Private Area, 22.09-19.11, Muzeum Architektury we Wrocławiu
Wernissage: 22.09, 18:00
Curatorial walk: 30.09, 13:00
What form can architecture take when it is created without the architect and the architect, without the question – and without the law? What happens when we remove from the design process not only the designer or designer, but also all the values they profess and the rules they follow?
The exhibition Private Property was inspired by the Polish building projects of the turn of the 20th and 21st century – a period in which declining communism and hastily constructed capitalism, born in chaos, gave rise to a range of alternative architectural practices. Self-builds are an interesting illustration of the spirit of this era, reflecting its aspirations or aesthetic preferences in a more perfect way than any legitimate architecture.
There are extremely often easily identifiable economic, social or political reasons behind the creation of self-builds; usually, regardless of their genesis, these buildings raise legitimate legal objections. However, these considerations (as far as possible) will not be the focus of ‘Private Land’. The exhibition will focus not on answering the question ‘why’, but ‘how’ self-builds were and are realised. It will present a selection of buildings which, created without permits and therefore without restrictions, have taken on the most interesting and unusual forms, which are often controversial and provoke heated debates. Each of them is an example of expressive architecture that does not make concessions. One that makes mistakes, but makes them with a brazen self-confidence. Risky, even dangerous at times. Always putting individual freedom before collective harmony. A manifestation of the fact that in one’s own home one can be oneself – and no one has anything to do with it.
At the exhibition, we will not see documentation of any of the mentioned objects, but we will experience them in their interpretation and through the artistic comments of the artists invited to co-create the exhibition. They shed new light on the self-portrayed objects – not always favourably, not always critically either, simply n o w e d . They allow us to distance ourselves from our own opinions, perceptions and prejudices and try to answer the question: what can we learn from the Black Cat, the castle in Łapalice or the villa in Jastrzębie-Zdrój? And what lessons can we learn from them?