The bare concrete structure of a decommissioned power plant, part of the Arsenał Gallery in Białystok in north-eastern Poland, is the home to an exhibition by Augustas Serapinas, a Vilnius-based artist who is putting a spotlight on the plight of regional wooden architecture.

For the exhibition, Serapinas has deconstructed three wooden buildings, which have all been decommissioned, from the Podlasie region as well as from his native Lithuania. The title of the exhibition is Pine, spruce and aspen, a nod to the native species of the region’s extensive forests.

Hosted by John Beauchamp and Katarzyna Jagodzińska

Out of the wooden beams, Serapinas has created a kind of labyrinth, and we can walk in and out of the houses, and the wooden zigzag structures weave a stark contrast to the concrete hall which the exhibition is housed in.

In this episode, we explore the plight of wooden vernacular architecture in the Podlasie region and beyond. Join us as we are in Białystok to see the exhibition for ourselves, and we are joined on the line by artist Augustas Serapinas and Matthew Post, a Podlasie-based curator originally from California who stands behind the idea for the exhibition.

The universal message will remain topical even after the exhibition closes. Despite its captivating aesthetics we read it as a gesture of activism, calling for the saving of this ephemeral heritage.

During the podcast we mention the Koźliki open air museum which we visited as part of the Ukraine Heritage Spotlight series: you can find out more here.

Dan Perjovschi is a Romanian artist, writer and journalist whose simple cartoon-like drawings provoke and appeal to audiences the world over.

His work is politically and socially engaging, and his exhibitions – which he usually “installs” himself by painting directly onto museum walls – are extremely popular, with shows being held at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, MoMa in New York, as well as a whole host of other institutions.

Perjovschi is often regarded as a disruptor, and his illustrations often provide a cynical – if not critical – view of the contemporary world with all its oddities and absurdities.

As an artist, Perjovschi challenges our contemporary view on the cultural heritage produced and interpreted by institutions.

In his role as an activist of sorts, he often questions authority – as well as the authority of the very places where he shows his art. How does that affect his creative process and how does he navigate our the ins and outs of our post-modern reality?

The Hub’s John Beauchamp and Katarzyna Jagodzińska met Dan Perjovschi in Bucharest in October 2024 to discuss his work and his approach to art.

There are a number of moments during this episode when Dan uses strong language. You have been warned!

It’s the first Thursday in December, and in the southern Polish city of Kraków a number of people have gathered around the Adam Mickiewicz monument on the Main Market Square for the annual nativity scene competition.

Cracovian nativity scenes, or szopki, have been a regular fixture in the city since the 19th century, and since 1937 a competition has been running for the best-made cribs. But these are not your normal nativity scenes – yes of course, you have the Holy Family and it is representative for the Christian feast of Christmas, but what sets the Cracovian szopki apart is the technique in which they are made and their regional symbolism.

In 2018 this festive tradition, which adds a colourful accent to the Christmas atmosphere of the city, was inscribed to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The Hub’s John Beauchamp and Katarzyna Jagodzińska meet with Dr Andrzej Szoka, head of the Intangible Heritage Interpretation Centre of Kraków (part of the Museum of Kraków) to find out more this unique heritage.

Following our visit to the Tășuleasa Social and hiking a part of the Via Transilvanica (you can hear more in our episode on the Via Transilvanica here), we decide to carry on our journey through Romania and Bulgaria by taking in a few heritage sites.

Our first destination is the village of Viscri, an old Saxon village which is home to a fortified church, one of seven Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania inscribed onto UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 1999. Viscri also caught the attention of the British Royal Family, when Prince Charles – now King Charles III – bought a house there in 2006 and has since become an advocate for the region’s rich cultural heritage.

After stopping off south of Bucharest for lunch we head over the Friendship Bridge into Bulgaria.

Veliko Tarnovo, one of the oldest settlements in Bulgaria, has a history spanning some five millennia. It was the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire and is now one of the country’s cultural centres. We visit the scenic hillside town and the old fortress of Tsarevets and then head for the Tuesday market in Pavlikeni – where we try some Bulgarian street food – and then hit the road towards the Black Sea coast.

Up in the hills not too far away from Varna we visit another UNESCO heritage site. The Madara Rider or Madara Horseman is a large early medieval rock relief in the mountains near Shumen depicting a majestic rider. What is amazing about the site, however, is the fact that it is larger than life and is still visible after well over 1000 years.

After going offline at Camping Kosmos in Durankulak, we head up towards the Danube Delta and stay in the port town of Tulcea before heading up over the Carpathians and towards the Bucovina region and the Humor Monastery, one of eight ‘Churches of Moldavia’ inscribed in to the UNESCO World Heritage list.

We end the podcast at the National Museum of the Village in Bucharest. But we are already planning our next road trip!

Head of the Kraków Heritage Hub Katarzyna Jagodzińska speaks to Tamas Fejerdy, a long-standing expert on cultural heritage and president of the Hungarian ICOMOS national committee.

Tamas Fejerdy is a treasure trove of knowledge about monuments and heritage, both in Hungary and across Europe. We speak broadly on today’s challenges of heritage protection in Hungary, matters of authenticity, the role of civil society when it comes to heritage, taking several sites and projects in Budapest and in the Hungarian provinces as illustrations.

Estonia is on the front line with regards to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Being in such a position has forced decision makers to rethink official policy in times of war. How to protect tangible cultural heritage? How to tackle the country’s dissonant Soviet heritage?

With the invasion of Ukraine, what measures has Estonia put in place so far and what good practices in general can the rest of Europe take on board so as to safeguard its cultural heritage?

The Kraków Heritage Hub’s John Beauchamp and Katarzyna Jagodzińska speak to Riin Alatalu, Vice-President of ICOMOS who holds the UNESCO Chair of Cultural Heritage Studies at the Estonian Academy of Fine Arts. We met during the Europa Nostra Cultural Heritage Summit held in Bucharest in October 2024.

Oleksandra Kovalchuk is the deputy director of the Fine Arts Museum in Odesa as well as the co-founder of the Museum For Change NGO, which actively seeks and supports cultural institutions in Ukraine in preserving their collections and assisting in ongoing operations.

Head of the Kraków Heritage Hub, Katarzyna Jagodzińska met with Oleksandra Kovalchuk at the International Cultural Centre in September 2024 to hear the latest on how Ukraine’s cultural heritage is being fought for against the odds.

In the latest podcast in the Holistic Heritage series, the Kraków Heritage Hub’s John Beauchamp is in Bucharest for the 2024 European Cultural Heritage Summit, where he takes a closer look at the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards.

Since 2002, the awards have championed the best cultural heritage initiatives from across Europe, with a total of just under 4,000 entries from as many as 46 countries. Why is the award so popular? And for all the programmes which have been awarded, what has the impact been of the award? Find out why it is so important to apply and get your project highlighted by Europe’s leading cultural heritage organisation.

In the podcast we hear from Jacek Purchla, Vice-President of Europa Nostra who was also Chairman of the awards jury in 2024. We also hear from Agata Wąsowska-Pawlik, Europa Nostra board member and director of the International Cultural Centre in Kraków, and Elena Bianchi, Programme Manager of the European Heritage Awards at Europa Nostra, who explains the ins and outs of the prize.

And what about the former winners? How has the award made an influence on their projects? We hear from Eugen Vaida, who is now a jury member but whose Ambulance for Momuments project rescues heritage-listed buildings across Romania (2020). Additionally, we hear from Anna Szekely from the Via Transilvanica in Romania (2023), Francesca Moncada from Le Dimore del Quartetto (2019), as well as this year’s winners: Łucja Cieślar and Paulina Adamska from the Serfenta Assocation in Cieszyn (Poland), Marek Gołosz from the Ignacy Historic Mine in Rybnik (Poland), and Caroline Fernolend from the Mihai Eminescu Trust (Romania).

Do you have an amazing initiative which fits the bill and you think could win a prize? You can find out more details here.