FOTOFESTIWAL AND THE UNIVERSITY OF LODZ IN THE ANNIVERSARY YEAR
The University of Lodz is a dynamically changing community. Together, for years, we have been shaping reality, going beyond the framework of education itself – UniLodz is people, their stories and memories. We want to tell our story as widely as possible, thus, we have decided to depart from the standard narrative – it is you – the community of our university, both those studying, working and those who have already left the university walls, who create #UniLodzteam.
By opening up to further external relations in conjunction with the artistic collective, we are beginning preparations for an exhibition as part of the 24th Fotofestiwal. The idea of creating an exhibition during this year's edition is based on a social archive of photographs, primarily made available from private collections. The photographs will become material for artistic processing by a group of visual artists invited to collaborate. The idea is a creative dialogue with the history of our university seen through the eyes of people working and studying there using photography.
Photographs and photographic archives have been an inspiration and material for artists who use them creatively for years. "This combination of 'old' images with 'new' ways of presentation is a part of a global trend focusing on exploring themes of history, identity, memory, which usually played a mainly documentary role," – writes Marcela Paniak, one of the artists invited to collaborate, in a text on the Miej Miejsce portal.
The possibility of transferring photos from before 1990 to the Fortepan database – a digital, social archive of photographs available for everyone to browse and download free of charge in high resolution from the website poland.fortepan.eu is an additional advantage of this initiative. The archive is being created thanks to donations from families, amateur and professional photographers, as well as thanks to institutional and public collections.
WE ARE LOOKING FOR PHOTOS DOCUMENTING LIFE AT THE UNIVERSITY
Ladies and Gentlemen, we want to include you in both processes, so today we encourage you to share photos from the time when you were students, worked or participated in another way in the life of the University of Lodz.
We are looking for photos documenting life at the university, events from the history of the University of Lodz, celebrations, meetings, classes, etc. Or perhaps you have photos of loved ones in your home archives that you want to remember?
WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH THEM – HOW TO TAKE PART IN THE PROJECT
Find photos from years ago, choose the ones that you can tell something about, e.g. when and on what occasion they were taken.
Deliver them to us:
- bring them to the Biedermann’s Palace (Franciszkańska 1/5, Łódź) during the shifts scheduled from Monday to Friday from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
or
- send them to the address: wydarzenia@uni.lodz.pl with the note "Fotofestiwal and University of Lodz for the 80th anniversary".
We are accepting photo materials in digital and analogue form until 30 March 2025!
Having completed the call, we will contact you to discuss further activities in the project.
Questions related to the project will be answered by:
- Jolanta Sławińska-Ryszka, e-mail: jolanta.slawinska@uni.lodz.pl, phone: +48 (42) 665 56 55
- Dr Dariusz Klemantowicz, phone: +48 (42) 665 56 55
- Maciej Andrzejewski, e-mail: maciej.andrzejewski@uni.lodz.pl