MCSW Elektrownia
 MCSW "Elektrownia", exterior view of new and old buildings (back) |
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| Data | |
|---|---|
| place | Radom , Poland |
| Art |
Art museum
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| opening | 2014 |
| management |
Włodzimierz Pujanek (since 2008)
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| Website | |
The Mazowieckie Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej "Elektrownia" (MCSW "Elektrownia") ( German Masovian Center of Contemporary Art "Kraftwerk" ) in Radom is a cultural institution of the Masovian Voivodeship . The center collects and presents contemporary art from Poland and abroad. The educational and information offerings also include a library and a cinema. The center was founded in 2005 and opened in 2014 in the city's former power station, which supplied electricity from 1901 to 1956 and heating until 1998 .
history
20th century
Radom was an important administrative seat and seat of military institutions in the Vistula region of the Russian Empire . The city had also developed into an economic and industrial center in the second half of the 19th century. Since 1896 the city presidents made efforts to build a power station. On December 3, 1899, the Ministry of the Interior gave the Governor General in Warsaw permission to set up electrical lighting in Radom. On April 14, 1900, the contract with the Russian joint-stock company UNION was signed in Saint Petersburg .
The power plant was built by the Radom company Edward Kosiński in neo-Gothic style from red brick. The two steam engines , each with 110 horsepower , were supplied by the Heinrich Lanz company in Mannheim . Two dynamo-electric machines from the UNION plant in Riga generated 550 volts at a maximum of 118 amperes and an output of 65 kilowatts . The generated direct current could be stored in a battery system. The power station and the city's first 58 arc lamps began operating on March 15, 1901. Comparable power plants in the Vistula region were only built in 1903 in Warsaw and in 1907 in Łódź .
After the independence of Poland , the factory was thoroughly modernized from 1920 by director Aleksander Chądzyński. The growing demand for energy required permanent adaptation to the state of the art. In 1924 the power plant began to generate alternating current . It employed around 70 people. The power plant came under German administration in 1941 and Chądzyński was deported to Auschwitz and murdered there. Two weeks after the liberation by the Red Army , a machine set was able to start operating again in the power station. As the technology was out of date and the power plant had insufficient production capacity, electricity generation was stopped in 1956. In the same year, the last direct current networks in the city were closed.
The power plant was rebuilt and commissioned in 1963 as municipal heating plant No. 3. It supplied the nearby city hospital with heat until the 1997/1998 heating season. The hall in which the heat exchangers were located was converted into a conference and banquet hall, which was first used by the city and then by a private operator.
21st century
In 2003, director Andrzej Wajda suggested that the city build a pavilion in the Stary Ogród Park in order to expand the exhibition capacity of the Jacek Malczewski Museum in the field of contemporary art. Wajda was an honorary citizen of the city where he lived from 1935 to 1946. The world-famous director and his wife Krystyna Zachwatowicz donated over 70 works to the collections in Radom. The City Council's Culture Council supported the idea. The voivodeship as the sponsor of the museum was also interested. Ten suggestions were drawn up for the location and Wajda's opinion was expected.
In January 2004, Radomer Kai Koziarskie's idea was presented in the local Gazeta Wyborcza to adapt the construction of the old power station for the purposes of the new art center. The project was the subject of his thesis at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in the subject of interior design . The idea met with great support, including Wajdas. The advantages were obvious, the building had sufficient volume, was close to the city center and was a monument of the industrial history of Radom. At the beginning of June 2004, representatives of the city and the voivodeship agreed on the art center and its location.
On December 19, 2005, the Mazovian Regional Assembly approved the establishment of the new Mazowieckie Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej "Elektrownia" cultural institution in Radom. The first exhibition in the power station building was opened on March 4, 2006 for Wajda's 80th birthday (March 6). Photographs showed works that the honorary citizen had donated to the museum. The two-stage architectural competition was carried out from October 2006 to February 2007. The winner was a team led by Andrzej Kikowski from Warsaw. The 14 competition entries were shown in the Galeria Zachęta . In December 2007, the power plant organized the Koksownik Film Festival and participated in the organization of the first edition of the Jerzy Busza Art Festival . The arts festival began on August 1st, 2008 at 5:00 p.m., at the hour and anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, and ended like it on October 3rd. Almost 300 artists from all over Poland took part.
On January 7, 2011, the start of construction of the renovation was celebrated. The construction work was delayed because old canals were found under the building and load-bearing parts had to be reinforced. The work was completed in spring 2014. The project was financed by the voivodeship with co-financing from the city and the European Regional Development Fund. In mid-2010, the art center moved into alternative quarters in the building of a former wood processing company.
After setting up the interior and the exhibition rooms, the offices and the depot, the converted building was inaugurated on November 6, 2014. This was combined with the opening of an exhibition with selected works from the collections of the Radom Museum and the center. The first screening took place on November 9, 2015 in the Kraftwerk's cinema. The hall is modeled on George Lucas' private studio cinema . The cinema has been named after Andrzej Wajda since January 12, 2017.
In the poll for Polish Architecture XXL , the renovation of the center won first prize in the category “public facilities” in 2015.
management
- Agata Morgan, 2005-2007
- Zbigniew Belowski, 2007–2008, since 2008 deputy director for artistic affairs
- Włodzimierz Pujanek, since 2008.
description
The centre's collections include around 4,500 works from the former Museum of Contemporary Art (a branch of the Jacek Malczewski Museum) and 600 new acquisitions from 2005–2014. The center also maintains a specialist library that can be used by visitors.
In the renovated buildings of the renovated power plant, exhibition rooms, administration rooms and workshops for restoration were built. The ceiling height of the industrial halls was often retained. Parts of historical coal bunkers, boilers or fittings were also left in their place.
A new building was erected behind the old buildings, which houses exhibition rooms, a café and a studio cinema with 120 seats. It is the only cinema in Poland with a Meyer Sound Laboratories system . The project also included the construction of a viewing platform and the creation of a parking lot and green spaces.
Web links
- Art Center website (Polish)
- mcswelektrownia.pl: Historia Elektrowni. (Polish)
- 26600.pl: Mazowieckie Center Sztuki Współczesnej "ELEKTROWNIA". (Polish, cultural site of the city of Radom)
literature
- Mazovia Center for Contemporary Art “Kraftwerk”. In: Ewa Kutyła: Walk through Radom . 3rd edition, Radom 2015. pp. 48–49.
- Tomasz Staniszewski: Elektrownia miejska w Radomiu 1901–1956. Radome 2017.
Individual evidence
- ^ Mazovia Center for Contemporary Art “Kraftwerk”. In: Ewa Kutyła: Walk through Radom . 3. Edition. Radom 2015, p. 48.
- ^ Mazovia Center for Contemporary Art “Kraftwerk”. In: Ewa Kutyła: Walk through Radom . 3. Edition. Radom 2015, p. 49.
Coordinates: 51 ° 23 '53.2 " N , 21 ° 8' 59.2" E