Interview with Professor Jacek Majchrowski, Mayor of Kraków

Mr Mayor, a year ago, when the 6 senses programme was beginning to be realised, with the most important Kraków festivals being gathered under a common logo and large new enterprises being undertaken, some skeptics spoke out against it. Today the atmosphere surrounding the programme and its individual events is unusually positive. Is this a guarantee of its longevity?

This is definitely a project set to last many years. 6 senses is supposed to provide the city with cultural events at a very high level and in many different fields – music, photography, film and literature... If we are supposed to attract tourists from the upper end of the market who are looking for intellectual and spiritual experiences – we have to give them a chance to discover them. For those who know that there is cheap beer to be had here are visiting at the moment.

So we are looking forward towards cultural tourism?

Not only, for this is after all a programme in large measure addressed to local inhabitants. If you remind yourself what happened during the Nowa Huta concerts of the Sacrum Profanum festival – there were crowds of people who had come to listen to music of a kind they had never heard before and had never wanted to listen to. These concerts were for them their first contact with serious music. And it caught on.

As recently as 2 or 3 years ago one could have gained the impression that Kraków most willingly engaged in the organisation of events of a carnivalesque character. Now the city is clearly moving towards events of a very high artistic level. During the last weeks, we have had or still have Misteria Paschalia, Off Plus Camera, the Krakow Film Festival and Photomonth in Kraków...

It’s not that simple. It’s more about striking a balance between high art aimed at connoisseurs and less challenging events available for everyone. I wouldn’t want this balance to be disturbed; there will always be two-way traffic here. I’m not only concerned here with Wianki or New Year’s Eve – events which attract 100,000 people – but also the Stop Kraków concerts that are part of the Jan Kiepura festival taking place on Róż Avenue. These also attract a large audience.

Why has so much attention been directed in recent times towards Nowa Huta?

This resulted – sorry for saying this – from the serious neglect which was tolerated for many years; now we are trying to make up for this neglect. Please take note of how many events are now being moved to Nowa Huta. A group of events marking its anniversary will also be staged there as part of the City Holiday: there for several years the Łaźnia Nowa Theatre has been working marvellously, becoming part of the local landscape and moreover winning fame and high ratings over the whole of Europe.

Kraków – thriving, modern and friendly to culture – needs a new venue for large scale events...

Permission to build has already been granted. The project design is ready, tenders for the construction are being invited. If everything turns out well, the construction site could be operational this year. We want the building to be finished by 2013 at the latest.

And the Centre for Modern Art?

The tender has been agreed and the appeal procedure is ongoing; I think that a contract with the constructors will be signed at the beginning of June. The Centre will be constructed on Lipowa Street in part of the old building complex that used to be Schindler’s Factory.

The holidays are approaching and apart from Wianki, which you mentioned earlier, and the Lenny Kravitz concert, we have first the Selector Festival and then the Coke Live festival – masses of young people will certainly be coming here. Will such – nomen omen – selective grouping of events become a rule?

Generally we want to organise the cultural life of Kraków so that every month will be full. It’s enough to glance at the calendar of large events. Only January, February and March aren’t yet completely filled up, but maybe that’ll change next year. Above all, however, the continuity of the already existing events must be ensured.

For many years, Professor, you have worked with young people: what message does Kraków – a city not only of historical relics but also higher education institutions – have today for the many thousands of young people studying here?

Above all, that those who have come here to study – and it happens that many of them will be travelling afterwards to various corners of the world – should directly experience Kraków’s culture: that they will have something to remember, but also that they will want to draw from these cultural models, creating, as it were, their own culture wherever their fate casts them. A group of literary festivals is currently being organised in Kraków: for philology students, this is an unparalleled opportunity to acquaint themselves not only with literary output but also see and hear the greatest contemporary writers for themselves.

Mr Mayor, moving onto a topical theme – Euro 2012 – I suppose it is down to us in Kraków to plan the kind of events that will in addition encourage everyone to visit us again. But – particularly us!

That’s exactly what we want to do...