The SURVIVAL Art Review, one of the largest reviews of contemporary art in public space in Poland, will be held in Wrocław for the 17th time.
The 17th edition of the SURVIVAL Art Review will be held at ul. Wiśniowa 36 in Wrocław, on the premises of the former Railway Hospital (previously: the Jewish Hospital). It will focus on topics connected with healing the urban and architectural fabric.
In Poland after 1989, the interest in abandoned buildings, especially those located in large city centres, began to rise. The political transformation and the ensuing economic changes resulted in the appearance of buildings in urban areas that seemed to be doomed to long-term uselessness due to the lack of industrial investors’ interest. Often entered into the register of historic monuments, the old warehouses and factories became a thorny issue for local governments, eager to convert the unused areas into residential plots. The process of adapting historic facilities to serve new functions has begun in Poland only recently.
Being aware of the value of industrial heritage, investors started to convert industrial facilities into office buildings, shopping centres or residential buildings with flats that were often among the most expensive ones on the market. Despite this, some abandoned buildings, especially those triggering negative connotations, such as prisons or hospitals, still failed to attract any interest. In the last few years, several historic hospitals, all of which were located near the city centre, have been abandoned in Wrocław alone.
At present, most of them are undergoing revitalisation and commercialisation for offices or residential purposes. Is it therefore true that such a complete departure from the previous function can remedy the problem of empty buildings or ruins in the city, change public thinking about them and blur the memory of difficult, often traumatic personal stories associated with them?
In medicine, “concealment” may refer to shielding a patient from the diagnosis. It can also refer to non-obvious phenomena which for various reasons have not yet been covered by conventional knowledge, e.g. statistics. We invite artists representing all visual arts disciplines to submit your ideas for works to be presented during the 17th edition of the SURVIVAL Art Review, which will be held in a highly symbolic place venue – the old Jewish Hospital, which is currently undergoing the greatest transformation in its history. The submitted ideas should make a reference to the motto of this edition: Concealed.
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