There are some terms or ideas that people use very often and everybody can understand the meaning, but at the same time it’s very difficult to create a short definition of it. There are also some that for each person would mean something different. A good example of such a word is ‘culture’. I wanted to talk about it with the specialists – but not those with academic titles in front of the surname, but those, who have a real contact with that term and know it inside out: the workers of the Palace of Culture in Warsaw. The told me that culture is everywhere around, that it fills all the rooms and spaces and also that it’s an every single trace of human’s activity. So I decided to track down those traces.

Palace of Culture and Science is a notable high-rise building in Warsaw, Poland (the tallest building in the country, the eighth-tallest building in the European Union). Constructed in 1955, it is the center for various companies, public institutions and cultural activities such as concerts, cinemas, theaters, libraries, scientific institutions and authorities of the Polish Academy of Sciences. A gift from the Soviet Union to the people of Poland, the building was originally known as the Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture and Science, but in the wake of destalinization the dedication to Stalin was revoked. Stalin’s name was removed from the colonnade, interior lobby and one of the building’s sculptures, but for many people it remained as a symbol of communism.

High Culture
Marta Wódz

Self-published
2018

119 pages
18 x 12.5 x 1.5 cm

Edition of 15