The fourth day of the Summer School of Small Centers of the World felt like a tender, closing sentence — summarizing, yet at the same time, opening. Not an ending, but a beginning of direction. That day, we listened to the voices of all participants.
The third day of the Summer School of Small Centers of the World felt like a tender, closing sentence — summarizing, yet at the same time, opening. Not an ending, but a beginning of direction. That day, we listened to the voices of all participants. Each story was different — rooted in a particular place, born of local sensitivity, shaped by struggle and hope. And yet, within these individual stories, a common thread began to emerge more clearly. A kind of connective tissue. A language that needs no translation. A language of responsibility, care, and collaboration. Weronika Czyżewska-Poncyljusz and Krzysztof Czyżewski gathered these voices like a mosaic — delicate, diverse, and yet woven into a whole. A shared map of Small Centers of the World — those already visible, and those still waiting to be seen. We talked about what connects us — and what makes each of us unique. About how to collaborate without losing our own voice. How to build bridges between our places — and find touchpoints where human stories, needs, and dreams meet. We began to shape real plans: the idea of a joint laboratory for Small Centers of the World, residency programs — also for young people — and ways of sharing what we already have, while building what does not yet exist. It was a day of imagining the future together. It didn’t end with a period, but with a comma. Because something has already happened — not just ideas, not just plans. A community was born. Not temporary or symbolic — but real, grounded in experience, listening, and mutual trust. A new “we” has emerged. Not a unity that erases differences, but a multiplicity, intertwined by a shared sense of meaning.
Text: Iryna Mularczuk
Photos: Staszek Czyżewski
