Ted Michalowski - artist from USA.

In Wroclaw, Poland, we can meet Ted again! This week he took some drawing classes and, of course, you could meet him in the evening on some partys. We also met with him!

Ted is the person you want to get to know. Chessboard hairstyle, hipster glasses and a gorgeous smile! With only one conversation you know he is: he's the artist and this is him who is happening. When you talk with him you feel his powerful optimism and energy. Only when you think about him, you got a smile. 

Today we met him in Kino Nowe Horyzonty, where on the drawing lessons he showed us how to draw, he gave us some advices and we could experience some challenging tasks.During the meeting he told many jokes and it was just amazing! As an open-minded human, Ted did not expect from us any skills, but gave us advices which allowed us to develop in the best direction. He also said few words about himself and about failing in all possible ways (as he does*). What is more he even expected from us some question, so he could learn us even more. 

What is the most interesting for us, Ted showed that now & here he does not treat the trip like a vacation. Even on the parties he wants to learn and draw. This way we could see what a passionated person he is.

 If we were asked about some hero nowadays it would be Ted Michalowski! Why? Becuase he has some passion and he follows that and in this way he really enjoys his life and everything around him becomes even happier. So the advice for you: let your dreams come true and don't give up.

Remember: it does not matter how slow you go as long as you do not stop

You can still meet Ted in the weekend! Don't loose your chance to meet such a character :)

Look at this haircut...

... and of course at the drawing!

Amazing lesson!

Mustaches!

Smiley

The day before 

Model and the painting

THANK YOU, TED!

_________________________________

* At the end of the meeting, as 'the conclusion from today' Ted said, that as a teacher in the collage he's expected to draw more detailed paintings, so he fails, because he is not. He also said that as a teacher in the university he's expected to draw less detailed and more abstract paintings, so he fails that too. This way he fails either in two counter directions. :) That would be funny there...

Inspiration.

We all try to be open and gentle, but not always our environment is too. How you get inspired? How you find motivation to try all the time? It is not hard to stay open, but sometimes we just have no faith.

We look at some pictures and photos: someone is kind, open or some place where everyone and everything lives in harmony. We go to such places and we take some photos which will allow us to give others the faith in the beautiful world.

We are different.
We are unity.
We are harmony.

Here are some inspirational pictures from us. 

Ying yang.

And I like it.

Beautiful place!

Open your mind.

The unity.

We all meet in the middle.

For more go here

Drawcorps vol.2

The great Drawcorps team made a lot for us by sharing their passion of drawing, but moreover, they gave us an important lesson on being open. They proved that it can make us happy more than anything else!

Their way of being open-minded, sociable and friendly to everyone made them people you want to meet in your life. The positive energy they created attracted everyone around. They are the ones who always cheer  and make people believe the world is beautiful. All we need to do is to look carefully to notice it's charm. Their smile is honest and makes you feel warm inside!

Drawcorps Poland 2013 - our video

Thank you all: Ted Michalowski (Drawcore), Kajtek Betts, Isela Lopez, Katarzyna Zwick, Allaina Propst, Natan Miller, Alicja Romanowska, Wiktoria Garafola, Lauren Indyk, Roger Troiani, Ryan Vaxmonsky, Jerzy Bzdurny, Długosz Smith. :)

Drawcorps vol.1

On Thursday, we were in Kino Nowe Horyzonty. Drawcorps came to us from USA to create live a piece of art on the wall and play some great music for us! We decided to go and well...

It was amazing! Everyone was smiling and helping others with everything. The positive energy was flowing all around the place and people were easy and open to talk to as we all found at least one common language. We even met people from Poland with whom we spoke English :) You would need to be there to understand us! As the team was working, we were able to observe both, their absolutely outstanding tallent and enormous passion they all share. They consciously were open to the cultural diversity. In their eyes and work you could literally see the appreciation for the diversity among us, their models. At the background, the music was played by the group of most fine musicians and the poetry was read. As it was in Kino Nowe Horyzonty, you could also eat something tasty and healthy.

Team preparing the wall...

First draw!

Planning and drawing.

Just see them drawing!

Eat & meet.

Smile :)

WrOpenUp was there!

Poetry...

The best team ever!

One side was already done.

Other still in progress :)

Unfortunatelly, we were not able to stay there until the end of the event, but the last photos we have show the wall almost done. The team is already gone, but they will stay in our hearts and minds for long!

Skateboard

Wrocław is not only for open people – it is for people with passion. Good example is skateboard. You can see it in each park or on Świdnicka street, where skaters show their tricks from years. Our city is also a place of the best skatepark in Poland. Not convinced? Stay with us for interview form skatepark and see what people think.

Journees de la Francophonie – how music joins people

Today we had great opportunity to see on my own eyes, how people from different countries can join together. In Wroclaw’s philharmonic Alberto Nose, French musician gave amazing piano concert. He performed music of Chopin, Debussy and Ravel. But it is not his skills which impressed me the most. It was a fact that different people can feel the same during his concert. In the philharmonic hall Polish, French and English could be heard and still people reacted in similar way – they were listening with smiles.

So, what is the event? It is a series of performances, workshops and exhibitions, organized by Alliance Francaise in Wroclaw. It’s a fantastic chance for opening ourselves for French (and not only) culture. Want to try? You have time to 6th of April.

More information? - here

Mariusz Mikołajek - Miejsce

Jeszcze tylko do 17 marca w galerii BWA (Wrocław, ul. Wita Stwosza 32) obejrzeć można najnowszą wystawę, zatytułowaną "Miejsce", znanego i docenianego w kręgach artystycznych, wrocławskiego malarza - Mariusza Mikołajka. 

Już sama możliwość obcowania z malarstwem w tej, kojarzonej głównie z nowoczesnymi wystawami z pogranicza sztuk wizualnych, teatru, filmu, performansu i muzyki, galerii powinna Was zachęcić do odwiedzenia wystawy. Warto też zaznaczyć, że jest to niepowtarzalna okazja by zobaczyć kilkadziesiąt prac, które powstały w ciągu ostatnich 12 lat aktywnej pracy twórczej Mikołajka, zebrane w jednym miejscu.

Zwiedzając wystawę tego interesującego, nie tylko ze względu na żywe, pełne kolorów i emocji na wpół abstrakcyjne malarstwo, ale też bujny życiorys, warto zwrócić uwagę na techniczny kunszt artysty. Na wszystkich obrazach dostrzec można, charakterystyczną dla artysty, strukturę, uzyskaną poprzez warstwowe nakładanie farb. Wspomnieć należy też o innowacjach, jakie wprowadził do swych dzieł artysta - na jednym z obrazów dostrzec można złocenia, wystawionych zostało też wiele dzieł stworzonych niezwykle efektowną, unikatowa w skali kraju, a może nawet Europy, techniką malarstwa na dżinsie.

W tej technice zostało zrealizowane jedno z zawodowych marzeń Mariusza Mikołajka - artysta na początku tego roku ukończył prace nad autorską wersją drogi krzyżowej. Monumentalne dzieło namalowane na płótnie o długości 27 metrów połączone jest z multimedialnym ekranem, na którym obejrzeć można nagrany performance przyjaciela autora wystawy. Całość widoczna jest w jednym z przeszklonych skrzydeł galerii. W środku, oprócz obrazów, czekają na zwiedzających również nagrania z terenowych działań malarza, powiązanych ze street-artem, przeprowadzonych na przestrzeni lat. Interesującym doświadczeniem może być także wizyta w piwnicy galerii BWA, gdzie autor przygotował rzeźbiarska instalację artystyczną. 

Byłyśmy, widziałyśmy, polecamy! 

P.S. W najbliższą środę, 13 marca, macie możliwość skorzystania z niepowtarzalnej okazji - po swojej wystawie oprowadzać będzie jej twórca Mariusz Mikołajek.

Mariusz Mikołajek - Miejsce

Hi! Till 17th March in art gallery BWA (Wrocław, ul. Wita Stwosza 32) you can visit the latest exhibition, named "The Place", prepared by well-known, Wroclaw's painter - Mariusz Mikołajek.

You should be encouraged to visit the place, because of the enormous possibility to enjoy the art in that, associated with exhibitions connected with visual arts, theathre, movie, performance and music, gallery. What is more, the exhibition is an unique chance to get to know tenths of works, made by Mikołajek during last 12 years of work, collected in one place.

While enjoying the exhibition of that  interesting, not only because of lively coloured abstract paintings, but also unusual biography, painter, it's worth to draw your attantion to the technical artistry of works. On each painting you can notice special for Mikolajek, structure, obtained because of imposing the paints in layers. Worth mentioning are the innovations which the painter intorduced - gold plating was used on one of the works, there is also many paintings made with usage of unique in Poland, and maybe in whole Europe, technique of painting on jeans.

In those technique was realised one of an artistic dreams of Mikołajek - at the beggining of the year artist had finished his vision of the Stations of the Cross. Monumental work was done on the 27 meters long canvas and is connected with multimedial screen where the previously recorded performance of Mikołajek's friend is shown. That work is presented in one of the glassed flanks of the gallery. Inside, in spite of paintings, you can see also recordings of street-art works of artist. Interesting might be also visiting the basement of the gallery, where Mikołajek prepared the instalation made of sculptures.

We were, we saw, we recommend!

P.S. This Wednesday, 13th March, you can take advantage of great possibility - the author, Mariusz Mikolajek, is going to guide you through his exhibition.

Who are we?

Young, creative and bored. Who are we? Four girls from one school. All volunteering and working on themselves. Trying to be mature and responsible, but still having fun like small children. Always smiling and making others smile. Open and looking for other citizens of the world, not only Europe, Poland or Wrocław. Happy to be there, where they are and looking around to find any sign from the world.

Ada, 17

who: girl with red dreads

hobby: horse riding, photography

strange: all the time counts and analyzes

Ania, 18

who: blonde with big eyes

hobby: photography, drawing, karate

strange: never had an argue

Ida, 17

who: tall sportswoman

hobby: running, horse riding, painting

strange: eats more than anyone and so fit

Ola, 18

who: tall blonde always with a smile

hobby: volleyball, photography, sport in TV 

strange: interested about vampires and everything gloomy

Happy Women's Day!

We wish every woman all the best today! Enjoy it in every inch! 

Happy Women's Day!

The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers.

Bądźmy WrOpenUp: zainteresujmy się

Co powiecie o tancerzach? Głównie chodzi o to samo - przyjemność. Taniec to jednak wiele treningów i poświęcenia dla pasji. Dla nas taniec to przede wszystkim przedstawienie swojej historii w nie tak oczywisty sposób. Często taniec może powiedzieć więcej niż słowa. To połączenie różnych form przekazu, dzięki czemu możemy podziwiać człowieka i jego kreatywność. Jest to także pokaz umiejętności i aaadeterminacji tancerza. Tańcem można być naprawdę mile zaskoczonym - tutaj niemożliwe staje się możliwe. 

Czy ktoś z Was tańczy? Chętnie bierzecie udział w projektach związanych z tańcem? Jak odbieracie takie happeningi?

Warto tutaj wspomnieć o świetnym filmie, którego większość z Was raczej nie zna: "The LXD. Legion Niezwykłych Tancerzy". Film przedstawia różnorodność stylów tańca oraz ich połączenie. Reżyserem jest Jon M. Chu, którego miłośnicy tańca powinni kojarzyć z serii filmów Step Up, film jednak nie zyskał takiej popularności, co pozwala nam docenić sztukę filmu (kolejnej formy przekazu). Umiejętności i kreatywność tancerzy wydaje się niewiarygodna, a fabuła choć dość przewidywalna (walka dobra ze złem) pozwala docenić siłę pozytywnych wibracji. Po takim filmie aż chce się tańczyć. Poniżej podajemy link do jednego z odcinków przedstawiających historię chłopców z kółka filmowego. 

The LXD - odcinek dziewiąty

What do you think about dancers? Well, in general, the idea is simple – taking as much pleasure from dancing as possible. But as we all know, dancing is a lot more, it takes a lot of hours spent on trainings and enormous engagement and devotion. For us, it is first of all sharing some story. Sometimes, we can express more emotions, more feelings and ideas by dancing than we would do while speaking. Dance connects variety of different forms of communication and this is why we can admire both, the person and their creativity. It is also the demonstration of dancer’s skills and their determination in the process of creating. We may always get amazed by dancing, every time it evokes different emotions. Impossible becomes possible there.

Do any of you dance? Do you like to take part in dancing courses and projects? How do you like this kind of events?

It is worth mentioning a really good movie, probably not that popular one, “The LXD. The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers”. It shows the huge spectrum of variety of dance styles and how they are mixed with each other. The movie was directed by John M. Chu, who probably most of you know from “Step Up”. “The LXD” has not gained that much of attention, but maybe because of it, we may appreciate the art and the message even more. The skills and creativity of the dancers is absolutely outstanding and the plot, even though quite common – the fight of good with bad – catches our attention at the very first moment. Watch, and you will surely feel the dance vibe down your spine! Below is the link for one of the episodes, check it out!

Art made of plastic.

Bądźmy WrOpenUp: zainteresujmy się

38 białych postaci. Niby zwykłe rzeźby, ale jednak jest w nich coś wyjątkowego - rzeczywistość miesza się z iluzją. Twarze należą do osób, które odwiedziły Pawła Althamera podczas jego projektu "Almech" i zgodziły się na odlew, ciała jednak rozmywają się w splocie różnych nieuchwytnych form. Dodatkowo rzeźby zostały wykonane z polietylenu. Ten nietypowy materiał bardzo się błyszczy, a postaci wyłaniają się z ciemności. Oprawa wystawy przygotowana przez Dorotę Monkiewicz, dyrektorkę MWW, nadaje nowych znaczeń, jednak wciąż nawiązuje do pytań autora: o społeczny wymiar działań jednostek i o ich obecność w zbiorowej świadomości. Już od 15 lutego można przyjść do Muzeum Współczesnego Wrocław na niesamowitą wystawę Pawła Althamera.

(Na podstawie artykułu "Polietylen" A. Saraczyńskiej)

Uważamy, że jest to świetna wystawa (i artysta!), która zmusza odbiorcę do refleksji na temat różnorodności w społeczeństwie. Jesteśmy dumne, iż to właśnie tutaj - we Wrocławiu - możemy być świadomi, iż każdy jest inny i jest to powód do dumy! Serdecznie zapraszamy na podróż do swojej podświadomości z niesamowitymi rzeźbami Althamera. My również się wybieramy - oczywiście dodamy zdjęcia i zdamy szczegółową relację. Odsyłamy do strony MWW.

MWW - "Polietylen. W ciemności"

38 white human figures. Seem like any other sculptures, but there is something that derives our attention - the point in which reality meets with illusion. Faces of those characters belong to those, who payed a visit to Paweł Althamer during his project "Almech" and agreed to became its part. However, the rest of the bodies are not the same obvious and tangible with the first glance, but they fade out in the variety of undescribed forms. All the scupltures are made of polyethylene, which makes them more flickerish and creates the image of them appearing from the darkness. The whole exhibition was set by Dorota Monkiewicz, the head of MWW. This specially created setting adds even more new meanings to the already very interesting itself, piece of art. Thus, it still follows the main ideas which were created by the author, like the issue of the actions undertaken by individuals in the societies and their presence of collective consciousness. 

The exhibition can be seen in Wroclaw Modern Arts Museum from Feb, 15. 

We, as Risk Takers, think of this exhibion as an great opportunity to reflect and think about the social and cultural diversity. We are proud, that in our city, in Wrocław, we are able to say that we are different as individuals and we are aware that this is a great reason to feel proud! We kindly invite you all to discover your own deepths of consciousness with this absolutely amazing Paweł Althamer's exhibition. Just as we will do soon, and of course we will give you a quick feedback! Take the risk and go! :) 

More information about this exhibition can be found on the website above.


#WroOpenUp  #WrOpenUp2013

Sing a song.

Bądźmy WrOpenUp: zainteresujmy się

Witajcie! Chętnie zaproponujemy Wam piosenkę, która porusza serca. Mówi o podejściu do rzeczywistości. Jeżeli możemy zrobić coś wielkiego to zróbmy to razem i małymi kroczkami. Piosenka jest bardzo motywująca i przyjemna.

SOJA - Everything changes

Hello! We would like to suggest you a song, which moves our hearts. It says about our approach to the reality. If we can make something big, let's do it together and with small steps. This song motivates us and is really pleasurable. 

About us.

Naszym celem jest wypromowanie otwartości na różnorodność kulturową. Chcemy Wam udowodnić, że świat jest piękny właśnie taki, jaki jest i nie musimy go zmieniać, a połączenie nas wszystkich jest możliwe i jest esencją każdego z nas. Przeprowadzimy nie jeden wywiad z przedstawicielami różnych (sub)kultur oraz zrelacjonujemy parę spotkań czy happeningów. Polecimy Wam wiele miejsc, które warto odwiedzić dla czystej i przyjemnej atmosfery, a także zaproponujemy mnóstwo filmów i piosenek, które otworzą Wam oczy bądź po prostu ukażą piękno świata. 

~ Skupmy się na docenieniu tego, co mamy - świata pełnego różnorodności, dzięki której każdy z nas jest tak wyjątkowy. ~

Our aim is promotion of staying open to the cultural diversity. We want to prove you, that the world is beautiful as it is and we do not have to change it, and combination of all of us is possible and it's the essence of each of us. We would interview representatives of different (sub)cultures and relate some meetings or happenings. We would recommend you a lot of places, which are worth visiting for pure and pleasant atmosphere, and we would propose plenty of movies and songs, which would open your eyes or just show you the beauty of the world. 

~ Focus on appreciating what we have - the world full of diversity, by which each of us is so unique. ~