This year’s Night of Culture is CityTender. It means that we will look at the city differently, we will see what is usually hidden, find delight in what feels imperfect during the day. For two nights (9-11 October) we will walk around Lublin’s Old Town to visit several dozen places hiding music and light-filled surprises. We will be accompanied by the music of Krzysztof Penderecki, and one of the backyards will welcome us with over a thousand lit-up glass balloons.
“Lublin is all about the people who live there, its inhabitants, but also its friends. It’s a place lined with trees and filled with architectural wonders. Lublin is also a word that we often put in various official forms, a word that we carry in personal documents. It’s always close to us. Closeness fosters affection. Affection is care, it is a sign of love and feeling”, says Joanna Wawiórka- Kamieniecka, the festival’s director. “On this warm and wonder-filled Night, we invite you to look at the city with kindness and care, embrace its imperfect beauty with all of its wrinkles and cracks. On this one night, Lublin transforms beyond recognition but it does not pretend to be a flighty greenhorn. It is mature, beautiful, wise and has a lot to say”.
The yard of a thousand balloons
Big and small balloons have accompanied Night of Culture since forever…This time, we’d like to invite you to a rarely visited backyard to see its new appearance. Decorated with 1500 colourful glass balloons, it will become one of the most magical locations of this year’s Night of Culture.
Where: it’s a secret! Look for it somewhere near the Market Square
P87end and “The recurrent nocturnal migrations of Night of Culture people”
Night of Culture always highlights spaces that we hardly ever visit. This time, we will follow untrodden paths filled with music . Sometimes, it’s a good idea to visit places we haven’t dared to, perhaps because we are afraid to do so or uncertain if they might appeal to us. Krzysztof Penderecki’s music seems to be a case in point. Krzysztof Penderecki passed away at the age of 87 on 29 March 2020 in Cracow. The pandemic has not allowed us to pay him our last respects, but there will come a time for that. On Night of Culture, come with us on a stroll along the streets of the Old Town. You will hear 87 of the master’s pieces coming from the loudspeakers. The sound-filled stroll will be accompanied by the text “The recurrent nocturnal migrations of Night of Culture people” read in Polish by Krystyna Czubówna.
Where: various Night of Culture locations
City Teddies
There are many stories explaining how the first teddy was created, some are quite macabre. One thing is certain: creating such toys is art! Get acquainted with teddies that were created during March workshops with Yanina Kazak from Belarus. After the workshop, the teddies were taken for a walk around rarely visited corners of Lublin’s Old Town. Ignac Tokarczyk photographed them.
Where: Ku Farze street.
Aye at Perła
An installation designed and created by Karolina Karpińska. It consists of thirty large-scale glass eyes. Each of them is unique and one of a kind because with every firing process glass always turns out a little different. Imagine huge, transparent eyes straight out of some bizarre dream or a fairy tale and atmospheric lighting…aye, you must see it.
Where: Perła Brewery, Bernardyńska 15.
The Little Prince in the Gate
We all know perfectly well that what’s important is often invisible to the eye so there is something we want to show you. “I believe that the little Prince left his asteroid in the same way as a flock of birds would do”– the Yarn Bombing group knitted a picture of this picturesque moment. Aside from that, you will see a part of “The Little Prince” collection of books in different languages. The owner of the collection is Emilia Kietlińska-Drozd who has been gathering these books for over 20 years.
Where: Archidiakońska 1 / gate
re4rest – An original, pioneering project by Patka Smirnow and Karina Królak. For many months between 20016 and 2019, the artists processed recycled materials – PET bottles they found in the capital and collected from family and friends. They have used several thousand of these bottles to create a jungle, a garden of exotic plants. Every part is handmade and dyed with environmentally friendly lacquers. The artists transform trash into works of art. Where: Jezuicka 16
Hodge Podge
An extraordinary mixture of different colours and textures. An installation made up of four thousand ping pong balls will be hung above the heads of strollers, tiny fairy-tale like houses made by children will make viewers feel like Gullivers, while colourful lanterns made from glass as well as juice and milk cartons will illuminate the darkness.
Where: Szambelańska street
Projection Mapping contest – Results
This year, projection mappings will once again appear on the walls of the Czartoryski Family Palace in Lublin. You will see contest entries submitted by artists from Lublin and other cities in Poland, but also creators from France and Japan. The entries feature moving shadows and elements of architecture, dynamic colours, and other effects that show the artists’ skills and imagination.
Where: The Czartoryski Palace / façade
The Fight Between Carnival and Lent
“My soul yearns for lent and my body for carnival”, wrote Jacek Kaczmarski in a song inspired by Pieter Bruegel’s painting “The Fight between Carnival and Lent”. And what does Jarosław Koziara have to say about this? See for yourselves…
Where: Grodzka street
City Jungle – This piece has been inspired by the complexity of rainforests, the arrangement of individual floors of vegetation and their diversity. The installation is made from recycled plastic plants that imitate the form and colour of exotic species of flora.
Where: Jezuicka 16
Afterimages – Night of Culture’s memory lane – Autumn is the perfect time to reminisce. Join us in recalling Night of Culture’s installations from recent years. For some time now, we have been collecting mementoes from the previous editions of Night of Culture, and for this year’s edition we have brought out our menagerie from the closet.
Where: Jezuicka street
The fisherman from Rybna (Fish) street – Few people know that the façade of Rybna Gate features a painting by Włądysław Filipiak. It is hardly noticeable in daylight, but what about at night? Check out the installation by Bartłomiej Polak.
Where: Rybna Gate (facade)
Urban scented pillows – How does Lublin smell? Extra-large scented pillows have been made during the workshop The Art of Play: Project scent. During the class, children created a map of scents of the Old Town. According to kinds, the place in the most dire need of such fresheners is the trash bin at Ku Farze street.
Where: Ku Farze street
Necktie dresses – Dresses made from ties. The ties were used in “Tiescade” – an installation made from several thousand ties donated by Lublin’s residents in 2018. It was a cascading installation that carried with it the tales and memories of several hundred contributors. It was made by students of Landscape Architecture and floristics under the supervision of Paweł Adamiec. This year, we will see another iteration of the magical ties, this time they will be transformed into dresses.
Where: Po Farze Square
Planet Lublin – an art installation inspired by the traditional earth globe, in which the world has been replaced by one city. How does one extract a fragment from the world and use it to create an autonomous, finite reality, how does one transform a city into an entire world? Planet Lublin is not a literal, but rather an imagined world, a country full of new connections and possibilities.
Where: Łokietka square
CityTender: maple and black locust– The June Night of Culture was pushed back to autumn due to the pandemic. Despite this delay, the Night of Culture team wondered how to fulfill Night of Culture’s 2020 theme:CityTender for the original event date. We concluded that one of the best and most beautiful ways of giving the city affection is to plant new trees. As a result, we can now proudly present Norway maple and black locust.
Where: Radziwiłłowska street (maple), Wróblewskiego street (black locust)
Organisers: Workshops of Culture in Lublin, The City of Lublin
Honorary Patronage: The Mayor of Lublin, Krzysztof Żuk
Media Patronage: TVP 2, TVP Kultura, TVP 3 Lublin, Radio Lublin
Sponsors: Perła – Browary Lubelskie S.A., Skende, Ikea
Full programme in English: nockultury.pl