Yeast Factory
Location: Pracownia Drożdżownia – the former Yeast and Spirit Factory founded by Stanisław Porębski and Jan Czecz in Bieżanów.
Collages and installations were created in the historic Yeast Factory in Bieżanów, Kraków, which was founded beginning of the 20th century on Drożdżowa Street in Bieżanów. For nearly a century, the site functioned as an industrial organism – it survived World War II and, after 1945, operated as part of the Kraków Spirits Industry Plants, producing thousands of tons of yeast annually before ultimately closing after 2000.
Since 2018, parts of the abandoned halls and rooms have been adapted by the artists forming Pracownia Drożdżownia – Piotr Lutyński and Adam Rzepecki. In 2021, together with Bartolomeo Koczenasz, they initiated open-air artistic activities in the space with the exhibition Budding (Pączkowanie).
The site-specific works were directly embedded in the architecture of the buildings – roofs, facades, and raw interiors. They often drew on archival photographs from the period when the factory was still in operation, confronting historical images with its present condition. These visual references activated the memory of the site and its industrial identity. The former process of fermentation – once chemical and industrial – was replaced by a creative ferment. Rather than concealing history, the interventions exposed it, adding another layer to the industrial palimpsest.
