The 14th time: Poland's 'INDUSTRIADA' celebrates the industrial heritage of the Silesian Voivodeship
365 events at 46 sites in 29 cities: A packed programme is in store for visitors to INDUSTRIADA on 17 June. As always, the attractions include a number of members of the ERIH Regional Route Silesia, first and foremost the Anchor Points Historic Silver Mine World Heritage Site in Tarnowskie Góry, Tyskie Brewing Museum in Tychy, "Guido" Coal Mine and Queen Louise Adit in Zabrze as well as the Żywiec Brewery Museum.
The theme of this year's edition of the festival is "Art (in) Industry". Indeed, INDUSTIRADA draws many exciting connections between the two sectors. One of the outstanding architectural achievements of the industrial age in Silesia, for example, is the historic Nikiszowiec workers' settlement in Katowice, designed by the architects Georg (1871-1958) and Emil (1870-1937) Zillmann from Charlottenburg, which is also part of the ERIH network. Another ERIH site, the Museum of Metallurgy in Chorzów, provided the inspiration for Adolph von Menzel's socio-critical painting "The Iron Rolling Mill", completed in 1875, which, with its realistic depiction of the hardships of this kind of work, questions the unlimited faith in technical progress.
Representing industry serving art is the Artistic Casting Department in Gliwice. The former royal iron foundry was one of the most advanced and renowned of its kind in the whole of Europe. The "Boy with a Swan", a life-size bronze group by the Chorzów-born German sculptor Theodor Erdmann Kalide from 1851, won a bronze medal at the Great London Exhibition, and castings in iron and zinc can be found today in New York's Central Park and on the Isle of Wight, among other places.
In 67 exhibitions, 104 workshops, 20 lectures and many more events, INDUSTRIADA illuminates the diverse interrelationships between industry and art and thus once again highlights the rich experience of Silesia's industrial heritage.
Industriada 2023