Leaven. About Zofia and Oskar Hansen

Przejdź do sklepu

A brilliant biographical report dedicated to a couple of Polish architects-visionaries, active in times of People’s Republic of Poland (PRL).

Zofia Hansen – a renowned architect, a down-to earth person – puts Oskar Hansen’s crazy ideas into effect. They both carried out a few bold projects, including the mythical Warsaw housing estate named Przyczółek Grochowski. And it is there that Filip Springer, the author of the book, decides to move in to have a first-hand experience of how the life goes on in a place where the Hansens’ theory became reality, and to understand why their innovative ideas did not end up working out quite well.

Leaven tells a story about unusual fate, brave architecture and Polish mentality. It is also a story about how nowadays we lack a vision to change the world, which – as the Hansens believed – relies on faith in people and a sense of duty towards others.

Leaven is the second book coming from the series “Museum Talks” published by Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and the publishing house Karakter. In that series we publish books dedicated to contemporary art and architecture – biographies, stories about significant and breakthrough events and as well as critical texts. As the group of contemporary culture consumers is growing steadily, we want to show that writing about art and artists can be fascinating and may become inspiration also to people who are not part of the artistic world on a daily basis. Other titles in the publishing series are: a biography of Alina Szapocznikow by Marek Beylin, a book about hidden Warsaw modernism by Christian Kerez and Jan Strumiłło, with photographs by Nicolas Grospierre.

About the author

Filip Springer (born in 1982) – photojournalist, journalist. He was nominated for his literary debut, a report Miedzianka. The story of disappearing to the Ryszard Kapuściński Award and Gdynia Literary Award, and nominated as finalist for the Nike Literary Award in 2012. Another report, dedicated to the PRL architecture titled Wrongly born, became Book of the Year 2012 winning the plebiscite organized by Channel Three of the Polish Radio.