{"id":99943,"date":"2023-09-13T11:12:02","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T09:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.humboldtforum.org\/?post_type=event&p=99943"},"modified":"2023-10-04T15:32:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T13:32:49","slug":"palaces-of-culture-aesthetics-ideology-practice","status":"publish","type":"event","link":"https:\/\/www.humboldtforum.org\/en\/programm\/termin\/discourse\/palaces-of-culture-aesthetics-ideology-practice-99943\/","title":{"rendered":"Panel 2: The Warsaw Palace of Culture as an epicentre of urban transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Palaces of Culture featured prominently in the educational and cultural policies of socialist states. As places of encounter and education, of culture and sport, they were part of the social engineering practised by the state. At the same time, they were architectural icons of many Eastern, Central and Southern European capitals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t

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But Palaces of Culture were found not only in the heart of socialist metropolises. \u201cHouses of Culture\u201d were systematically established in smaller towns and suburbs too, where people could take advantage of education, culture and sports offerings that also served to shape the \u201csocialist citizen\u201d. Then, in the years of change around 1989, Houses and Palaces of Culture played an important role as physical venues in the system transformation. Today, the architectural and cultural heritage of these Palaces is handled in ways that are as diverse as the societies of Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. In five panel discussions curated by the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), visitors to the Humboldt Forum will take a look at Warsaw, Kyiv, Belgrade and Minsk together with guests from the respective countries. They will learn more about the socialist idea of Palaces of Culture, urban debates, revolutions in the city environment, international discourses, political protests, state power, and shrinking spaces for culture.<\/p>\n

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It is hard to find anyone in Warsaw who does not have a strong opinion about the Palace of Culture. Once a \u201cgift\u201d from Stalin, it has shaped the city\u2019s skyline since the 1950s. Several times, there have been plans to demolish the giant complex of buildings, but it still dominates the city centre today. The Palace of Culture has variously housed a cinema, a theatre, restaurants, sports facilities, event halls and a swimming pool. From the refurbished observation deck overlooking the city, tourists now gaze up at glass skyscrapers of multinational corporations towering into the Warsaw sky. The building has long since become a \u201csocialist enclave in a post-socialist city\u201d (Micha\u0142 Murawski), as Warsaw now has more shopping malls and gated communities than Berlin, with ever-rising property prices. In Warsaw, too, this is why people are discussing who the city really belongs to. In this panel, we will examine how local people are dealing with the legacy of the Palace of Culture \u2013 and what debates they are having about displacement and gentrification in a dynamic European capital.<\/p>\n

Speakers
\n<\/strong>Dr. Micha\u0142 Murawski, Associate Professor of Critical Area Studies, University College London
\nMartyna Obarska, Cultural Scientist, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Culture and Media, SWPS University, Warsaw.<\/p>\n

Moderator<\/strong>
\nEmilia Smechowski, Editor-in-Chief, ZEITmagazin, Berlin<\/p>\n

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