OPEN CITY 2025: “A Conversation with the City”
OPEN CITY 2025: The City as a Space of Negotiated Meanings
The opening of the 17th edition of the Open City — Festival of Art in Public Spaces in Lublin, held on September 20 in front of the Centrum Kultury w Lublinie, marked the beginning of a month of artistic interventions woven into the fabric of the city. This year’s theme — “A Conversation with the City” — is more than a motto; it is the curatorial strategy of the festival’s organizer, Ośrodek Międzykulturowych Inicjatyw Twórczych Rozdroża.
Festival art that disrupts the rhythm of everyday life
OPEN CITY is a consciously chosen invitation to redefine the relationship between the audience and public space. The installations spread throughout Lublin refer both to the city’s topography and its cultural memory. The festival inauguration takes the form of a walk — a process of moving from one context to another.
The works, entering into dialogue with architecture, disrupt the obviousness of urban space and provoke reflection on the political nature of place. They evoke both individual and collective memory. All of them, however, emphasize that the city is not a neutral backdrop but an active participant in the artistic discourse.
The critical dimension of the festival
The theme “A Conversation with the City” carries special weight in Lublin — a place marked by a layered history and a deeply ingrained spatial identity. The festival seeks to break away from traditional aesthetics; many of the works directly question the boundaries of visibility, memory, and community.
OPEN CITY becomes a space of negotiation — between the artist, the site, and the viewer; between what has been inscribed in history and what is happening here and now.
A long-term perspective
An important aspect of the festival is that some works remain in the city after the event ends, proving that art extends beyond temporal boundaries and becomes a permanent element of the urban landscape.
For 17 years, OPEN CITY has been one of the most significant art-in-public-space projects in Poland, consistently exploring the relationship between art and the city.
Locations: Public spaces throughout Lublin.
Admission to all festival events is free.
The festival is organized by the Center for Intercultural Creative Initiatives “Rozdroża”, with support from the City of Lublin and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
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