The Gdansk shipyard is a prime example of adaptive re-use versus gentrification. The Independent Self-governing Trade Union ‘Solidarity’ founded there made the shipyard internationally renowned with the strike by 17,000 shipyard workers regarded as one of the most important civil resistance campaigns in Europe, contributing to the collapse of the communist dictatorships in Central and Eastern Europe. However, after falling into disrepair, an urban strategy was put in place to regenerate the area, creating a modern waterfront district. In spite of the area’s rich cultural, social and political past, only 17 buildings out of around 100 were to be kept. As part of this strategy artists were invited to live in and use the shipyard as inspiration in order to gain a positive response towards the regeneration plans.
Photo by Michał Szlaga
The “Artists’ Colony” however, began to advocate for an alternative use of the shipyard, recognising the inherent value and embodied history of the place as a whole. Through various forms of media, including murals, photography and video installations, they began to change the local community’s perception of the shipyard as a derelict wasteland to a place of social, political and historic value worth saving.
“It will be hard for me to leave this place and the people that work here. You don’t know if you will make it to retirement, but you have to be optimistic. Sometimes it’s better not to think about that, because you may break down. It’s hard to leave, you feel so redundant, especially when you don’t have any other activity like keeping a garden or something, when you don’t have any additional entertainment, you feel really sad. In 1997 when they fired us and we didn’t know how it was gonna be with the shipyard, it was scary. I was worried I was too old and not in good health. Was I supposed to go on a dole? What money is this – a few pennies? And then where…? I can’t imagine anything other built in this place. There is a canal close to here, the open sea is close, there is no other way but to build ships non–stop, bigger or smaller but keep on building.”
Photo by Justyna Orłowska
Iwona Zajac, one of the artists residing within the shipyard, created a mural along the perimeter wall of the shipyard inscribing quotes from shipyard workers of their memories, emotions and dreams relating to the shipyard. These individual quotes show singular elements of the embodied memory of the shipyard and by focussing on the individual, Zajac distils the collective memory to a personal scale to which visitors and passers by can relate. Zajac also gives voice to the shipyard workers who were part of significant events in European history yet, like the shipyard itself, have been abandoned and forgotten.
The plans to regenerate the area led to protests by both the Artists’ Colony and local citizens against the gentrification of the shipyard. Zajac was offered the opportunity to remove the wall before the regeneration process began, however she refused, believing that the mural would lose its integrity and become an empty gesture. The work of the Artists’ Colony in Gdansk shows an alternative solution to gentrification by reactivating the values of a place through the changing of the local community’s perception.
Photo by Justyna Orłowska
“The Shipyard Nike Is Leaving” : http://vimeo.com/68158510
Architecture & Regeneration 