The literary installation Poste restante is a symbolic attempt at reviving the remembrance of former residents of the tenement house in 5 Grodzka Street and of stories connected with the building’s labyrinth of passages and staircases.
To make this happen, we bring these people and their stories back to this particular place via assigning them both addresses and letter boxes signed with their names. Located in the corridors and staircases of the house in 5 Grodzka Street, the letter boxes will become an allegory of the return of the bygone. The boxes will contain collages of letter, reconstructed and composed based on archive recordings, documents and notes about this tenement house and its residents. Poste restante also expresses awareness of the fact that the letters put into these letter boxes will never reach their addressees. They will remain undelivered, so as long as we let them be so, they will remain a testimony of our remembrance.
The installation is supplemented by the screening of Poste restante (2008), a short film written and directed by Marcel Łoziński. This 14-minute documentary tells a story about the life of one of million of letters that end up every year at the Dead Letter Office in Koluszki. The Office stores letters whose addressees could not be found.
Paweł Laufer (1980-) is a philosopher, writer and journalist with both Polish and foreign magazines and dailies. He is the founder and president of the Open Culture Foundation (www.fundacjaopenculture.org ) which carries out cultural, research, publishing, social and media projects, particularly in cooperation with Eastern partners. He is the vice-editor-in-chief of the Kultura Enter magazine, where he also works as a reporter with the Eastern Affairs Section. He initiated the Kultura Enter Meetings series. Laufer was the originator and coordinator of international art and research projects (e.g. a multilingual series of 7 reports on culture and non-governmental organizations in Eastern Partnership countries and Russia). He was a participant, author and co-author of such actions as O podniesieniu rzeczy zdegradowanej. Kostia Berezin – Mikołaj Mann (1938-1939) (2009, the Sztuka Pamięci series), Fort Missi literary scene (Ukraine, Popowyche 2011), Kostia Berezin – still alive! (2011), as well as a critic with Biuro tłumaczeń sztuki (2010-2011) and Formy przestrzenne jako centrum wszystkiego (Elbląg, 2012). He was a member of the team working on Lublin’s two applications in the European City of Culture 2016 contest. He won the 2009 Żurawie Award for Best Word and the 2009 Mayor of Lublin Award for artistic achievements. Laufer authored the following books: Miasto na prowincji (2004), Buty Mesjasza. Traktat o podniesieniu rzeczy zdegradowanej (2010), Raport o stanie kultury niezależnej i NGO w Białorusi (2011), (Ed.). Raport o stanie kultury i NGO w Ukrainie (2012), (Ed.). Rzecz pospolita. Ćwiczenia z oczywistością rzeczy (in preparation).
The installation is open Monday through Friday, between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Curated by: Magdalena Ujma
Coordinated by: Anna Gładysz
Organized by: Workshops of Culture in Lublin
Funded from the funds of the Minister of Culture and national Heritage.