What’s the link between a dead mobile phone, cooking in the open air, and a mystical experience? Karol Radziszewski talks to Ewa Ciepielewska and Agnieszka Brzeżańska about a floating art workshop.

The Polish word galar sounds somewhat magical; it makes you think about imagined worlds from the books of Tolkien. What does it mean? It refers to a type of boat that has carried cargo for centuries – grains and other crops, salt, lime, less often wood and coal – to Gdańsk. Galars, devoid of propulsion, travelled with the flow of the water, steered by large oars called drygawka. The galar called ‘Solny’ was built in 2013 in Wieluń based on traditional design. Two years later, the boat, aided by an engine, travelled 3000 kilometres from Kraków to Orléans. Every year for the last 13 years, in May, it goes from Oświęcim to Gdańsk under the flag of the Royal Vistula Rafting, then changes direction and goes against the flow under the flag of the Earth as the art residency FLOW/Przepływ.

According to the initiators and creators of the whole initiative, artists Agnieszka