THE OPEN GARDEN & GDAŃSK / PART 1

In CONVIVIUM, we let our propositions and ideas be rethought through international encounters. While Rotterdam is the home location for the Open Garden, Gdańsk is also one of the research locations for the solution. Justyna Jakubiec is visiting the city now, looking for local materialisations of gardening practices and voices audible in local communities. She is especially attentive to spotting practices of care for that which has been forgotten but is now being gradually tended to – meaning, the land, the greenery, the relations between humans and more-than-humans.

Justyna was lucky to learn more about Nowy Port, one of the northern districts of the city, thanks to Natalia Gatzke, Local Community Organiser working at the Independent Community Organisation Department that is part of the Municipal Family Assistance Centre in Gdańsk (PL: Organizatorka Społeczności Lokalnej, Samodzielny Referat Organizowania Społeczności w Miejskim Ośrodku Pomocy Rodzinie w Gdańsku). Together with Natalia, Justyna joined a local grassroots community gathering, during which they renovated the flowerbed at the entrance to the district. This spontaneous gardening activity became an exchange of ideas and wishes for the district, now somewhat overlooked in the city.

This gathering inspired exploring the district further and navigating it through green occurrences, which Justyna was able to do thanks to Kasia Werner, a local guide in Nowy Port. Together, they searched for examples of how the local community tries to transform the area, to care for it, and to revitalise it. Here, the greenery gradually becomes a medium of sensitising the local community to the land.

Observations from other parts of the city will follow!