It is. What then? Nothing, absolutely nothing. The city will stay where it was. As it has been verified in the Fourth Polish Republic that building platforms alone does not guarantee success. Cities which we still have complexes about, historical cities, tended to have a dragon just behind their walls. And, willy-nilly, they had to live with it, which means sending virgins, cunning shoemakers, and not so cunning knights there. Cities in fairy tales just could not ignore what was outside their walls.

Born late, as for a city, it is not a dragon but a locomotive that Łódź has huffing and puffing under its walls. It is a fairy tale folly to hope that it will be like that forever and ever, that like in a fairy tale there will be some vehicle which we can get on to be transported into a better future whenever we feel like it. The locomotive will not stand under Łódź walls out of sentiment for poet Julian Tuwim’s favourite city. Especially if we consider that ‘numerous wagons she tugs down the track’ , and in addition an invisible market hand let on track locomotives from abroad, and very soon it will be necessary to race with them. The locomotive does not really mind which cities it is going through. It is the city that should conduct its policy in such a cunning way that there are as many locomotives as possible circling around it.

Much of the project of redevelopment of the Łódź Fabryczna station area depends on PKP, which decided to redevelop the station and is consistently getting down to realizing the project, treating it as every other business undertaking. If the city and its inhabitants plunge into lengthy discussions what should and what should not be built, what is more beautiful, important or useful, PKP will build the station, and the area around it, as always, will be adopted by commercial developers. We do not have to fear for them that it will not pay to invest in Łódź. Another mall called ‘port’ or ‘golden terraces’ will be built. And Łódź will plunge deeper under the weight of such a centre. Concrete will harden and then we will have plenty of time for discussions, protests or strikes in defence of false alternatives. How much time exactly? It is hard to say – the beginnings of the previous rather makeshift station date back to the 1870s, and until 2010 it has dominated several dozen hectares around it. The new supermodern station will probably age no sooner than in several dozen years, in the second half of the 21st century. Some things aimed at increasing the quality of life and culture rather than only generating profit can be built in the centre, yet it will not be too much. And this is a real alternative: either the centre of Łódź will be totally subordinated to the rules of business, or it will be possible, now, before the station is built, to fit in its layout elements big enough (not necessarily in terms of size) which will not aim only at yielding profit to their owners but rather at bringing benefit to their users.

Following the turbulent events of the previous months, one may get an impression that in the eyes of many the area of this project has shrunk so much that it is necessary to choose: this or that. It is a wrong alternative. The new city centre needs and can accommodate both the festival centre and the Special Art Zone. No omnipotent figure has set a limit of expenditure for this project, forcing its participants to tear the tightish budget from one another. It is still possible to look for people interested in joining the project and work on increasing its budget. We do not have to abandon all the disputes immediately. There is enough time for everyone to voice (or, should they like, to scream) their opinion. Everyone means here not only supporters of the congress centre and those of the Special Art Zone. The latest protests contributed to the strengthening of a stereotype destructive for the whole project that there is room only for giants in it. The non-existent festival centre started to trade blows with the non-existent Special Art Zone. If we allow this, it will resemble more and more Godzilla vs. Gigan, a Japanese horror film. The city centre was smashed into matchwood when two monsters were fighting with each other, but it was a trifle: importantly, the exchange of blows was spectacular. Those that will depart on the locomotive will surely support someone from the distance. If we believe that such a film is our truth, we will take on the role of tiny extras that run screaming around the subsequently demolished streets. Instead of running, we should now be planning our own presence between the station, the Special Art Zone and the festival center. Now it is time for open-minded business organisations and clubs to fund an award for the best idea for a private small business situated in the new centre. Now we should vote by clicking to decide which best ideas seen elsewhere should be copied in Łódź. We have to finally determine what these ‘several hundred’ events annually in the festival centre should be like. How much the public opinion is beginning to differ from what has been so far sketched on designers’ drawing boards, is reflected in the fact that even professional researchers of city development are convinced that there will be no residential buildings in the new centre, while in reality they are to occupy about 60 percent of the space. It has to have eateries, hairdressing salons, laundries: everything that Rob Krier called ‘darning a carpet’ when he was explaining how he understands revitalization of the city centre. We have a few months, maybe a year, but if we keep staring at a duel of non-existent monsters, we will hear a toot and a hoot and we will watch the locomotive set off from our life ‘more slowly - than turtles’. And towards the end of it, we will have an opportunity to answer the same question: how come Łódź in the 21st century looks like something straight out of the 19th? The decision about taking action should be preceded by checking carefully the place where we want to do something. Hence, EC1 Arttraction Railway Journal will publish sections of the whole project. The section allows to see the inside, as opposed to the poster, which is flat and usually simplified. In the section it is as plain as a pikestaff what is only a facade and what is beginning to acquire the features of reality. There will be a variety of sections ranging from architectural, social and emotional to financial ones. We are looking for hints on what to cut first.

It is already common knowledge that the new centre will be shaped by references to the avant-garde tradition. One can easily imagine a series of jokes about ‘avant-garde parking’ which is bound to dominate Internet forums. But not many people remember that avant-garde sought opportunities to get away from the ghetto of art. It was fascinated with showing powers that shape life as far from what ’the artistic’ as possible. Reference to avant-garde should not be about subordinating the centre to art or film, as it would have to involve making the centre empty. Avant-gardism should consist in following the fascination with life to which the first avant-garde surrendered.

Krzysztof Cichoń