City and Utopia in the Projects of Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw

Wednesday, 21 December 2016, 19:00

Presentations by Aleksandra Kędziorek and Tomasz Fudala

Oskar Hansen and the Open Form: Towards a Utopia of the Present

Aleksandra Kędziorek

The theory of Open Form, formulated in 1959 by Polish architect, Oskar Hansen, addressed the question of how to accommodate the indeterminate in the process of design: How to make architecture open to its users so that they can participate in its creation, how to design a change and find an equilibrium between subjective and objective elements of a project, and how to turn architecture into a „perceptive background” emphasizing the richness of everyday life. By analyzing his visionary projects of the Linear Continuous System and the Museum of Modern Art in Skopje, or a cybernetic design of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, the presentation discusses a possibility of creating a real-life utopia. It offers the late 1950s idea as a contribution to contemporary debates on open source architecture and the changing role of architectural profession after the end of stararchitects.

Aleksandra Kędziorek is an art historian and a curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Her major interest lies in exploring the intersection of architecture and the visual arts, and experimental approaches to art and architecture pedagogy. She has curated exhibitions, screenings and seminars at the Yale School of Architecture in New Haven, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, MACBA in Barcelona, the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto, La Loge in Brussels and Index—The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation in Stockholm. She is also the curator of Oskar and Zofia Hansen’s house in Szumin. She has participated in international research projects on architecture history launched at ETH Zurich and Universidade de Campinas, São Paulo, and contributed as a researcher to several exhibitions on modern and contemporary architecture, including Lifting the Curtain which accompanied 14th Venice Architecture Biennale. She co-edited the volume Oskar Hansen—Opening Modernism: On Open Form Architecture, Art and Didactics (with Łukasz Ronduda, Warsaw 2014) and published in architectural journals, A10, Volume and Architektura&urbanizmus among others.

WARSAW UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Tomasz Fudala

The “Warsaw under Construction” urban design festival, organised for the 8th time by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and Museum of Warsaw, attempts to describe the character of modern Warsaw and its function as an urban centre. What does a modern Warsaw mean? How do you live in a city, what do you use it for, why do we need a city at all? The annual “Warsaw under Construction” festival lasts throughout October. During the festival, Warsaw’s Museum of Modern Art becomes a meeting hub for creative minds to work together to create the type of city its residents want. The museum has invited everyone – from Warsaw NGOs, municipal activists to designers, architects, artists, journalists, and sociologists – to participate in debates and projects. WARSAW UNDER CONSTRUCTION festival dealt with architecture and its designers, advertising in the public space, participation processes and housing policy.

Tomasz Fudala is an art historian and curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Fudala has previously worked at the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and Warszawski Aktyw Artystow. His writings have appeared in Domus, Artforum, Odra, Obieg, Czas Kultury, and Autoportret. He is interested in architecture and the history of exhibitions, which was the subject to his project The Space Between Us. Curator of the WARSAW UNDER CONSTRUCTION FESTIVAL.

Presentations take place within the framework of the exhibition Kinotron, having opened on November 19 and closing on December 25.

Admission is free

The exhibition is supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland

Partners: Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre

Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw

International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays UA

Organizers: Visual Culture Research Center, Krytyka Polityczna

Media partners: Українська Правда. Життя, Korydor,  Moviegram, Cultprosir, Update, Політична критика