The KTO Theater, which has been operating for 44 years, has finally lived to see its headquarters. Does this mean that the hitherto wandering, street theater will be closed within four walls? Definitely not! The building, created especially for the theater (although partially inscribed in the framework of historical buildings, but more on that later), is an open facility - both symbolically and quite literally.
KTO was founded in 1977 by students of the Jagiellonian University, and a few years later the company began its adventure with the art of traveling theater and performances at major festivals in the country and around the world. Since 1988, the KTO Theater has been organizing the International Festival of Street Theaters in Krakow, and it was on the occasion of the 34th edition of the event that the new venue was inaugurated with the performance "Open Theater," directed by KTO director Jerzy Zonia.
The opening of KTO's new headquarters
photo: Michal Musielak Studio
Located in Krakow's Podgórze district at 50 Jana Zamoyskiego St., it is on the site where the Congregation of St. Vincent á Paulo's asylum was built in the late 1880s, later rebuilt for the Wrzos movie theater, which operated until 2016.
The author of the idea and architectural concept for the new theater building is Alek Janicki, artist, stage designer, co-author, among others, of the multimedia Polish Pavilion for Expo 2005 in Aichi (with Krzysztof Ingarden and Ingarden & Ewý architects), co-creator of the world's unique complex realized in accordance with the canons of Japanese architecture of the European Budo Center - Dōjō Stara Wieś, or numerous multimedia museum exhibitions in Poland and abroad (among others, author's works).Poland and abroad (including author's expositions on the occasion of the arrival of the Imperial Couple of Japan at the Manggha Museum, author's exhibition on the occasion of the 25thanniversary of the Manggha Museum, the Józef Czapski Pavilion, a branch of the MN inKrakow, the Nicolaus Copernicus Museum in Torun, the design of the Forest Opera House in Sopot or numerous realizations for the Cracow Saltworks Museum and the Wieliczka Salt Mine. The artist's most recent realization was his interdisciplinary exhibition "East-West-Infinity", realized at the invitation of the Japanese side at Tresures Gallery in Tokyo on the occasion of the 100thanniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Poland and Japan).
view from the side of the Bednarski Park
Photo: Pawel Mazur (bankfoto.info)
In order to convince the city authorities that it was worth investing in this project, in something that would not be just a conservative structure for the existing building, which was in a very bad condition, we made visualizations and a full functional plan as if this project would already be implemented, Janicki recalls. Thanks to this presentation at the City Hall, the project gained approval from the City Council's culture committee. I also showed the project, the charts and the mock-up during the Podgórze Days at my gallery at 21 Józefińska St. It's worth noting that Podgórze has a very active support group - citizens who are keenly interested in what's happening in the area and support all cultural initiatives. When they came to the gallery and got acquainted with the project, they said that if the city authorities don't favor the implementation, they will chain themselves! [Laughs] This environmental power helped us win what we can see today," the artist adds.
Fortunately, the residents of Podgórze did not have to protest - the city authorities gave the project the green light, and in 2018 Alek Janicki began working on the realization with architect Mariusz Twardowski and his team from the MTWW studio.
facade of the building
Photo: Pawel Mazur (bankfoto.info)
The historic building, although not included in the list of monuments, was included in the development plan and included in the conservation care. The authors of the project were therefore obliged to inscribe the new volume within the outline of the 19th-century block (the fact that the original building had an apse can be seen in the server room) and preserve the facade. And it is from it, the front façade, that the whole story of the building begins, a performance to which Janicki invites viewers still from the level of the steep foothill streets.
Reconstructed on the basis of archival drawings and using historical materials, the white, modestly decorated façade, according to the author's assumptions, plays the role of a pledge, i.e. an element of stage decoration, which in the theater is used to obscure certain parts from the audience's view. Stepping inside, one notices that this bollard, as is the case with structures used on stage, is supported by technical bollards. Janicki consistently continued this poetics - the facade is separated from the main part of the theater by the open space of the foyer covered by a glass roof and, finally, contrasting with the white-painted reclaimed brick of the facade, the black box - an all-black, modern block housing the theater stage.
© KTO Theater
This multifunctional building, hidden behind a white facade and concealing a mysterious black box, also includes an exhibition space, a small indoor garden, a gazebo (an outdoor stage or cinema), a sensory garden with a terraced layout and finally a viewing terrace on the border of the plot. The series of treatments and solutions used, as Janicki emphasizes, is supposed to allow viewers, and the creators of performances, concerts and performances, to play with the space individually.
The building in a metaphorical sense has two axes, the artist explains. - The vertical one, because there are glazed witnesses in the floor in the foyer area, in which ammonites and silica can be seen, referring to the geological foundation of the building, and on the other side there is glazing and visible sky. The second axis, a horizontal one, is marked by a white pledge, or historical wall, further by the foyer, which separates us from the super-modern building of the theater hall itself, and the garden. If, in turn, one were to encapsulate this building in a triad of colors, it is the white of the historical elements, the black of the black box and the green of the garden," adds the author of the concept.
idok view of the theater headquarters from the garden; on the right - gazebo, additional theater stage
photo: Pawel Mazur (bankfoto.info)
The aforementioned black box is the theatrical equivalent of the white box known from art galleries - a universal space that does not limit the imagination of directors. The black box is made up of sound-absorbing, modular and controllable walls created in cooperation with sound experts from the AGH University of Science andTechnology, a state-of-the-art system allowing ambisonic sound control, giving the possibility of any seating arrangement and thethe nail of the show - an oculus in the roof, which, acting like an aperture in a camera, opens the building from above (the opening can be completely covered, exposed and glazed or completely open).
Opening of new WHO headquarters; scene in black box
photo: Michal Musielak Studio
The final part of the establishment is a spacious garden with a viewing platform, which visually blends into the hill of Bednarski Park. Inspired by the author's Japanese experience, the space is full of solutions to make the viewer feel at ease (in line with the idea of open theater). A gazebo, an additional theater stage (or open-air cinema) is located there, which can be enclosed with glass walls or covered with an opaque shell.
view of the viewing platform
Photo: Pawel Mazur (bankfoto.info)
Between the three main parts of the building, attention is drawn to the elaborate details - raw concrete walls, green terraces, visual identity referring to the theater's logo, original multimedia furniture (designed by the artist in collaboration with Maja Gralak), and even the graphite pavement in front of the entrance interspersed with led lights hidden in the floor, which gently signal the theater's presence to passersby.
The opening of the new KTO headquarters
photo: Michal Musielak Studio
Podgórze thus gained a new cultural space, hidden from the facade familiar to residents. You will be able to visit its nooks and crannies as early as September 25 during this year's Podgórze Days or one of the many performances planned by the KTO Theater. It's worth peeking behind the white "valve" to see for yourself what's hidden behind it.
