The interdisciplinary project "White Nights" consists of films, a visual art exhibition, discussion panel

and a concert, and will be held in Wrocław during the New Horizons International Film Festival (July
21-31, 2022). The exhibition, organized jointly with the Studio BWA Wrocław gallery, will remain
open through October 1, 2022.

White nights, or the poetic name for the polar day, is the theme bridging individual program
elements. The Arctic Circle is a demarcation line for this phenomenon, so we are inviting artists from
Northern European countries (Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and
Poland) who deal with the topography, ecology and ethnography of the North in their work to
participate in the cross-sectional program. As the New Horizons International Film Festival is a
summer event, the project’s starting point will be the summer solstice, as the axis of nature's
rhythms and folklore related to solar festivals traditionally celebrated throughout northern Europe.
We are particularly interested in the tension arising as traditional habits mutate in a modern,
multicultural society and the rituals and works that reflect these habits are told in the contemporary
language of film, art and music. We want to present artists who reinterpret old rituals, insert figures
from other cultures into the local landscape, combine folklore and pop culture. We are interested
not only in artifacts, but also in the practices functioning in local communities and in artistic life.

As a project, "White Nights" seeks answers to questions being asked in Poland as well all countries
that are liberalizing in terms of morality and undergoing globalization, i.e., to what extent are local
traditions a closed collection of the past and to what extent and how they can become a creative
resource for modern society.

"White Nights" is an extension of the reviews of national cinemas and visual arts that have been held
at the New Horizons International Film Festival for many years. This time, through a cross-sectional,
supra-regional approach, the review will be culturally and ethnically diversified. By engaging artists
from different countries along with diasporas that inhabit them, the program is not focused on
presenting national identity, but shows how traditional ideas and local stories change in multicultural
societies and permeate global pop culture.

Scandinavia is the quintessential image of the global North with regard to nature, geography and
politics. However, over the last 50 years, Scandinavian countries have become a place where
experiences of the global South meet the experiences and traditions of the North in the life and work
of ethnic minorities and immigrants. The residents of Oslo and Reykjavik constitute an ethnic mosaic
and a large percentage of young Scandinavian artists have minority backgrounds.

Traditionally, Poland has been placed on the European axis between East and West. However, this
Cold War division has already become obsolete and it is more accurate to locate Poland midway
between the global North and South, as a transition zone. Geographically it belongs to the North,
although socially and economically it has always been closer to the South. It has been the source of
emigration for decades, but has recently become a destination accepting immigrants. We want to
hear the voices of artists with minority experiences and emigrants living in Poland. How they
penetrate into Polishness and filter it through their own stories and sensitivities. The geographical
frame outlined this way creates space in which the film review and the accompanying exhibition
become a meeting place for artists, urban folklore researchers and viewers from Scandinavian
countries and Poland, from various social groups.

Shifting the emphasis from the East / West division to the North / South division - a division more
current in light of globalization and the climate crisis, allows for new interpretations and creates
space for the reception of multicultural creativity beyond the usual thought patterns. Additionally,
the unconventional approach to folklore and pop culture as its contemporary, urban manifestation
will garner interest among a wider audience that we want to engage in dialogue. The screenings will
be accompanied by lectures or discussions after the films with the filmmakers and experts on North
European cinema. During the festival, we will organize daily guided tours for the audience. The
program will be accompanied by a panel discussion with the participation of invited experts from
Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Poland. We will publish the event catalog, enriched with their essays,
in the form of an e-book.

We are inviting authors, activists, curators and researchers of ideas to participate in the exhibition,
film program and accompanying events with the involvement of the audience. We believe that
multidimensional activities with the public contribute to building a civic society. "White Nights," as an
interdisciplinary project, will contribute to building the awareness and sensitivity of the festival
audience, presenting the world as a global system of interconnected events and interpersonal
networks, where every change of perception and attitude matters. The careful selection of films and
works for the exhibition will precisely touch the current problems we face: as a society in transition,
as inhabitants of cities whose tissue is constantly changing, and as individuals negotiating their
identity in global offline as well as virtual reality.