The replica of Piłsudski’s tombstone, which was designed and created in 1937 by Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz, was created by the Krakow Institute of Architecture. The work, originally located in the Royal Castle at Wawel (Krakow), will feature in the Polish Pavilion at the 14th Architecture Biennale in Venice. It will be complemented by large-format diagrams created by Jakub Woynarowski. The exhibition titled Impossible Objects will tell the story of the complicated relationship between modernism and politics in terms of the revival of the Polish state after 1918.
As announced by the curators, the project was created in response to the problems of one of the Biennale's theme - Fundamentals. Modernity Absorption, 1914-2014. Its curator, Rem Koolhaas, offered a reflection on the assimilation of modernism in the centenary of the beginning of the First World War, citing local identity and global interpretations of modernism and its political founding myth.
At the Polish Pavilion, visitors will be able to obtain answers to questions concerning Polish culture, politics, myths and more.
Read more about Piłsudski’s tombstone replica.
The second Polish touch at this year's biennale will be the Raising the Curtain. Architectural Networks of Central Europe exhibition, which is the first instalment of a research project lasting several years devoted to architecture and architectural thought in Central Europe during the last century.
For decades, the biennial formula has been the same - each country performs an internal competition and presents itself in a national pavilion. Our project is perverse, it shows that this approach does not match reality" - told Małgorzata Kuciewicz of Central Project Group
According to her, the architectural heritage of Central Europe is unknown and underestimated.
During the exploration, we made discoveries for ourselves. Researchers were surprised with the Polish architectural phenomenon in the Czech Republic, Yugoslavia and Hungary – the architect noted
The main part of the Raising the Curtain… exhibition presented in Venice's Tiziano hall will be a board with levitating graphics. Selected architectural designs, photos and manifests attached to the board will show what has happened in the architecture of the last century in Central Europe. Displayed profiles of architects and visionaries of architecture will have a special place in the exhibition.
The exhibition will show the Central European architectural landscape understood as a discipline that isn’t limited only to objects which sometimes do not even exist, such as the social modernism of Warsaw, which unfortunately was, for the most part, destroyed. It is also a landscape of ideas contained in the manifesto, such as Functional Warsaw from 1934, which echoed in many Central Europe countries.- said Kuciewicz.
See more about the project: http://www.t-r-a-c-e.net/Lifting-the-Curtain-exhibition