With regards to Łódż, I knew that at one time, after reforms carried out by Polish politician Mr. Wielopolski in the 19th century, Łódż became a textile center for central Europe, exporting its products to Russia, which at that time was called the Imperial Russian Empire. Many merchants and tradesmen became very wealthy, erecting for themselves very flamboyant residences and modernizing and extending their factories.
My first week of traveling throughout Chicago, seeing the many defunct factories and abandoned buildings, made me think of Łódż, when I was traveling throughout the different areas of that beautiful city, also seeing many old factories and skeletons of old industrial buildings. After discovering this similarity between Chicago and Łódż, I came to the conclusion that it is only natural that both of these cities, however different in size and population, carry one similar feature: both of them were once big, sprawling industrial cities and however differing in the magnitude of that industrialism, they were still similar in essence.
I don’t know the details of how David Lynch and Frank Gehry discovered the existence of Łódż, but being myself an ex-student of the Łódż film institute, I could only guess that it was film that took them that route. Even before coming to Chicago, I found out from my old friends at the film institute that David Lynch and Frank Gehry made headlines last year in local Łódż newspapers for their involvement in creating two multimillion dollar cultural centers focusing on converting old industrial buildings into high-ranking cultural centers. Using those old, industrial structures, with many beautiful art deco details, and transferring them into vibrant cultural centers, they were also breathing new life into the drab city and helping to convert it into a possible future cultural capital.
Gehry’s design for the Camerimage Center. There will be 4 movie theaters, 1 large concert auditorium, 1 small auditorium and a large courtyard.
It is a well known fact that in times of economic turmoil and crisis, the discipline that suffers most is always art. Therefore, creating vibrant cultural centers the way that David Lynch and Frank Gehry are doing, raises hopes for both the citizens of the city as well as its young creators. They are creating new chances for exhibitions, film festivals, art sales, and networking between film and other artists. And many other similar projects are also underway. Recently, two old, abandoned buildings became home to an art museum and the city’s first class, expensive and very upscale hotel named Andel. The city of Łódż is financing many of these cultural projects.
