Gdynia's 'Warsaw' Cinema & Other Cultural Places that became Supermarkets
Sunday Sep 6 - Wednesday Sep 16
share
This exhibit, organised by the Gdynia Museum and hosted by the Pomorzanin Cinema in Bydgoszcz (ul. Gdańska 10), chronicles the history of the famous 'Warsaw' Cinema (Kino Warszawa) in Gdynia. A witness to history and cult cultural venue for several generations of Gdynians, like many other such state-run venues at the end of the communist era, the Warsaw Cinema was privatised and eventually transformed into a commercial space - in this case a 'Biedronka' supermarket. Representative of the fate that befell many such socialist institutions with the adoption of Poland's new free market economy, the story of the Warsaw Cinema and its cultural importance is told alongside that of Bydgoszcz's Pomorzanin Cinema, which to this point has avoided the fate of becoming a 'Biedronka.' As the exhibit is careful to point out, such a fate is still a concern and would be a real shame for generations of Bydgoszcz residents both past and future.