Miracles

Legnica is a small city in Lower Silesia, south-west Poland. It is a centre of the copper industry and is one of the largest producers of copper and refined silver in the world. The Zakaczawie district is situated in the east side of the city center, with which it is connected by bridges. When compared with other districts it is rather neglected. Its revitalisation has just begun. On one of the backyards of Zakaczawie that I have realized a project that I called Miracles. The title comes from how people usually call this place: "the district of miracles". Apparently this is also how the local police used to call it back in the 1950s. The miracle was that you entered Zakaczawie with money in your pocket and full set of teeth, and you left it with neither of them. I have chosen a backyard overgrown with nettles, where most of the kids' playground was stolen for scrap. The Miracles are simply the swings which were salvaged from the playground, but they are kind of swings on which swinging is practically impossible or very difficult.
Grzegorz Borkowski in his text Four variants of working with the city wrote: "This spatially small installation triggered considerable enthusiasm, as it introduced a change in the logic of action, so intuitively recognized by children. In the situation of an overpowering sense of the impossibility, such change of logic is really something. Art will not replace the necessary systemic activities and everyday work of activists in the city, but it can certainly throw in the yeast of change".