Fundacja Pogranicze / The Borderland Foundation based in Sejny, north-east Poland, is one of DisTerrMem’s six partner organisations. Founded in 1990, the Foundation is an independent, non-governmental organisation that seeks to develop and share new forms of cultural, educational and artistic practice to promote the co-existence of people living with strong cultural, ethnic, generational, ideological and other types of diversity. The Foundation also runs the International Centre for Dialogue at Krasnogruda and The Borderland Cultures Documentation Centre in Sejny.

Here, Weronika Czyżewska-Poncyliusz, the Foundation’s Coordinator of International Programmes, gives an overview of the organisation’s philosophy and current work.

The overarching aim of the initiatives undertaken by the Borderland Foundation is to develop a new model of community education, one that understands and respects the diverse traditions and histories of one’s place of residence, one’s home, which in turn serves to foster an open society, one that respects ‘otherness’.

The Foundation’s activities focus on two key areas, or pathways

The first pathway is local action. The Foundation devises and delivers a range of cultural, educational and artistic activities for, and with, the local community. Workshops are held combining a programme of integrative practices that have been developed and honed over several years. The basis of our core ‘workshop’ is a daily programme of activities in a specific place, and which include the whole community from the youngest to the oldest members. Different ‘laboratories’, based on a symbiosis of art and education, are led by an experienced team of artists, cultural practitioners and educators who together develop and deliver theatrical performances, concerts, films, exhibitions, books and innovative educational programs.

The second pathway leads abroad, to devise and deliver activities in other multicultural regions of the world (such as Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia). Using our many years of experience in working in different borderlands, the Foundation aims to initiate, develop and grow a movement of ‘Bridge Builders’ – people committed to promoting a modern ethos of commonality based on dialogue and interdependence. This visionencompasses the education of new cultural leaders and the creation of an international network of people sharing our belief in culture as an agent of social change. As part of this area of activity, we established the International Centre for Dialogue in the nearby village of Krasnogruda. Its activities bring living culture into dialogue with the region’s rich heritage, bridging different generations, languages, world views, professions and life experiences and contributing to a culture of solidarity for tomorrow.

Supplementing The Borderland Foundation’s ongoing workshop activities, is the development of organisations that aim to enable fresh reflections in the field of intercultural dialogue. Through programs such as the Borderland Publishing House and the Documentation Centre of Borderland Cultures, as well as through a residency program and collaboration with various international universities, the Foundation strives to explore the concept of the borderland within the context of the crucial problems of modern times and to provide innovative tools for research, reflection and education.

The Borderland Foundation’s International Centre for Dialogue in Krasnogruda

Borderlands: a tale of coexistence

The Borderland Foundation provides an interesting case study in the context of practitioners addressing issues of the role of memory in regions wither a history of disputed territories. The Foundation is based in the town of Sejny in north-east Poland, close to the border with Lithuania. Sejny is a town that has a complicated multicultural history, which is a common story in the eastern borderlands of Poland.

Before World War II the inhabitants of Sejny were Poles, Lithuanians, Russian Old Believers, Jews, Gypsies, Germans and Tatars. Twentieth century history did nothing to spare this region from a plethora of conflicts, tragedies and wars with, and among, neighbouring nations. The result was the disintegration of the multicultural community that once formed a rich and dynamic civilization here. Today, Sejny is a Polish town. Thirty percent of its population is Lithuanian and only a few families of Russian Old Believers remain. In the town centre there is an abandoned Jewish quarter, with an old Synagogue and a Hebrew school which is now the headquarters of The Borderland Foundation.

The term ‘borderland’ is often used to refer to a strip of land separating one country's territory from that of another. However, The Borderland Foundation promotes different understanding of the term. For us, the ‘borderland’ is the community whose boundaries are not on the outside, but on the inside, between citizens of various cultures. In this context the word ‘borderland’ means not only a place, but a certain ethos and tradition, best explained by the phrase ‘a person of the borderland’. Such a person was once, in times past, regarded as tolerant, usually with mixed family roots, full of empathy, sober patriotism, immunity to national fears, fluency in multiple local languages, with strong curiosity of the other, and, while remaining open to the world, giving most of their love to their homeland. We believe that it is crucial for the modern world to analyse how this ethos was created in the past; in what circumstances it was subsequently negated or forgotten about; and, most important, what is the potential for its future rebirth in contemporary borderland communities.

The Borderland Foundation’s core work is very much about working with memory, which we believe is a crucial part of contemporary life in borderland communities. Key to our work is the very essence of what is means to be a part of a borderland community, hence the importance of community-building practices. Art, along with education and knowledge-building, offer effective tools to assist in the creation of this kind of social cement, both in local communities and in wider interpersonal relations.

The Foundation’s work does not therefore concern itself with building museums or a memorials, but is very much geared towards the living culture of today and that of the future. Revisiting and reviving individual and collective memories, and drawing on the heritage and tradition of a place are important, but if we are to be ‘faithful’ to tradition in a genuinely respectful and constructive way, then it must be not a commemoration but a continuation. This is why we stress a ‘culture of remembering’ over a ‘culture of memory’. ‘Remembering’ is a term that places memory in the continuous present, not the past. It focuses on our ongoing, everyday work with local communities and allows for a balance of both critical/disputed memory and common/shared memory. The ability and willingness to allow and embrace this distinction is a crucial element of what constitutes the community itself, and can underpin its solidarity, by reminding (‘re-minding’) us that we share a common story, one to which we all continue to contribute in the present and future.

In 1999 the Foundation partnered with local children to create a performance piece entitled The Sejny Chronicles, an evocative theatrical portrayal of life in old multicultural Sejny, based on the memories of local residents

References & further reading

There is small but growing literature on the work of The Borderland Foundation, its philosophy and its artistic and educational practices. The most comprehensive is the recently published book:

· Łukasz Galusek & Dorota Sieroń-Galusek, 2019. Borderland: On Reviving Culture. LIT Verlag, Vienna-Zürich.

There is also a range of publications by the Foundation’s own Borderland Publishing House:

· Krzysztof Czyżewski, Małe Centrum Świata. Zapiski praktyka idei. Sejny/Krasnogruda, 2017.

· Krzysztof Czyżewski. The Krasnogruda Bridge: A Bridge Builder's Toolkit. Krasnogrudzki most. Niezbędnik budowniczego. Sejny, 2016.

· Krzysztof Czyżewski. Milosz - Dialogue – Borderland. Sejny, 2012.

· Krzystof Czyżewski, Joanna Kulas, Mikołaj Golubiewski (eds). Trust and Identity. A Handbook of Dialogue. Sejny, 2011.

· A Tale of New Borderlands of Europe in Eight Scenes, 2010. A catalogue for an exhibition opened in UNESCO, Paris. Concept, synopsis, texts by Małgorzata Sporek-Czyżewska & Krzysztof Czyżewski, artistic concept by Wiesław Szumiński.

I’ve also written a few articles about the history and practices of Foundation:

· Weronika Czyżewska-Poncyljusz, 2018. Rebels and Citizens. From alternative culture and samizdat to new cultural practices. In: B. Bakuła, A. Matusiak, E. Tyszkowska-Kasprzak, Wrocław, Wydawnictwo (eds). Od "Zapisu" do... zapisu historii. Kultura poza cenzurą w Europie Środkowej i Wschodniej w latach 1977-1991. KEW, 2018. pp 71-86.

· Weronika Czyżewska-Poncyljusz, 2018. Z wysp alternatywy na kontynent prowincji. Nowe ścieżki kultury w Polsce po 1989 roku. In: Joanna Pietrzak-Thébault. Miejsca nieoczywiste. Literacka, artystyczna, społeczno-kulturowa perspektywa lokalności i prowincji. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jana Kochanowskiego w Kielcach, 2018

· Weronika Czyżewska-Poncyljusz, 2014. The Craft of Bridge Building. Searching for the Ethos of Community in an Interdependent World. Sara Miller McCune Interdependance Essay Contest.

Ian Watson writes about the Foundation in the context of the use of theatre performances in its work:

· Ian Watson. The Weave of Cultural Production, Education, and Training in the Work of the Borderland Organization (Pogranicze Organizacja). Theatre, Dance and Performance Training. 5 (3): pp304–320, 2014.

· Ian Watson. Fundacja Pogranicza: Performance and the Polish Borderlands. About Performance, No. 9, pp231-250, 2009.

There are also few interesting articles in the international press:

· Łukasz Galusek & Dorota Sieroń-Galusek. The Culture of Remembering: Or the Experience of the Borderland Center in Sejny, Poland. Public: A Journal of Imagining America, Vol 3, Issue 2, 2016.

· Fowler Mayhill. What is unusual about the Borderland? New Eastern Europe 3/2012.

· Darius James Ross. Crossing the divisive borders of history. The Baltic Times, July 2003.

· Magdalena J Zaborowska, 2009. The Borderland Foundation in Sejny, Poland. The Journal of the International Institute, University of Michigan, Spring 2009, pp14-15.

Weronika Czyżewska-Poncyljusz is The Borderland Foundation’s Coordinator of International Programmes. She is currently undertaking a PhD with the University of Warsaw’s Department of History. She is initiator and coordinator of a range of educational and artistic projects for Polish and Lithuanian young people in the International Center for Dialog in Krasnogruda, as well as coordinating the Borderland School program, an international training program for leaders of integrative activities in multicultural communities.. Discover more at www.disterrmem.eu/fundacja-pogranicze

Case study: The Borderland Foundation, Sejny, Poland: promoting the peaceful co-existence of diverse peoples

The Foundation’s activities focus on two key areas, or pathways

Borderlands: a tale of coexistence

References & further reading