Saturday, May 21 | 5:30 p.m. | Warszawa screening room
One Country, Two Polands: On Helping And Not Helping the Refugees. A meeting with Aurora Lubos and Honorata Martin (co-founders of the Arbuz Association) and the volunteers from the Homo Faber Foundation, part of Grupa Granica, following the screening of the film WHAT REMAINS ON THE WAY, dir. Jakob Krese, Danilo do Carmo
In Polish only
Partner: the ARBUZ Association
One Country, Two Polands. One shows humanity to those coming from Ukraine. The other acts with cruelty to those who are only a dozen kilometres away, on the border with Belarus. One embraces children, offering them a place in schools and hospitals. The other throws them into the rainy and freezing woods. Polish people have rushed to aid Ukraine’s refugees on a massive scale, which is wonderful. Poles can be, or perhaps simply are a wonderful society. However, has the support offered to those fleeing Ukraine covered up the wave of hatred, brutality and lawlessness towards the migrants who have been camping in our woods on the Belarusian border for over a year? They are absolutely exhausted, freezing, and often suffering from hypothermia and dehydration. There are many women, children, sick people, people with disabilities and seriously injured among them. Are there any limits to the aid that can be given? Why should Poland be a country for the chosen ones, fleeing from particular disasters, and how can we change this situation?
The ARBUZ association is formed by a group of people, mainly artists, who have long been involved in helping refugees – at first those coming from Asia and Africa to Europe, on the border between Slovenia and Austria, in Greece, or in Calabria, where they created an audiovisual mobile studio. During the pandemic, they worked in Poland, with refugees living on their own as well as those staying in reception centres. Some of them were actively involved in helping people who were crossing the Belarusian border and were being pushed back by the Polish border guard. They have organised several art auctions for the Homo Faber Foundation, part of the Granica Group. After the outbreak of war in Ukraine, they focused on helping Ukrainians coming to Poland. The founders of ARBUZ are: Ania Domańska, Aurora Lubos, Oskar Piotr Martin, Zosia Martin, Emi Orzechowska, Piotr Pawlak and Honorata Martin, who is also a jury member of this year's Millennium Docs Against Gravity Gdynia.
Aurora Lubos – dancer and choreographer associated with the Tri-City dance scene since 1997. Since 2000 she has also been an actress at the British Vincent Dance Theatre. Author of solo performances, installations, performances, animations and visual programmes. Her performances are presented in Poland and abroad.
Honorata Martin – she creates paintings, installations, performances and videos. Her art often involves transgressing the limits of her own body and social taboos. She is the winner of, among others, the Deutsche Bank Views Award and the Splendor Gedanensis Award for outstanding achievements in the field of art. She has been nominated for the Polityka Passport Award.
Host:
Przemek Rydzewski – co-creator and coordinator of the Tri-City edition of Millennium Docs Against Gravity.
