HAUS / Chemnitzer Alternative Our Supermarket
HAUS focuses on Salman Schocken and his chain of stores. Kaufhaus Schocken operated from 1930 in Chemnitz (and from 1929 in Wałbrzych). Schocken became famous for a new sales philosophy that allowed the poor residents of Germany’s provincial towns to enjoy luxury goods at affordable prices. Schocken’s network of stores surprised with its architecture derived from the Bauhaus school (the main architect and friend of Schocken being Erich Mendelsohn), and work in them was organized according to social democratic ideas (respect for worker dignity, good wages, attention to social conditions). Schocken’s stores operated in Chemnitz and Wałbrzych, and this fact builds a natural bridge between the cities and gives us the right, as artists from the Polish Dramatic Theatre in Wałbrzych, to propose a project for the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025. It is also worth noting that the Theatre is deeply interested in Schocken’s history – in its repertoire, there is a monodrama about Schocken titled Mensch (premiere 29.05.2021, more about the performance HERE).
Schocken’s stores survived World War II and functioned as department stores in the GDR and the PRL. The store in Chemnitz (HO) was finally closed in 2001 – it is now the SMAC Museum; the one in Wałbrzych (PDT) was closed in 1990 – now a private school and a Chinese market operate there.
Two decades blur the memory. Former employees are decreasing. The GDR reality becomes a distant history. The situation is similar in Poland. HAUS is an attempt to draw more from history than nostalgia. Because history is perfectly suited for creating future models.
The development of the project consists of research by historians, architects, and economists into the anticipatory form of sales inspired by Schocken’s philosophy, as well as work with the memories of former department store employees and their families. Their insights will form the basis for artistic activities with residents of both cities to increase the visibility of both places and create an artistic alternative to capitalism.
We want the work on HAUS to be based on meetings, conversations, information and experience exchanges between curators and partners, as well as participants, curators, and partners. Meetings with participants will be an opportunity to share bread and discuss what is common. HAUS will embody all values related to participation, intergenerational exchange, openness, democracy, and inclusivity.
The creation of HAUS by an international team stems from the curators’ belief that creativity and creation serve social dialogue better than agreements and regulations, so HAUS is a story of the twentieth century built in the twenty-first century for the twenty-second century.
More about the curators:
CURATORS
Antonina Brühl
Polish-German actress and director. A graduate of the Lart StudiO acting school in Krakow. Since 2019, a student of the Theater Academy. Aleksander Zelwerowicz in Warsaw, branch in Białystok, in the fields of directing and acting. Her student directing projects were invited to the Young Directors' Forum in Krakow in 2021/2022.
Tomasz Jękot
Polish playwright, playwright. A graduate of the Drama Directing Department of the AST in Krakow and the Drama Laboratory in Warsaw. Author of texts, adaptations, dramaturg of performances in Poland and abroad. Since 2018, he has been the literary director of the Dramatic Theater in Wałbrzych. Since 2021, he has been implementing his own concepts for dramaturgical residencies at the Theater.
Seb Majewski
Polish director, playwright. Since 2018, artistic director of the Wałbrzych Drama Theater. A graduate of the Faculty of Puppetry in Białystok. Majewski's texts have been exhibited, among others, at the Polish Theater in Wrocław, the National Stary Theater in Krakow, and in theaters in Tbilisi, Dublin and Los Angeles.
Brian Michaels
British theater and opera director, living and working in Germany, has directed many opera and theater performances in Europe and around the world. He initiated a number of international cooperation projects. guest professor at the Faculty of Acting and Directing of the Dance Theater Academy - WTT PWST Bytom/Kraków. He developed his own body-based approach to acting - "Body Thinking", which he originally conceived with dancer Nadia Kevan.
As part of the HAUS project, a private event called „Prywatka u Schockena” was organized in a building in Wałbrzych on May 18, 2024. It was a spontaneous, pop-up theatrical and musical event that was attended by nearly 200 residents of Wałbrzych and invited guests. The interest exceeded our expectations – tickets for the event sold out in one day, but due to logistical and artistic reasons, we could not increase the number of tickets available. With this event, we wanted to invite the local community to a well-known but inaccessible space – the meeting was accompanied by a conversation about the history of the place, individual anecdotes, and memories recorded in collective memory. We are convinced that this event marked the beginning of a process of thinking about the former Kaufhaus Schocken building not only as a past worth remembering but, above all, as a promising and interesting future. We invited the participants to join in the game – to fantasize about what should be in the building, what kind of dream activity would make them want to return there every day.
