Children came over from the neighbourhood. From Żegary, Dusznica, Sejny, Giby and other villages. For the second year they participate with the adults in the Borderland's "Tales of Coexistence" programme. The older participants have arrived, too, the rest will join them today or next day. Afternoons, they will sing and tell tales of their families' past.
This neighbourly group counts 80 people. Together with the Borderland team, they are hosts here.
Guests keep on arriving since yesterday. They come from different parts of the world: Colombia, USA, Uganda, Ukraine, Norway, Belarus, Lithuania, Israel and Poland. They are proven partners of the Borderland Centre and Foundation. - They work in a similar way, combining artistic and educational work on local borderlands. Just like us, they are community-oriented and search for inspiration - explains Małgorzata Czyżewska.
Each in their own way. Belarussians get through to the village children with their Kryly Halopa theatre. The Ukrainians from Lviv try to give new identity to the neglected Pidzamcze quarter, formerly multicultural, just like our Kazimierz in Krakow. They enliven the common space, willing to take responsibility for it. Batia Gilad (President of the International Janusz Korczak Association) and her friends from the Israeli Galilee are interested in working with youth, in teaching in a multicultural environment. The guests of the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research, the former partners at the reconstruction of Krasnogruda, are aware that peace and security are sometimes illusory. They learnt that after Anders Breivik's murderous deed. They are architects, engineers and art historians. They study the impact of spatial organization on human relations. They revitalize the wooden monuments of heritage and focus on them their social activities.
There are also special guests, dialogue masters. They will share their special experience and reflection.
Yaarah Bar-On is the rector of an academic college of education in northern Israel - a symbolic place, a gateway to the multicultural Galilee.
Gwen Burnyeat from Colombia is involved in the investigation and resolution of conflicts among farmers forcibly evicted from their lands.
Christopher Merrill is an American translator, writer and traveller. He's explored places torn apart by neighbourly conflicts.
Lars Jakub Hvinden-Haug, Norwegian architect.
Jessica Kaahwa, formerly resident of Rwanda, today an architect of the space of coexistence and dialogue on the borderlands of Congo and Sudan.
Locals and visitors - people of different identities and languages - create the Village of Bridge Builders.
- It has to be built - said Krzysztof Czyżewski - during the yesterday's meeting - because we can perceive the decline of the ethos of dialogue at a special moment. Never before has man lived in proximity of such a diversity of cultures so strongly separate and so vehemently changing the world around him. Never before have the boundaries been so intensively crossed over in so many different parts of the world and physical distances been so easy to cover.
Therefore, in his opinion, today's borderland is not just a space enclosed, say, by a state border posts, but a shared space of common life of different people. One with borders running across communities. Today, it is no longer a periphery located far away from the centre of the region, known for its continuing, since time immemorial, tribal conflicts, or for the wealth of preserved, in spite of advances of modernity, various, sometimes exotic, cultural traditions.
Today's borderland lies at the centre of modern civilization - In such a situation, it is necessary to create workshops of bridge building in new and ever more difficult conditions - argues Krzysztof
Both young and old, those local and those from different parts of the world will build the Invisible Bridge. It will be an installation - an artistic symbol. And not only that, also children will contribute modern meanings and build it in the way that can be utilized for workshops, exhibition and performances in the future. Each initiative is to create a chance for crossing over and reaching the other side.
Afternoon
Today is the anniversary of the death of Czesław Miłosz. He passed away 11 years ago.
Małgorzata Czyżewska remembers that day: - We visited with the young people the devastated Krasnogruda. We knew little about the former manor. There were just a few photos from Andrzej and Czesław Miłosz's family album, a few memories. We tried to make contact with the past, but how? Perhaps, we should ask local residents, perhaps, they might remember something? A fragile thread of hope, over 70 years had passed. The children asked their grandparents and great-grandparents about the manor. And quite unexpectedly, a sudden avalanche of memories was triggered. The elderly ladies: Marysia, Stasia and Anna and gentlemen Władysław and Witek recalled their childhood memories. We learned from them a lot about the last owners and about the manor itself, we could even make a map of the manor. And then, when the bond between Krasnogruda and its neighbours was established we heard about Miłosz's death.
Since then, every year, on August 14, Krasnogruda remembers. The meeting "Remembering Miłosz" always opens with a Mass in the Żegary church said in Polish and Lithuanian, for the intention of good neighbourhood. Locals and guests participate. Then, a joint visit to the manor - time for memories, songs and conversation.
Małgorzata: - Each anniversary looks a little bit different. But, always important is the cornerstone laid 11 years ago. The manor is to be a place co-founded by those who live here and those who visit it. We once staged "The Issa Valley" and now we are building The Invisible Bridge. Different facets of the same tradition.
After the service, the „Kaimynai” (lit. "Neighbours") choir take their position on the porch. They are local Lithuanians and Poles who participate in Borderland's Deep Song Studio. They work under the direction of Wojciech Szroeder.
Evening
An evening in memory of Czesław Miłosz. This year, Krzysztof Czyżewski talks about Czesław Miłosz with Christopher Merrill and Agnieszka Kosińska, Miłosz's personal assistant, who accompanied the poet during the last eight years of his life, now the curator of the poet's apartment and archives.
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