Discussion with Zuzanna Grębecka and Ewa Perlińska-Kobierzyńska. The Palace of Culture and Science was opened on July 21, 1955, ten days before the start of the 5th World Festival of Youth and Students. This year, it turned 70 years old. During the discussion, we will try to answer questions about the ideological, political, symbolic, and urban functions of the building, how it was spoken and written about right after its opening, and how it is perceived today. - Dr. habil. Zuzanna Grębecka – cultural anthropologist, ethnologist, assistant professor at the Department of Word Anthropology at IKP UW, member of the Interdisciplinary Research Team on the Culture of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans, operating at the Faculty of Polish Studies at UW. She specializes in the anthropology of communism, political anthropology, sensory anthropology, contemporary and traditional spiritual culture, popular culture, and the history and culture of post-communist countries (primarily Poland, Belarus, Russia, and the Baltic states). She conducts ethnographic research in Legnica, focusing on the memory of the Soviet Army and Soviet civilian auxiliary service stationed in the city from 1945 to 1993. Between 1996 and 2007, she conducted ethnographic research in northwestern Belarus and eastern Poland on contemporary folk magic. - Ewa Perlińska-Kobierzyńska – architectural historian, curator, and caretaker of architectural documentation collections, has been working at the Museum of Warsaw since 2015. She specializes in 20th-century architecture, with a particular focus on the Warsaw environment during the occupation and reconstruction periods. Author of numerous articles, co-curator of the exhibition "More Greenery! Projects by Alina Scholtz" at the Museum of Wola in 2021, and curator of the exhibition "Alina Scholtz: Pioneer of Landscape Architecture" at the Design Institute in Kielce in 2022. In 2024, she led the grant "Digitization, Conservation, and Accessibility of Architect Zygmunt Stępiński's Legacy." 🎟️ Free tickets available at the ticket office one hour before the lecture. Read more about the exhibition "The Summer That Changed Everything: Festival 1955." https://muzeumwarszawy.pl/lato-ktore-zmienilo-wszystko/ Main photo: Palace of Culture and Science under construction, Alfred Funkiewicz, October 13, 1953, Warsaw, Museum of Warsaw collection.
