Concrete Legacy - Exhibition Proposal (Masters Coursework)

Polish people are the largest national minority in the UK and Polish is the second spoken language in England, yet representations of Polish people in culture are often limited to an occasional plumber character on TV. Thus, for our ‘Exhibitions’ assignment we propose to curate a show about Polish postwar modern, or Brutalist, architecture with the aim of promoting cross cultural connections between Poland and the UK. We also think there are important links to be explored with British Brutalism and issues around conservation of 20th century heritage that are pertinent in both countries. Recent discourse around climate crisis and the importance of refurbishment and retrofit of buildings would also be an important strand in the exhibition.

This exhibition has the potential of bridging the gap between the often shallow interest in Brutalism, focused solely on the form and important social, political and environmental narratives.

Concrete legacy

Polish architecture 1950-1970

exhibition proposal Marianna Janowicz Scarlett Deamer Ajeng Hendriati

BARC0041 Research and Dissemination Exhibition Assignment

Exhibition Idea

Target Audiences

In Poland, post-war architecture is strongly associated with the country’s previous political order, a complicated and complex history which for many people results with negative perception of such architecture.

•

The exhibition will explore the post-war Brutalist architecture in Poland and will focus on at least 10 notable buildings and their architects. We will discuss a couple of buildings that were demolished despite their historical value and draw links with similar cases in the UK. The discussion on demolition and preservation will allow us to bring environmental discourse to the table, making the exhibition even more relevant to wider audiences.

•

We see our show as responding to the make up of contemporary population of the UK and the established scene of exhibiting international architecture in London and we propose to address it to the general audience in London (as opposed to targeting it at the Polish minority). We foresee the audience would be composed of architects and students, general public interested in architecture, with the added benefit of attracting Polish audiences who would not normally attend architectural exhibitions.

•

Architectural practitioners, historians and students Non-architects interested in architecture (audiences of exhibitions such as Japan House at the Barbican Centre, OMA, Helene Binet) General public interested in Polish culture

Context in Britain Polish architecture and design has recently been exhibited at London Design Biennale, and at the William Morris Gallery. The latter is a current exhibition presenting the arts and crafts movement.

This proposal focusses on the post-war period of 1945-1970, it will therefore bring a new perspective on Poland to the British audience.

Liceum im. Jose Marti by Jan Zdanowicz and Jerzy Baumiller Modern concrete architecture has been broadly branded as ‘Brutalism’ and either brushed aside as ‘ugly’ or fetishised, both in Britain and in the UK. The 20th Century Society cited ‘British prejudices towards Brutalist architecture’ as one of the underlying reasons behind the demolition of Pimlico School. Our exhibition aims to challenge this reductive, binary view of this heritage and bring about better understanding of its value and its sociopolitical context

Venue

Patchwork: The Architecture of Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak at the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Center for Architecture in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village (2019).

Supersam department store in Warsaw

Precedent

The exhibition explores the Polish golden era of Brutalist architecture and the demolition and preservation issue of the buildings in both Poland and Britain. However, to introduce unfamiliar audience to the topic, we thought it would be appropriate to start the exhibition with information on historical and political background of Poland during the post-war era. The actual content of the exhibition will include historical material about architects and also anthropological research - for example interviews with residents and shop keepers and everyday photographs from personal archives.

We were inspired by exhibitions of Polish architecture, such as the 2019 show in Manhattan focussing on the architect Jadwiga GrabowskaHawrylak. In the UK, successful architectural exhibitions focusing on the legacy of specific country or firm have been organised in the past by institutions such as the Barbican Centre. London also has its own Festival of Architecture and a number of venues solely focussing on architecture and design, such as Roca Gallery, Betts Projects or Design Museum.

The Hayward Gallery brands itself as a space for ‘contemporary art’ and as a ‘landmark of Brutalist architecture.’ Such a title would make it a commendable place to have an exhibition about Brutalist architecture from outside of the UK. They also have an in-house press team - which could be a valuable commodity for our exhibition (tried and tested). We also liked their education and creative learning programme - a potential to include our work within the broader curriculum.

They are very interested in the concept of space what that means for an individual to inhabit (Thabiso Sekgala, 2019) and ideas of conceptual minimalism within space (Space Shifters, 2018-2019).

Such a venue would have the potential to bring our topic to a wider audience in London

We would like the presentation to provide an immersive experience for the British public. Other than the conventional exhibition artefacts such as printed photography, text and video, it will also include additional designed environments such as a staged period room and a 1:1 balcony model. Models will be a very important medium and an attractive way of representing architecture for lay audience. For environmental reasons we propose to produce most of the models in Britain although we would also like to explore the possibility of shipping the large model of Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak’s Plac Grunwaldzki housing estate which was originally shown in New York.

Exhibition Design

Events programme

Budget

- “Preserving 20th century architectural heritage:” panel discussion with 20th Century Society, Docomomo Poland and Centrum Architektury - Talk about architect Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak

by Michał Duda from Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw - “Socialist legacy in architecture:” a discussion with Owen Hatherley, Dr Michał Murawski and Grzegorz Piątek - Workshop: “Design your own flat” - Workshop: “Retrofit first” - Children’s workshop: “Build your own estate” - “Concrete: what next?” Environmental consciousness and architectural design. Symposium hosted by Architects’ Climate Action Network

We estimate needing a budget between £100-£120k, which would be divided in the following way: - Exhibition production £66k (Plinths and structures, models etc) - AV and tech £20k (TV screens, headphones etc) - Graphics £16k (Large format signs and captions) - Exhibition design fee £8k - Opening £7k Sady Żoliborskie estate by Halina Skibniewska

This budget does not include curators’ fees and promotion and marketing costs.

Partners and funding Media partners:

Funding:

- 20th Century Society - Royal Institute of British Architects - Polish Cultural Institute in London - Architecture Foundation - Centrum Architektury - Polish Embassy in London

- Docomomo International - Adam Mickiewicz University ‘Polish Culture Abroad’ - National Centre for Culture in Poland - Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw - Polish Cultural Institute in London

Programme Research Organising loans and securing rights Fundraising Promotion and marketing Exhibition design Production of models Exhibition structures production Printing Installation Opening

Dec-21

Jan-22

Feb-22

Mar-22

‘Okrąglak’ department store by Marek Leykam

Apr-22

May-22

Jun-22

Jul-22

Aug-22

Sep-22

Oct-22

Nov-22

Dec-22

Jan-23

Feb-23

Mar-23

Apr-23

May-23

Jun-23