Stoczniowiec (Shipyard Worker) part 1 

The Stoczniowiec, cz. 1 (2015) project by Łukasz Skąpski (born in 1956) refers to the recent history of Szczecin. After the regime change, which were kickstarted in 1989, which replaced socialist economy with free market mechanisms, within just two decades the city has lost its most important branches of previously developing industry, shipbuilding in particular. While working on the Stoczniowiec project, the artist undertook an individual, grassroots initiative to revive the local, once thriving, and now bankrupt shipyard, by initiating the proceedings to legally take over its trademark. He filed an application with the Patent Office with the intention of marketing a series of luxury ‘Stoczniowiec’ perfumes under the logo of the Adolf Warski Shipyard in Szczecin. The project also encompassed the development of a limited series of three prototype perfume bottles, the first of which is now a part of the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin. The second part of the Stoczniowiec project consists of a series of several dozens of original photographs taken by the artist, documenting the collapse of Szczecin's industry and the effects of the city's economic transformation. Skąpski makes no secret of his criticism of the neoliberal policies that have set the direction of changes in Poland over the course of the past thirty years. The idea of making the ‘Stoczniowiec’ perfumes on the ruins of the old industrial tycoon perversely reveals the mechanisms and impact of the new market reality.

Magdalena Lewoc