When the moment comes to introduce ourselves and name what we do – silence falls. How so? Surely everyone knows what we do, and the results of our work are plain to see. We make art. We work in art. We work in culture, in art and in social activism. Working is something we know how to do, but how do we tell others about this work?

We asked our colleague, the artist and anthropologist Natalia Kalicki, to look at Pracownia Wschodnia from the inside and, at the same time, from a discreet distance. Her view of what we do, what kind of place we create, what problems we have had to face, how many successes we have had and what our plans are is a value we want to pass on. On the pages of this publication (in a special edition – on the occasion of our collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art, and in a limited edition – available for purchase) we share with you, our Readers, a story about what it means to be constantly at work.

Natalia places our activity in the wider context of places that grow out of the passion, work and stubbornness of artists. These places are islands that hold the archipelago of art together – without them the landscape of culture does not exist in its full exposure.
We very much believe this, and that is why we keep on working.

We print Natalia Kalicki's article „Pracownia Wschodnia przedstawia się” [Pracownia Wschodnia Introduces Itself] in two language versions (Polish and English), which the author wrote at the same time.

We invite you to read, and to act.