Expedition to the 17th Meridian

Expedition to the 17th Meridian encompasses the next stage of work on the new headquarters of BWA Wrocław Galleries of Contemporary Art, currently envisioned for Kolejowa Street. Come the middle of October, SIC! gallery will be transformed into an art research studio with a focus on the materials being used in the headquarter’s interior, and a space for presenting the results of this examination.

An Expedition to Yourself

Where does the path that begins and ends on your doorstep lead? While such journeys generally venture into mountains and forest, this one begins and ends a mere stone’s throw away. The destination is the longitudinal 17th meridian east, which runs through the historic region of Silesia, passing close to BWA headquarters. It is from this region and district that inspiration was drawn for the materials that will be used to finish the renovated interior of the hall at 63 Kolejowa Street in Wrocław.

In the former Breslau (present-day Wrocław), this space was the assemblage and repair hall for the German postal system’s Kraftpost (motorized mail) fleet of buses, and later for the yellow buses that transported residents of Lower Silesia to nearby towns. This is where BWA Wrocław’s headquarters and largest gallery will be constructed over the coming years. What will our interiors be like? Who will they be designed by, and what materials will be used in their creation? In what ways will we bring artistic individuals into collaboration during this process? And what can the past tell us about the future? These and other questions will be answered via a research project involving artists, Wrocław residents, artisans, experts, architects and designers, and the team at BWA Wrocław Galleries of Contemporary Art. A component of this undertaking will be a competition (to be announced) for architects and interior designers to propose designs for the future base of the institution.

Multi-sensory Gallery-as-Workshop

History is about to come full circle. The art research studio will be set up in the SIC! gallery on Kościuszki Square, where the seventy-plus-year history of BWA Wrocław Gallery began, back in 1952. Over the course of the next seven months, the results of the Expedition to the 17th Meridian will be shared with the general public, complemented by an accompanying program consisting of workshops, lectures, presentations, and film screenings. The entire program will unfold within a specially designed multifunctional and multi-sensory space. SIC! gallery will become a nexus not only for sharing observations and impressions, but will double as a studio in which creative exploration will shape the evolving appearance and materiality of the interior itself. As such, the gallery will tangibly reflect the research process, with form, material, and the imagination generating novel sensory and cerebral experiences as the future building of BWA Wrocław becomes a reality. 

A Process of Discovery and Three Tales

The process of discovery will be long-term in nature; but along the way, at the end of March, the SIC! gallery will present photographs of the hall taken by Michał Łuczak; as well as the results of on-the-ground research carried out by individuals from various creative fields during previous years, oriented around a series of activities with wild clay and pigments derived from the Kaczawskie Foothills of Lower Silesia. The studio will also showcase examples of endeavors carried out so far at the future base of the institution, with the exhibition gradually expanding, over the following months, to include a range of additional artifacts from research expeditions—a collection covering the course of these creative processes. 

Three parallel stories will unfold. The first will be an immersion into the world of raw materials and objects, with two research groups leading the way. Jakub Jakubowicz, Ewa Klekot, and Anna Orłowska will dig deep into the material history and heritage of the region; while Iwona Bińkowska, Bartosz Brylewski, and Karina Marusińska will take a closer look at the hall on Kolejowa Street and its vicinity. The second story will bring viewers back to the present and into the future of the space, with a focus on the winning project from the design competition for the hall’s interior, weaving together reference material and conceptual vision. The third and final story, The Tale of the Shelter and the Well, will present the design parameters for BWA Wrocław’s future headquarters, which will serve as a catalyst for cooperation with the audience and the collaborative creation of stories. 

Opening hours for SIC! BWA Wrocław Gallery will remain the same until October 19.