"In countries with a long and rich capitalist tradition in which culture functioned, people turned up whose imaginations were bigger than the petty strategies of petty street vendors. These people actually managed to realize that ambitious art was something that could also turn a profit, and that there was sufficient market demand for bold works. In Poland, this is all ahead of us - I hope." says famous director Krystian Lupa in this interview about the current ideas regarding cultural policy in Poland.

MS: In the commentary about politicians from the Civic Platform with regard to their projects to reform the public media or financing of culture, there seems to be a lot of dissapointment. Agnieszka Holland wrote an open letter criticizing this notion that Culture is the best area for budget cuts and achieving savings. Would Polish culture survive without government funding? Krystian Lupa: Of course - when culture isn't helped by the government, it tries to survive using other means. In Poland, however, culture has always had government help, and the specific structure that culture has taken in Poland isn't one that can be done away with easily. But, you can also see the problem in a different light. How? Well - can the government afford to ignore the necessities of cutlural policy, to leave culture to fend for itself? What would that mean? It would of course mean the commercialization of culture and making it wholly dependent on market demand, on the subjective whims of the society