Opolno-Zdrój Is the Future!

U–jazdowski / Information / Opolno-Zdrój Is the Future!

06—07/12/2024

conference

From Conceptual Symposiums to Just Transition

Opolno-Zdrój is a former spa town located on the edge of the Turów lignite mine in the transnational Zgorzelec region (Upper Lusatia), at the meeting point of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany. Once famous for its mineral waters and healing mud, today it grapples with the social, economic, political, and environmental consequences of decades of extractive industry.
Amid the international dispute surrounding the Turów mine, ongoing court proceedings, and the inevitable energy transition taking place across Europe, Opolno-Zdrój faces pressing questions about its future: what could life look like in the region once the coal mines are gone?
The conference, Opolno-Zdrój Is the Future! From Conceptual Symposiums to Just Transition, stems from several years of engagement by a group of artists connected to The Office for Postartistic Services, collaborating with the Opolno-Zdrój community. The event will feature screenings, presentations, and discussion panels involving local residents, Polish, Czech, and German activists, experts, and creators working in the region. Together, we will explore the town’s complex past, challenging present, and uncertain future while addressing environmental and social costs of the mining industry, the climate crisis, and energy transition. The event will also highlight activities undertaken in Opolno-Zdrój over the past four years and discuss how artistic and (post)artistic tools can respond to the climate crisis, inspire imagination, speculate about the future, and support the processes of energy, social, and cultural transformation.
Why Opolno-Zdrój?
The town came into the spotlight in early 2021 when the Czech government filed a complaint with the European Court of Justice over the extension of mining operations at the Turów mine until 2044. This decision threatened to erase half of Opolno-Zdrój, rich in historic spa architecture, exacerbate existing community challenges, and further degrade the environment. Although an agreement between Poland and the Czech Republic was officially signed in 2022, the Turów dispute persists. Legal cases, including those initiated by Polish climate and environmental organizations and the German city of Zittau, remain unresolved. The current mining concession is valid until the end of 2026. Decisions on the mine’s future, and consequently Opolno-Zdrój’s fate, depend on rulings by Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court and the direction of regional, national, and EU climate and energy policies.
Opolno-Zdrój also holds significant importance in Polish art history. In July 1971, it hosted the pioneering ecological art symposium Zgorzelec Land 1971: Science and Art in the Process of Protecting Humans’ Natural Environment. Attended by prominent Polish artists, scientists, experts, and local residents (including miners and mine management), the event focused entirely on ecological issues, marking a foundational moment for emerging environmental awareness in the Polish art world. The direct proximity of the mine, power plant, and industrial landscape, as well as the program of the art symposium, inspired artists to create ecological artistic expressions and engage in discussions about the relationship between humans and the environment.
Since 2021, as The Office for Postartistic Services (Fundacja Nowej Kultury Bęc Zmiana), we have been collaborating with the community of Opolno-Zdrój, organizing assemblies and artistic residencies, educational activities, workshops, and integrative events that reference the historical art symposium and aim to address the challenges facing the town. We work together with researchers and climate activists active in the region from Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic. We use art and culture as a driving force for discussions about the difficult past and uncertain future of this place, as well as to support the challenging process of transformation.
We enable artists to engage in careful and sensitive collaboration with the local community and use artistic tools, creative imagination, and speculative methods to collectively develop visions of a just, sustainable, and beautiful future for the entire region. We draw upon the rich history and unique features of Opolno-Zdrój – its past as a health resort and tourist destination, the long period of socialist modernization based on mining and industry, the transnational character of the region, as well as memories and actions stemming from the art symposium of 1971. The primary goal of our activities in Opolno-Zdrój is to strengthen transnational cooperation, support the social and cultural aspects of the region’s just transition process, and, together with the town’s residents, create a potential vision for the future of this place. The
Office for Postartistic Services is a unit operating within the structure of the Fundacja Nowej Kultury Bęc Zmiana, aimed at supporting social and political movements with artistic activities and strengthening various forms of activism. This project is carried out under the patronage of the Fundacja Nowej Kultury Bęc Zmiana, with financial support from the Sigrid Rausing Trust and the European Cultural Foundation, in collaboration with the Stowarzyszenie "Na Trójstyku" and the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art.