The materiality and aesthetics of the City in Dialogue : the case of the Day of Islam in the Catholic Church in Poland

In this chapter, we discuss conditions framing the interfaith dialogue in Poland as they appear in their materialized, localized and discursive dimensions. Drawing on Waldenfels (2011), we perceive the interreligious dialogue as an in-between place: a liminal landscape that simultaneously connects and separates. The main focus of our analysis is the socially and culturally situated dialogue between the Catholic Church - Poland’s dominant religious institution - and Islam striving for inclusion and visibility in the local settings. The case study we present is the celebration of the Day of Islam in the Catholic Church in the city of Krakow. In particular, we concentrate on the public controversy surrounding the poster that advertised the event in 2020. The poster depicts one of the important landmarks of the city - the symbol-laden Saint Mary’s Basilica in the Main Market Square surrounded by imagined architectural objects that emblematize Muslim presence (mosques and minarets). In the analysis of these references to space and material presence of religion in Krakow’s landscape, we juxtapose the symbolic content of the poster with the discursive practices employed to trap Muslims into a realm of the alien and reflect on the existing dialogue agenda affected by the current rise of the right-wing populism.