"(perma)cultures of fragile organisms"

Nowa Szkoła (The New School) is a project of the Laguna Foundation and Friends, in which international artists, theorists, activists, and those interested in sound, sculpture, and bodywork join forces to explore the possibility of a good life on our planet. Through such activities as choirs and professional and folk/nature sound compositions, permacurating, ecological servers, and experiments in transversal interpersonal and interspecies collaboration, we strive to build an independent culture and alternatives to strategies based on extraction and exploitation. We explore connections between urban and rural life, the languages ​​of art, theory, music, computer science, industry, and the body; we propose experimentation with inter- and transdisciplinarity, we are also interested in degrowth.

Our most general topics are: ecology/biology/permacurating and independent
cultures. More specifically, we engage in: alternative institutions: creating new and
negotiating existing cultural practices; building: small-scale architecture, infrastructure, and sculpture; and working with the body: performance, choreography, vocal composition, and dance. We are interested in developing, but not necessarily in the sense of growth alone—we know that failure, eclipse, and ending are also stages of life, and we want to acknowledge and explore them in our projects. We learn not only from the heroic tradition but also from the vulnerable, excluded, common and ordinary individuals and groups.

We operate through workshops, concerts, lectures, meetings, creative retreats for
small groups, and gatherings of people interested in independent culture. We don't operate solely in festival mode, delivering entertainment to the metropolitan audiences from rural area. We work slowly and consistently, expanding our skills, interests, inspirations and collaborations. We rely on personal contacts and friendships, and strive to get to know each of our guests. We prioritize small groups and intimate events that treat the space we occupy with respect. We offer Summer School—residential stays for individuals and small groups where you can relax, work on new projects, or finish old ones. We collaborate with the local community and invite individuals and organizations to co-create the activities with us.

The New School is also a place – a campsite with basic infrastructure and a former
school building awaiting renovation, located in the small village of Kopice on the Szczecin Lagoon, next to the Natura 2000 protected area, and adjacent to fishing and agricultural lands.
The Laguna Foundation's interests include the future of agriculture, sustainable water
management, and nature conservation. We also invest in ecological infrastructure,
collaboration with local individuals and organizations, and building an international network of permaculture cooperation. Collaboration across borders and differences is crucial to us because we believe and know that culture thrives where there are differences, curiosity, inspiration, but also trauma. The Polish-German border is an area where a range of languages, cultures, and ethnicities meet. Tragedies have occurred here, but new communities have also been built here. We learn from local housewives, fishermen, schoolgirls, sailors, cyclists, and farmers how to operate on both a small and large scale.

We make reference to (fragile) organisms because that's what we are, as individuals,
groups, societies, and even species. From our everyday, as well as extraordinary experiences and skills; from our already situated knowledge and networks, from sounds and voices, constellations of new cultures emerge, traversing the exclusions and fostering participation.

We invite you!