The people behind Warsaw's Jasna 1 are the initiatiors of our international cooperation and they are leaders of the project. Jędrzej Kowalczyk, club's art director and resident DJ, writes about the the club's backstory to break the ice.
Jasna 1 became the first nightclub in Warsaw that I truly wanted to go to every weekend, whether coming in as a resident DJ, employee or as a regular visitor. The club became my home and it offers a shelter to many others, who are heavily involved in the city's scene.
The club is located at Jasna street in the very center of Warsaw, in the historic building “Pod Orłami”, which was built between 1912 and 1917 in an early modernism style. As many others, the building was half destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. It was rebuilt and extended in the late 50s and now houses the National Council of Cooperatives, the club’s neighbours, both guarded by impressive eagles sitting on the corners.
From the very beginning, we wanted to run a club that is based on and supports the local scene. The Polish electronic music has been going through a bit of a renaissance in the past few years and we wanted to promote and celebrate local artists, promoters and collectives. We truly believe that at the very core of our club are the resident DJs, all of whom treat Jasna as their home. They all contribute by taking an active part in selecting lineups and in developing and curating the space. The international success of several of our residents, such as VTSS, Olivia, Sept and others, makes us feel very proud and helps in amplifying Poland's music scene.
It is rewarding to be one of the residents, since everyone is very supportive to each other. We are all good friends, we hang out outside the club too and we complement each other stylistically in the DJ booth, which only contributes to the friendly and relaxed atmosphere of the club.
Jasna's music programming is very diverse. On a single weekend you can listen to all kinds of genres - from techno, electro and house to breakbeat and italo disco. It's also not unusual to come to Jasna on Sunday to lie down on the floor and listen to ambient music. The club's community is very open minded and is not limited to any single genre.
Among the several recurring nights happening at Jasna is Radar, a party run by Olivia, Chino and Kinzo Chrome, one of the hottest ebm, electro and acid nights in Poland. The night with the most diverse selection of music is K.O.D. (Disco Defence Committee) focused on everything from italo disco to acid house. The young super talented crew Syntetyk specializing in post-punk electronics and murky synthwave are having their nights at Jasna, and they also started a label of the same name.
It’s worth mentioning that while unfortunately homophobia is still a huge issue in Poland, Jasna takes a very strong stance in the fight against this unfortunate prejudice and works toward being a safe space for anyone who wants to express their sexuality and identity. We're very sensitive to any forms of discrimination of an minority groups. Since we stand strong behind the LGBTQIA+ community, we have been organizing official after parties of the Warsaw Pride Parades in the past few years.
We strongly believe we have a role to play in fighting prejudice and homophobia in Warsaw and the whole country - our club has always been open to everyone as long as they respect others. It's worth pointing out that Jasna 1's sister club Metropolis (which is just next door) is one of the very few Gay clubs in Poland. We often open the door between the two clubs, so that guests can freely mingle.
Now that we have been open for over three years, we are confident with our direction and the way it develops as we go on. We earned a strong trust from the electronic music community and we continue to set new standards in our country. Our work has been appreciated by a number of global artists and international agencies - helping us to cement a strong reputation on the international scene.
Having said all that, we still think we have a long way to get where we want to be. Jasna 1 still feels like a bit of an unfinished project - we recognise that we can still improve a number of things, including the interior design, sound system and programming.
The current pandemic has been tough on everyone, but particularly impacted the music industry. Having a strong local scene as well as a tightly knit roster of resident DJs is something we began to appreciate even more since then.
We keep learning how to develop our venue each month and we truly believe that the Gravity Project lets us achieve this goal - through sharing experiences and learnings with amazing crews from Ankali and Revier Südost. We're very happy to be a part of this project.
