Brook House


Author:

Jakub Szczęsny


Curator:

Matylda Sałajewska


Collaboration:

Gabriela Chuecos


Production:

Katarzyna Stalicka (Katowice Miasto Ogrodów)


Photos:

Dawid Chalimoniuk

The river is about paradoxes: it still is a cultural reference, since one of the big music festivals Rawa Blues is named after it, while in the very center the real river is placed under the main market place („rynek”) and substituted by an elegant ersatz-river fed with municipal water system and surrounded by palm trees and beach seats during the warm season.
Jakub’s startegy is basing on a duality of presence. The first one, Rawa Prime Location is the mediatic one with renderings placed in advert-alike graphics borrowed from the aesthetics of developer and real-estate „visual pornography” of architectural projects with blue skies, green grass, happy ever-young people and a minimalistic, „sushi-modernist” object inspired by architectures adressed to aspiring middle and upper-middle class. Rawa is therefore presented as a great, prestigious address in Katowice’s downtown awaiting elegant „clientelle” to use it.

The second one is of physical nature: it’s a real floating platform with a simplicistic, roof-covered public bench that hides it’s nature behind ostentiously minimalistic yet enigmatic form.
The bench is open to regular users, who can seat inside the „house” and have two framed looks along the longitudianl axis of the river from a point of vue that is hardly available otherwise.
People can also use the floating platform for sun-bathing, reading or dancing, while the height of framed openings suggests bar-counter-alike height.
Two days after being installed and oficially open on September 14 of 2017, unknown perpetrators have partially broken the chains keeping the Brooke House in it’s position. As a consequence, during high water caused by heavy rains, the installation was taken by water and sunken a number of kilometers away.
Thanks to a decision of city mayor’s office the installation will be rebuilt in April 2018.