Meeting

A book in the Museum. The last one turns off the light. Meeting with Marta Madejska

Guests

Marta Madejska, Bartosz Józefiak

Admission

Free admission thanks to cooperation with Audi

Location

Auditorium

Language of the meeting

Polish

Czarne Publishing House and MSN Publishing House invite you to a meeting with Marta Madejska, author of the reportage "The Last One Turns Off the Light: Parables of Transformation." Bartosz Józefiak will lead the conversation with the author. The meeting will take place as part of the series A Book at the Museum.

Is there anything we haven't heard about the transformation? Marta Madejska proves that there is. She draws on unconventional sources: old issues of „Przyjaciółka” magazine, cassette tapes promising business success and spiritual healing, forgotten episodes of Polska Kronika Filmowa (Polish Film Chronicle). She travels to Nowa Sól, which was saved by gnomes after the collapse of industry. She searches for lost archives, checks what connection women's soccer had with former workplaces, and what developers took over along with the factory land, building new "spas" and "green corners" in these places.

The stories of the employees of the liquidated plants form a polyphonic tale of the disappearance of factory infrastructure: nurseries, libraries, clinics, cultural centers, and holiday resorts. At the same time, they are parables about the loss of what is most important in life – interpersonal bonds, health, a sense of community, and security.

For the author, the transformation is not just a starting point for political discussions, social interventions, or nostalgic memories. In her book, she attempts to save from oblivion the entire complex network of relationships and values, the violent rupture of which after 1989 simply meant the end of the world for many people.

The meeting will be attended by:

Marta Madejska (born 1987) – social archivist, researcher, writer, editor. Author of the reportage book „Aleja Włókniarek” (Textile Workers' Avenue), co-author and editor of the books „Wielki przemysł, wielka cisza. Łódzkie zakłady przemysłowe 1945–2000” (Big Industry, Big Silence. Łódź Industrial Plants 1945–2000) and „Proszę mówić dalej… Historia społeczna Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi” (Please Continue... The Social History of the Museum of Art in Łódź). Curator of the exhibition „Nie samą pracą człowiek żyje” (Man Does Not Live by Work Alone) at the Museum of the City of Łódź. Since 2010, she has been associated with the Topografie Association, where she mainly works on projects related to social archiving and oral history in the Miastograf Digital Archive of Łódź Residents. Winner of the Złoty Exlibris Literary Award and the Punkt dla Łodzi Award, nominated for the Identitas 2022 Award, recipient of a scholarship from the Visegrad Literary Residencies, an Artistic Scholarship from the Mayor of Łódź, and an artistic residency at the Zamek Culture Center in Poznań. Her texts can be found in Dwutygodnik, Dialog, Herito, and the Miej Miejsce portal, among others.

Bartosz Józefiak (born 1987) – graduate of the Polish School of Reportage. He works for the TVN program Uwaga! He specializes in undercover reportage. He has written for Duży Format, Gazeta Wyborcza, OKO.press, Tygodnik Powszechny, and Gazeta.pl. He has been nominated for the Grand Press Award, the Teresa Torańska Newsweek Award, the Sensitive Festival Award, the Vivelo Book Awards, the European Press Prize, and the Man in Danger Media Festival Award. Author of the books „Łódź. Miasto po przejściach” (Łódź: A City with a Past, co-authored with Wojciech Górecki), „Wszyscy tak jeżdżą” (Everyone Drives Like That) and „Patodeweloperka. To nie jest kraj do mieszkania” (Patodeweloperka: This Is Not a Country to Live In).

Co-organizer

This content was translated by DeepL

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A book in the Museum. The last one turns off the light. Meeting with Marta Madejska