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Dr Monika Rydiger and Natalia Żak take us to Dizajnland. In the fourth episode of the series “An Alternative Map of Central Europe”, they discuss the planned exhibition at the ICC and the objects through which the region’s history speaks – its social ambitions, political tensions, post-war aspirations and realities.

This time, we’re travelling around Croatia with Prof. Maciej Czerwiński and talking about one of Croatia’s most important and fascinating writers and intellectuals – Miroslav Krleža.

There are two Dalmatias: continental and coastal one. Coastal cities were shaped by Mediterranean culture, the continental part by rural, pastoral Dinar culture. Ivan Meštrović (1883–1962), the greatest Croatian artist of the 20th century – he came from the latter. From a hajduk country – relatives of robbers whose legend is remembered as untamed in the fight against the Turks. The coast is the homeland of Emperor Diocletian with the cities of Šibenik, Trogir, Split, which dazzled a teenage sculptor.

The building at Zielona Street in Lviv, erected just before the outbreak of World War II according to the design of Jan Bagieński, became the seat of the Social Insurance Institution and medical institutions. Today there is a Lviv sanepid and the Faculty of Microbiology at the Medical University.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Central Europe became a stage for the imagination. As recently as two hundred years ago, Budapest, Prague, Zagreb, Ljubljana and Bratislava were just a few of the many cities within the Habsburg Monarchy. Their future status as capital cities was neither obvious nor “natural”. The nations of which they are now the capitals were only just taking shape or existed in a completely different form.

In the first episode of the series “An Alternative Map of Central Europe”, Dr Beata Nykiel discusses the history of Galician oil – an unfulfilled Eldorado – tracing its story from the oil industry boom right through to its decline.

Join us for discussions about a region that defies simple definitions.

An interview with Drago Jančar by Nikodem Szczygłowski.

At every full hour, Death gives the first sign. With one skeleton, he pulls the signature ring, the other lifts the hourglass. Time passes! – shows Grim Reaper. Then the Turk, the symbol of debauchery, starts to shake his head, Vanity looks in the mirror, Greed shakes the purse with money. Finally, the apostles are set in motion … Who never stopped in front of the Prague City Hall to watch the orloy performance.

Located in the south of Hungary, Pécs is a place with which the history of Zsolnay, one of the most famous Central European ceramic factories, is inseparably connected. This family factory, famous for the production of decorative vessels, but also architectural details, adorning the numerous buildings to this day in even Budapest, is one of the most important symbols of Hungarian Art Nouveau and Belle époque.