September 16, 2025
Is a garden possible here? – this question, both literally and metaphorically, set the direction for our research–artistic project. The green space at the Mazovian Institute of Culture, though seemingly ordinary, became our laboratory – a place where we searched for ways of understanding shared space that go beyond the obvious.
The starting point was the status of the site itself: the space we explored is normally inaccessible. It lies behind a closed gate, invisible and excluded from everyday use. The situation is further complicated by the place’s specific administrative and legal structure: multiple owners holding rights to different parts of the area and a multi-layered decision-making hierarchy. Taken together, these conditions make it difficult to undertake long-term efforts to revitalize the site and return it to the local community.
We began with the assumption that what we can currently do for this place is to take it seriously and examine it in order to reveal its creative and social potential. Our research covered many layers of the site: we looked at its history, biological structure, soil and air quality, the surrounding architecture, and its aesthetics. Each of these areas revealed different aspects of the space – sometimes forgotten, sometimes suppressed, and sometimes surprisingly vibrant. The project involved students and a lecturer from the School of Form, as well as curators from Galeria XX1 and Galeria Foksal, who worked together to create research methods suited to the specific character of this place. Our approach was process-based and experimental, with no predetermined outcomes. What mattered more than the final result was the experience of the space itself – an experience we wanted to continue to share.
This zine is a documentation of our work — fragmentary, polyphonic, at times chaotic, yet honest about the process our team went through. At the end of the publication there is a speculative section – a space for imagining what could happen if this site were treated as a field for creative interventions and alternative narratives about the city.
Kolektyw: Ola Andrzejewska, Jagoda Bergel, Michalina Kaczmarek, Zuzanna Kotwas, Jan Polak, Maks Sikorski, Martyna Stołpiec, Milena Stryjewska, Helena Zdrojewska
Organizers Masovian Institut of Culture, XX1 Gallery, Foksal Gallery
Partners: School of Form SWPS, NN6T
Acknowledgements: Beata Frankowska-Patrzykont
Photo: Ignacy Skwarcan
English (UK) 
Polski