41 years ago - on August 30 in Szczecin, a day later in Gdansk, then successively in Jastrzêbie-Zdrój and D±browa Górnicza - agreements were signed between the government of the People's Republic of Poland and individual strike committees, which led to the formation of the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity." It is about these events and the beginnings of Solidarity that the temporary exhibition "Atlas of Memory," with designers from OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci studio behind the architectural design. The exhibition can be visited until July 25 in the Silesian Park in Chorzow.
The mobile exhibition space was designed with four black containers connected by platforms (colonnades) and a ramp allowing access to the roof, where green terraces were planned. Such a solution allows not only convenient transportation of the exhibition, but also provides a variety of arrangement possibilities. As the most interesting, the architects point to two variants - in a symbolic cross layout, where the individual arms are formed by built-up containers, and a square shape, in which alternating containers and platforms surround a small city square. Both layouts allow for the creation of smaller zones that can be used for exhibition events, relaxation or other functions.
scheme, variants
© OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci
Each of the containers, marked with the characteristic red Solidarity sign, houses an exhibition dedicated to one of the August agreements. They are connected by a similar structure - a multimedia art installation (designed by the tajnyproject collective) and steel pixels adorning the walls - spatial, cubic blocks on which information about the events of 1980 has been placed. As the authors of the project emphasize, each module uses a different steel, referring to the place or city to which the container is dedicated - rusted like abandoned ship's plates, raw, stainless steel or coal-like painted black.
bird's eye view
Photo: Radoslaw Kazmierczak © IK Ars Cameralis
Oskar Grąbczewski of OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci studio talks about the genesis of the project and its message.
Ola Kloc: The austere steel structure is full of symbolic solutions - you refer to the four August Agreements and the industrial genesis of Solidarity. What did your design process look like? Did you think first about the message you wanted to include in the design, or about the form itself?
Oskar Grąbczewski: The idea for the project came about during long, intensive discussions with the investor Ars Cameralis, historians from the Silesian Center for Freedom and Solidarity, the tajnyproject collective and contractors from PTE Trans and Promus Katowice. From the beginning, we knew that each of the four August Agreements needed to be given equal attention, to emphasize that Solidarity was a grassroots movement, spontaneously arising in different places, created by people from all over the country united by a common idea, but acting independently and self-governing. We also knew that the exhibition was to be mobile - hence the idea to use containers to transport it. And then the idea came up - since we're using containers for transportation, we might as well build the exhibition structure out of them right away.
The 
ramp leading to the terrace on the roofs of containers
photo: Radosław Kazmierczak © IK Ars Cameralis
Four containers - each dedicated to one of the agreements. And additionally - connecting them is a structure of steel, industrial canopies, which allow various spatial arrangements - setting the containers in a cross (here immediately appears an additional aspect emphasizing the spiritual roots of Solidarity), in a square or line, depending on the place where the exhibition will be presented. From the combination of individual containers, a new quality is created - the nucleus of a public space - a courtyard, a square, and in addition - a viewing terrace/garden/exhibition area on the roof of the containers, to which a ramp adapted to the movement of people with disabilities leads. In this way, too, we show what solidarity is all about - all visitors take the same route, shoulder to shoulder, together they can use the entire structure based on four containers. This is a symbolic re-creation of the history of Solidarity - a movement that originated in several large industrial plants, defined its goals and priorities in four agreements, andthen, through the cooperation of the people, swept Poland, then radiating to Europe and the World, in effect changing our lives for the better, putting space, physical and metaphorical, into our own hands in 1989. It is, of course, an entirely separate question how we took advantage of this change, what opportunities we realized and what opportunities we missed, and what lessons we can learn from the great lesson of Solidarity today - this question is also the message of the exhibition.
The 
black containers adorn the distinctive Solidarity sign
photo: Radoslaw Kazmierczak © IK Ars Cameralis
Ola: The authors of the multimedia installations that can be seen inside the containers are the art collective secretproject. How did your cooperation go? Did you create the interior design of the containers together?
Oskar: From the very beginning, we thought of designing the structure of the interiors of the containers in such a way that, on the one hand, we would reflect the individual character of each agreement, its specificity, and on the other hand, emphasize the communal and equal character of the movement - its fully democratic structure. Working together with secretproject, we managed to create a coherent concept. We designed structures of informational "pixels" - cubes of identical size, but made in different steel each time - stainless steel, standard steel, completely rusted or painted black - that are displays of archival photos, texts and films showing the history of a given agreement and surrounding the main exhibition space. They proposed multimedia installations, each time placed at the end of the container, as a highlight of a given exhibition.
each of the containers houses an exhibition dedicated to one of the August agreements
photo: Radoslaw Kazmierczak © IK Ars Cameralis
In this way, each container is both individualized - by the content and artistic content of the exhibition, and similar to the others - by the form and organization of the space. Similarly, the building material of the interior - it is the same each time (it is steel, after all), but treated differently in each container. Cooperation with secretproject was very successful, we understood each other well, formulating our ideas in a creative dialogue, which practically from the very beginning headed in a common direction.
multimedia art installations prepared by the tajnyprojekt collective
photo: Radosław Kaźmierczak © IK Ars Cameralis
Ola: What will happen to this structure in the future?
Oskar: Yes, the exhibition is expected to travel all over Poland, and possibly beyond our country's borders, with the ultimate goal of using it as part of the exhibition of the Silesian Freedom and Solidarity Center.
Ola: Thank you for the interview.
