Natalia Sobczak, Zuzanna Stadnik)
production and promotion:
Magdalena Duszyńska-Sasin, Weronika Chinowska
video: Wojtek Kaniewski
photo: Karolina Jóźwiak
graphic design: Karo Koto