archive of freedom

Cultural Attic

The "Cultural Attic" notebooks.

"We published "Cultural Attic" in Przemysl since 1988, in a home publishing house, with a circulation of 100 copies of the first issue. Its purpose was to document meetings, discussions, events created outside of state censorship, to develop a social environment for free thought, towards which independent culture naturally tended. In 1986, after one of the meetings with Krzysztof Dybciak on Polish émigré literature, the idea of publishing a magazine-testimonial, "Cultural Attic," was born. "The content of the magazine most often concerned contemporary issues and works, not infrequently referring to the issue of freedom. We reached into the past to "dust off the lives of our ancestors" but also to pose questions, from the fundamental ones about the meaning and value of human life, to the practical ones: how to

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STRYCH - about the cultural environment during the communist era

INTRODUCTION The attic is associated with a mysterious place, somewhat hidden from the casual visitor. At the same time, it arouses curiosity about what it hides, it is a promise of something forbidden, an oasis of things, thoughts, imaginings that stopped for a while on the journey between what was created in the real world. Experiences gathered in the attic gain new meaning and return to people again. Such was the "Cultural Attic": an underground magazine that was created in the attic, in the heads of people seeking refuge from a hostile world. The name of the magazine referred to the heritage of generations; dusty, abandoned somewhere in the attic, but without which the view of the community would be an incomplete one. For some, it was an opportunity to encounter art, new

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"The Cultural Attic" - a literary magazine and...

"The Cultural Attic is not only the name of a literary and art magazine, it is also a meeting place for a group of friends forming an independent cultural circuit. It is an adopted attic of a single-family house, filled with artists' works, paintings, books, which overlooked the surrounding hills. In front of the house an old orchard of decades-old spreading apple trees with an unmowed multifloral meadow. Lots of greenery everywhere. From the perspective of the attic (loft) we looked at the surrounding world, not forgetting the existence of the "underground". So we lived, a bit dualistically: working, taking care of daily affairs according to communist rules, but spiritually next door. Also the name of the magazine referred to the heritage of generations: dusty, abandoned somewhere in the attic, and without which, however, the view of the community would be an incomplete view" (Marek

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Grażyna Niezgoda

The term "cultural attic" holds two or even three meanings. One is a meeting place - an attic in a house on Hungarian Street in Przemyśl, the other - a social group,

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