About us

The past is a foreign country.

The opening sentence of L.P. Hartley’s novel The Go-Between , published in 1953, has already been picked up and used several times by various authors, including David Loventhal in the title of his classic work on perceiving the past, which returned to us in its revised form in 2015. This sentence was also adopted as the motto of the Association for Supporting Research and Conservation Initiatives. In an inverted context, we, researchers and conservators of monuments, being in a historical setting, having contact with historical artifacts, or reading historical texts, are foreigners. We watch, touch and read, but even with our eyes and minds wide open, and with the opportunity to use laboratories that offer extraordinary possibilities, we always remain „outside”. For we do not have and we cannot have compassion with the people who once inhabited these spaces, just like when we land in a foreign country. However, we would also like to remain that way, so as not to colonize the visited land on an ad hoc and unreflective basis.

The Association is open to anyone who – regardless of their profession – would like to develop or support research or conservation activity in any area of art and, what is equally important to us – the nature that surrounds us along with the thoughts that accompany them. In principle non-profit, it operates on the basis of donations, contributions and the work of associates. First term management board – Paweł Baranowski, Wojciech Bagiński and Michał Witkowski – has a shared experience of discovering, researching, restoring and interpreting paintings in the Zhovkva Castle (Ukraine). Wojtek Holnicki’s photographs are notes on places, images and situations untamed by humans, which we may soon say goodbye to as a result of us still dreaming of our own power.

Administration:

National Court Register: 0000869154
Tax Number: 5252843195

Management Board: Paweł Baranowski (chairman), Wojciech Bagiński and Michał Witkowski (vice-chairman)
Street addess:
ul. Niecała 12/2
00-098 Warsaw
Poland
Email address: info@twbk.pl

Towarzystwo Wspierania Inicjatyw Badawczych i Konserwatorskich
IBAN PL22 1090 1014 0000 0001 4989 9942 SWIFT (BIC code) WBKPPLPP

If you are interested in supporting and achieving the effects of the Society’s activities from abroad, we will be grateful for voluntary payments in any amount to the above-mentioned bank account, with the transfer title „Donation for statutory purposes”. Preferred currency: Euro and/or US Dollars.