Also known, in German, as Breslau, the inhabitants of this Polish town are retelling their history through culture. This Cultural Capital of Europe 2016 launched its year in icy temperatures and snow.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/J. Skarzynski
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Wroclaw: Dwarves and burning islands
2016 is an important year for Wroclaw – also known, in German, as Breslau. Its inhabitants are retelling the history of their city through culture: A European project in the heart of Poland.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Commitment
Jonas Dzibua's fingers are numb. He doesn't mind, though – he keeps on playing. Dzibua is a student who's volunteering in one of the many small culture tents. With the help of a little glühwein, he plays until late into the night to promote the European Capital of Culture.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Rynek illuminated
The biggest stage is the historic square in the center of Wroclaw. Even in subzero temperatures, lights are dancing around the Town Hall and the reconstructed baroque townhouses
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Burning islands
The River Oder flows through Wroclaw. The city was founded on 12 islands in the Middle Ages. Young fire artists celebrate the city's development into a dynamic Polish metropolis in a theatrical promenade performance, moving from one island to the next.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Complex history
"Until 1945, Breslau was a German city," explains curator Chris Baldwin. After the Second World War, there was an enforced population exchange. Wroclaw became Polish and had to be rebuilt, as it had been destroyed completely. Communist dictatorship followed, then the democratic revolution. This complex history is Baldwin's main theme.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Memorials everywhere
Jewish life flourished in Wroclaw until it was destroyed by the Nazis. In 1941, they murdered the historian and teacher Willy Cohn. The City of Culture has put up memorials, commemorating his story and those of many others.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Comical memorials
More than 300 bronze dwarves recall a movement, which began in Wroclaw, to resist 40 years of Communist dictatorship. People ridiculed the Party by dressing up as dwarves and wearing the color orange. This dwarf bears a heart with the message "Wroc Love!"
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Creating anew
The Old Town has been rebuilt. The city is growing: department stores, industry, cultural venues. New histories need new buildings, which is why Wroclaw is interested in architecture. Prizewinning designs from all over Europe can be seen in some of Poland's architectural museums. This design is for a tower in Copenhagen, which was never actually built.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Understanding art
The light on the floor is art, the mother tells her child. The girl can't grasp this yet; instead, she tries to touch the light. Some stories are hard to understand.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Point by point
This is art. Do grown-ups understand it? The people of Wroclaw try to make sense of red dots on a white wall in the exhibition "Hikikomori". According to the museum guide you have to concentrate them in your mind; then a new story will be created.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
New and old stories
Perhaps when they are concentrated, they produce the logo of the Capital of Culture: A white W(roclaw) radiating red and white stripes. It's a splash of modern color alongside the facades of the Old Town, some of which are still rather gray.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Contemporaries in the bunker
Wroclaw's former high-rise bunker is now a venue for contemporary exhibitions. In front of it, an old steam locomotive heads for the sky. New created out of old. According to the people of Wroclaw, their city is a dynamic center of the Polish cultural scene.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Culture in the suburbs
The old, juddering trams from the Communist days still run in the concrete pre-fab housing estates on the outskirts of town. But at least, they're colorful, and sport the logo of the City of Culture. People all over Wroclaw are being encouraged to enjoy and create culture, not just in museums or the opera. The city is looking for new stories.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
More color with Barbara
The Bar "Bar a" is the new center of the Capital of Culture. This is where its histories come together. This artists' bar, formerly known as "Barbara," is on the spot where the opposition used to meet in Communist times. Wroclaw wants to be free to tell itsvstory – after 2016, too. The new national-conservative government in Warsaw is a long way from here, say the people of Wroclaw.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
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Musicians in Wroclaw defied the cold for the opening weekend as Cultural Capital of Europe 2016. They played jazz, classical and folk music in the open air. Music lovers stood alongside local homeless people around the coke stoves that had been set up for the open-air performances. The heated tent on one of Wroclaw's squares attracted a fairly large crowd.
Kryzsztof Maj, festival director for the European Year of Culture in WroclawImage: DW/B. Riegert
Despite the cold, the people of Wroclaw were on fire – those, at least, who were watching the "Burning Islands" acrobatics and fire dance spectacle. This was a promenade performance, moving between stages and different scenes on Slodowa ("Malt") Island near the Old Town.
Kryzsztof Maj, the festival director for the European Year of Culture in Wroclaw, had some momentous words for the opening, describing the opportunity to be promoted as Europe's cultural visiting card as "the most important year in Wroclaw's post-war history." An ambitious program of more than one thousand events awaits. The organizers hope it will attract twice the usual number of visitors to the city, thereby benefiting the region not only culturally but economically, too.
Wroclaw: Dwarves and burning islands
2016 is an important year for Wroclaw – also known, in German, as Breslau. Its inhabitants are retelling the history of their city through culture: A European project in the heart of Poland.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Commitment
Jonas Dzibua's fingers are numb. He doesn't mind, though – he keeps on playing. Dzibua is a student who's volunteering in one of the many small culture tents. With the help of a little glühwein, he plays until late into the night to promote the European Capital of Culture.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Rynek illuminated
The biggest stage is the historic square in the center of Wroclaw. Even in subzero temperatures, lights are dancing around the Town Hall and the reconstructed baroque townhouses
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Burning islands
The River Oder flows through Wroclaw. The city was founded on 12 islands in the Middle Ages. Young fire artists celebrate the city's development into a dynamic Polish metropolis in a theatrical promenade performance, moving from one island to the next.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Complex history
"Until 1945, Breslau was a German city," explains curator Chris Baldwin. After the Second World War, there was an enforced population exchange. Wroclaw became Polish and had to be rebuilt, as it had been destroyed completely. Communist dictatorship followed, then the democratic revolution. This complex history is Baldwin's main theme.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Memorials everywhere
Jewish life flourished in Wroclaw until it was destroyed by the Nazis. In 1941, they murdered the historian and teacher Willy Cohn. The City of Culture has put up memorials, commemorating his story and those of many others.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Comical memorials
More than 300 bronze dwarves recall a movement, which began in Wroclaw, to resist 40 years of Communist dictatorship. People ridiculed the Party by dressing up as dwarves and wearing the color orange. This dwarf bears a heart with the message "Wroc Love!"
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Creating anew
The Old Town has been rebuilt. The city is growing: department stores, industry, cultural venues. New histories need new buildings, which is why Wroclaw is interested in architecture. Prizewinning designs from all over Europe can be seen in some of Poland's architectural museums. This design is for a tower in Copenhagen, which was never actually built.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Understanding art
The light on the floor is art, the mother tells her child. The girl can't grasp this yet; instead, she tries to touch the light. Some stories are hard to understand.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Point by point
This is art. Do grown-ups understand it? The people of Wroclaw try to make sense of red dots on a white wall in the exhibition "Hikikomori". According to the museum guide you have to concentrate them in your mind; then a new story will be created.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
New and old stories
Perhaps when they are concentrated, they produce the logo of the Capital of Culture: A white W(roclaw) radiating red and white stripes. It's a splash of modern color alongside the facades of the Old Town, some of which are still rather gray.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Contemporaries in the bunker
Wroclaw's former high-rise bunker is now a venue for contemporary exhibitions. In front of it, an old steam locomotive heads for the sky. New created out of old. According to the people of Wroclaw, their city is a dynamic center of the Polish cultural scene.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
Culture in the suburbs
The old, juddering trams from the Communist days still run in the concrete pre-fab housing estates on the outskirts of town. But at least, they're colorful, and sport the logo of the City of Culture. People all over Wroclaw are being encouraged to enjoy and create culture, not just in museums or the opera. The city is looking for new stories.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
More color with Barbara
The Bar "Bar a" is the new center of the Capital of Culture. This is where its histories come together. This artists' bar, formerly known as "Barbara," is on the spot where the opposition used to meet in Communist times. Wroclaw wants to be free to tell itsvstory – after 2016, too. The new national-conservative government in Warsaw is a long way from here, say the people of Wroclaw.
Image: DW/B. Riegert
13 images1 | 13
European Capitals of Culture
Wroclaw is one of the two European Capitals of Culture 2016, along with San Sebastian in Spain's Basque region. Wroclaw is in the south-west of Poland on the River Oder, and more than 600,000 people live here.
Until its German population was expelled after World War Two, Wroclaw (then known by its German name, Breslau) was the capital of the province of Silesia. However, big changes took place after 1945: People who had been driven out of the city of Lwow in eastern Poland (now Lviv, in Ukraine) were settled here. Breslau became Wroclaw, and took a while for its new citizens to feel fully at home here.
The National Forum for Music in Wroclaw-BreslauImage: DW/B. Riegert
The search for a new identity is a theme that's also being addressed during its year as Cultural Capital. For Mary Sadowska, one of the artists performing at the opening ceremony, this element is a highly topical one. "It's also talking about what's happening in Europe right now: about refugees who arrive in a foreign place and meet with different reactions," she said.
