The exhibition is inspired by the content of the 5-volume monograph "Łódź poprzez wieki. Historia miasta" [Lodz Through the Ages. History of the City] – the most important publication accompanying the celebration of the 600th anniversary of granting city rights to our city.
Wanda Janakiewicz, curator of the exhibition, notes:
The main goal of the exhibition is to bring this important and unique publication to a wider audience. As part of this initiative, we want to present, in an attractive way, the heritage and rich history of Lodz, which the book tells about, from the perspective of commonly known facts and by bringing to light the history and spaces that today tend to be forgotten.
The diverse history and heritage of the city constitute the starting point for the narrative of the exhibition, which, instead of the classic chronological order, is based on four thematic modules.
The first module is devoted to the rivers that shaped the history of Lodz. We tell the history of Lodz rivers, starting with the medieval location of the city in the area of the river network, through the creation of water mills, the development of industry, the construction of water supply systems and hiding rivers in canals, to the current attempts to rediscover them.
The next module is about the language, which is an elementary component of the multicultural heritage of the city. We tell the language history, starting with the oldest traces of the language of the inhabitants of Lodz, through the phenomenon of multiculturalism and multinationality, lettering and typography of avant-garde artists associated with Lodz, and ending with the idea of the Lodz dialect and the localisms that accompany us to this day.
The third module focuses on a man – it is about different layers of Lodz society and shows the changes that have been taking place in social cross-section through the ages. The fourth module, on the other hand, is devoted to the idea of a place understood as a centre. The starting point is the search for the contemporary centre of the city, which has been displaced many times as a result of architectural transformations. Currently, even Lodz inhabitants associate the city centre with different locations, for example, the Old Market Square, Manufaktura, Plac Wolności, Plac Dąbrowskiego or Piotrkowska Street.
Marcin Frątczak, Head of the Sales and Promotion Department of the Lodz University Press:
We have prepared the exhibition together with the State Archive in Lodz. This is our yet another initiative addressed to the inhabitants of Lodz and carried out on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the city. In addition to the monograph about Lodz, we have produced a podcast inspired by the book – Conversations over coffee. Conversations with our authors are conducted by Justyna Tomaszewska – a fan of Lodz and a guide to its nooks and crannies. The authors of the five-volume publication "Łódź poprzez wieki. Historia miasta" are her guests.
The podcast is available on popular services: Spotify and on Youtube.
The exhibition will accompany premieres of the subsequent volumes in various places on the map of Lodz (University of Lodz Library, MEDIATEKA MeMo, Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź).
Wanda Janakiewicz, a promotion specialist at the Lodz University Press, is a curator of the exhibition. She is a graduate of the Institute of History of Art at the University of Lodz. Prof. Jarosław Kita, editor of the monograph, is the content supervisor of the exhibition and Studio Polkadot from Lodz – Aleksandra Woźniak and Hanna Niemierowicz are responsible for the graphic design.
Source: Lodz University Press