24-29.11.2008

 

Curators: Kevin Hunt, Rita Slater, Agnieszka Kulazińska 

 

Competitions for the best decorated shop are nothing new in the UK.           

Compared to Poland, the UK has much stronger traditions concerning integration of local communities. The local community is often integrated by meetings in local pubs, fairs, and competitions. Today however this tradition tends to be forgotten. We might say that in Poland we need to build the feeling of local identity, while in the UK it has to be rebuilt.

The main objective of the For the Likes of Us… Project was to revitalise city districts by the means of art and actions on the border between artistic and social events. Resuming the competition in itself has in fact little in common with art and there might even be accusations of cultivating its ludic nature. Resuming the competition was an attempt to reactivate the once popular tradition of the meetings. And here we have the inevitable question about cultural changes taking place in contemporary communities. We are becoming more anonymous, we are fencing ourselves off from the rest of society by high walls. The Garston experience shows that lack of trust in our neighbours is not a post-communistic heritage but a global process.

 

The Best Decorated Shop Competition, which was a joint initiative of Polish and English curators, was an attempt to rebuild the feeling of belonging on a local level, and it was also a kind of question whether it is still possible to revive this type of tradition, or maybe we have become separated arches moving around on the waters of the information flood.