Hidden modernism. Warsaw by Christian Kerez
A meeting around Jan Strumiłło's book

  • Hidden modernism. Warsaw by Christian Kerez

    A staircase at WSM Żoliborz, photo by Nicolas Grospierre

You are invited to a talk about whether Warsaw modernism is somewhat hidden and if, looking at the city from the outside, completely stripped of its historical and political perspective, it is possible to see something different than its inhabitants.

"Hidden Modernism” presents Warsaw seen through the eyes of a Swiss architect fascinated with the city who won the building design competition for the design of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw in 2007. Although we already know that Kerez's design will not be implemented, it is worth looking at the city from his perspective – focusing on the "brutal beauty” of the Capital, on the form and construction of selected buildings. The book addresses the city's most famous landmarks like the Palace of Culture and Science, Smyk, the Party's House (former seat of the Central Committee of the Polish Communist Party) and the East-West Route, as well as the less known WSM Social Cultural Centre in Żoliborz and the Health Service Depot in Woronicza Street, which for architecture lovers and a growing number of varsavianists are real gems and architectural treasures, while for site owners where the landmarks actually stand (or stood – Supersam, Chemia pavilion) – not necessarily so.

Kerez treats them as an important point of reference for his work: "We are living in times when architecture sometimes becomes funny in its rhetoric ostentatiousness. It is, at times, designed for the simple reason of making an impression. In the meantime, the quality of the architecture itself is revealed after many years and I believe that it is this ambiguity of Warsaw modernism that makes it so interesting.”

Christian Kerez's Warsaw and his book will be discussed by its author, architect Jan Strumiłło, and author of photographs of 30 hero buildings of the "Hidden Modernism” of Nicolas Grospierre and Tomasz Fudala, art historian, curator of the Museum of Modern Arts. The meeting will be led by Filip Springer, reporter, writer and photographer.

The book will be sold at a promotional price on the day of the event.

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