The project seeks to respond to a series of
questions about culture: What is an ordinary
individual’s personal contribution to culture,
and to what extent does culture apply to each
and every one of us? How important to us is
the part of culture we experience daily? With
her project, the artist seeks to draw attention
to the fact that material culture is the closest
to people’s hearts: every object around us
was made by someone (even if it came off
a factory production line). Out of necessity,
people produce and process objects, or join
them to form new configurations – everyone
participates in this process, for instance while
getting dressed in the morning or furnishing
a new home. These actions create and change
material culture and reflect our contacts and
shared experiences with others.
Craftsmen are the embodiment of intensive,
personal participation in material culture. And
they, along with ordinary people, were the
focus of the
I, CULTURE Puzzle
project. Today,
when things get broken, or no longer fit, they
are most often replaced with new ones. By
altering and repairing such “useless” items
– old shoes, clothes, furniture – craftsmen go
against this trend and guarantee the continuity
of material culture, both by rescuing specific
objects from destruction and by passing on
their skills to younger generations. Under the
guidance of the organizers, the workshop
participants often experienced a special joy
that accompanies saving an object or giving it
a new lease on life.
The
I, CULTURE Puzzle
project could not
have succeeded without volunteers. In every
capital city, Monika Jakubiak and the Adam
Mickiewicz Institute found many people willing
to lend a hand. These volunteers gave expert
tips to the workshop participants, gathered
information about craftsmen in the cities where
successive workshops were held, studied the
equipment, materials, and work methods of
craftsmen, and recorded the experiences of
people choosing a traditional occupation in
a rapidly changing world. People involved
in craft making have become something
of an anachronism in our modern times,
but it is precisely because of this that they
have something important to say to us. The
volunteers presented the results of their studies
and reflections during the workshops and
Contemporary
craft workshop in Paris
Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Director Paweł
Potoroczyn, Olga Wysocka and participants of
the I, CULTURE Puzzle workshop in Warsaw
Participants
of the I, CULTURE Puzzle
workshop in Kiev
invited the participants to join in the discussion.
The records of these discussions are a key
element of the final
I, CULTURE Puzzle
project.
As Monika Jakubiak said, “I want us to slow
down, meet, and create something together,
something tangible.”
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THE ADAM MICKIEWICZ INSTITUTE
