The adaptation of the former Orzeł cinema for the Cultural Integration Centre began in 2009. The project was co-financed by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund under the Regional Operational Programme for the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. The total value of the project was PLN 5,416,048.32, with funding of PLN 2,664,626.09.
“In addition to conducting its own activities, the Centre aims to open itself up to the initiatives and ideas of students, school interest groups, associations, local artists and other people who have an interesting idea for presenting their passion or creative work,” says Ewa Lijewska-Małachowska. “In 2014, 16,000 people used the Centre, which makes us tremendously happy. This is a fact and proof of how necessary the Centre is and how well it has been received by residents,” adds the BOK-MCC director.
Orzeł CIK is equipped for film screenings and also serves many other functions: it is a theatre, dance, conference and concert hall. Screenings by young filmmakers are held at the cinema. Exhibitions and openings are organised in the building’s foyer. Orzeł also houses film, photography, theatre and vocal-music studios.
Studios at Orzeł CIK
The Centre has a photography studio run by Urszula Frąszczak-Matyjewicz and Michał Piaskowski, attended by 20 people each week. The studio has already organised its first post-workshop exhibition, following the 2014 winter-holiday workshops. Grzegorz Sidorowicz held his own pinhole photography workshop there.
The theatre studio run by Urszula Fraszczak-Matyjewicz has three groups, with 23 people attending each week. The performance “Do Not Trample the Lawns! Or, a Thing About Spoons,” whose script was written and which was directed by the group’s instructor, was seen by more than 200 viewers.
The Centre also has the Song Studio, run by Agata Pińczuk-Burdzy, with a total of 43 participants each week. The Song Studio offers classes for people who like music or dream of a stage career. The instructor provides students with every opportunity to learn professional singing. The vocalist also runs themed workshops, such as the summer vocal workshop “Popular Singing and Classical Singing – The Differences.”
One of Agata Pinczuk-Burdzy’s most important and largest projects was the exceptional musical production The Lion King, in which participants of all BOK-MCC dance and music workshops performed. More than 150 dancers and vocalists took the stage.
Michał Szwed runs the Film Education Studio at the Centre. The studio cooperates with the Bolesławiec Film School and can boast several interesting productions: Szymon Wasylow’s short film “35 mm of Life” (produced by the BOK-MCC Film Education Studio), Bartłomiej Muszyński’s “Horror through CH” (Film Education Studio and Bolesławiec Film School) and Paweł Klimek’s “Critical Mass” (Film Education Studio and Bolesławiec Film School).
The Bolesławiec Municipal Choir Aleksander Samostrokow also operates at the Centre, with 31 participants.
Friends of Orzeł CIK
Associations, people with disabilities, preschoolers and schools—all find a place at the Centre to organise a meeting, an author evening, an exhibition or a presentation of their work.
A group of people with disabilities from the II Community Self-Help Home met at the Centre for a theatre workshop with Mariusz Laudański. The Association of Repatriates from Bosnia, Their Descendants and Friends meets here twice a month, with around 70 people attending each meeting.
Nine meetings of the Eagle Eye Club were also held at Orzeł CIK. Among the most interesting events organised as part of the Club were the Bolesławiec Photography Marathon and the exotic presentation of photographs from Tahiti and Bora Bora, “18 Days in Paradise.”
A dozen or so other exhibitions were held in the Centre’s foyer: the post-competition photography exhibition “Unique Places in My City,” the post-workshop exhibition of photographs from the 2014 winter holidays, the exhibition “20 Years of the Bolesławiec Ceramics Festival,” the post-plein-air exhibition by the Camera Association, and Bożena Gałan’s photography exhibition “Landscapes and Portraits.”
Cinema at the Centre
More than 30 screenings of non-commercial films were held in the Orzeł CIK cinema hall. Some of them are worth mentioning. Przemek Filipowicz presented his film “Dog,” made in the summer of 2013 in the area around Bolesławiec. The screening also included two films by Filip Rudnicki, the winner of the 2007 third OFF Cinema Festival in Bolesławiec: “Poverty” and “Tough as Stalin.” Before the premiere of “Dog,” Filipowicz’s four-minute short film “A Trial of Strength” was also shown.
The Centre hosted the final of the “Thank You, I Don’t Smoke” film competition, organised together with the District Sanitary and Epidemiological Station. This film competition, featuring an interesting format, was announced in August 2014 and addressed to students of lower- and upper-secondary schools. The competition was held under the patronage of Mayor Piotr Roman and Jacek Klakoć, the Lower Silesian State Provincial Sanitary Inspector.
Seven films were submitted to the competition, in which young people addressed the problem of their peers’ cigarette smoking with great honesty. They discussed how parents often, unknowingly, finance their children’s addiction. They also addressed the problems of resisting peer groups who smoke and the difficulty of reprimanding a smoking friend. The technically best and most interesting film was the short “Cigarettes? No, Thank You”
by students of the II General Secondary School: Michał Bednarski, Marek Kozłowski and Urszula Dachnij.
Concerts, performances and projects
In 2014, 14 concerts were held at Orzeł CIK. Rappers Skorupa and Bu performed; there was also the charity concert Rap for Kuba, two concerts by the group Poeticon dedicated to the memory of Łukasz Ludwikowski, the Song Studio concert “Our Idols,” a spoken-word and music performance by GS No. 2 marking Independence Day, and a concert by the group Tres.
Tres’s concert was enthusiastically received by the audience, which gave the artists a standing ovation. Kamila Osuch (vocals), Andrzej Dziedzic (percussion instruments), Mirek Kuc (guitar) and Sławek Zimniak (guitar) presented fantastic arrangements of classical guitar music, enriched with vocal pieces.
The band presented music of the highest standard. The new vocalist, Kamila Osuch, performed superbly. Highly lyrical yet expressive and fierce, she sang with excellent rhythm and timing. Her vocal tone captivated the audience. Her interpretation of a song performed in Portuguese revealed her enormous potential. The guitar duo of Mirek Kuc and Sławek Zimniak also performed excellently. The musicians played guitar standards wonderfully, delighting the listeners. Andrzej Dziedzic kept the tempo on percussion instruments and, in the more lyrical passages, added colour with his auxiliary percussion.
Fourteen performances were staged at Orzeł CIK, including two premieres prepared by the BOK-MCC Theatre Studio: “A Piece of Art About Love,” directed by Mariusz Laudański, and “Do Not Trample the Lawns,” directed by Urszula Frąszczak-Matyjewicz.
The Centre also held theatre and integration workshops for young people from Poland and Italy, Barbara Ciemięga’s “Body Music” workshops on working with the voice and body, and a review of songs by Jacek Kaczmarski. As part of theatre education, an educational project for preschoolers was carried out, involving more than 300 children.
Another interesting event was a prevention project concerning the legal consequences of acts committed by young people. A talk by Municipal Police officers was combined with a screening of the film “Awakening.” More than 1,300 students from lower- and upper-secondary schools took part in it.
The “Safe Route to School” prevention project was addressed to first-grade and “0” class pupils at primary schools and was carried out jointly with the District Police Headquarters. More than 600 students took part in it.
The “How to Spend a Safe Holiday by the Water” prevention project was carried out with the Volunteer Water Rescue Service, Municipal Police officers and officers from the District Police Headquarters in Bolesławiec. More than 1,300 students took part in this project.