Towards Socialist Architecture: Architectural Exhibitions at the Zachęta in the Years 1950–1955

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Towards Socialist Architecture: Architectural Exhibitions at the Zachęta in the Years 1950–1955

Journal Title: Ikonotheka - Year 2016, Vol 26, Issue

Abstract

Exhibitions of contemporary designs accompanied by their public criticism and assessment by a commission were meant to be a tool in implementing Socrealism in Polish architecture – a process which had been announced in 1949. The First National Exposition of Architectural Design (OPA, 22 January – 28 February 1951), housed in the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art building in Warsaw, was one of the most widely advertised events of this kind. Its discussion exposes the peculiar atmosphere of these events, the strategies of persuasion and instruction as employed by the organisers in relation to ideological and aesthetic issues, and the reactions of the architects participating in the debates, who generally tried to avoid the aggressive tone of the polemic. In addition, the primacy of technocratic economics, which was later to become one of the key elements of policies concerning the construction industry in the People’s Republic of Poland, was fi rst revealed at the OPA, if only still in the background. The exhibition at the Zachęta, treated as a production meeting in progress, was to be a preparatory stage for a sweeping exhibition that would present an all-inclusive vision of both historical and contemporary Polish architecture. Such an event accorded with the universal schemata of rituals of social life structured in keeping in line with Stalinism, but the path to the First General Exhibition of Architecture in the People’s Republic of Poland (PWA, 8 March – 22 April 1953) turned out not to be easy. Problems concerning its fi nancing and venue, as well as the lack of political support, resulted in its opening, in the Zachęta building, soon after Stalin’s death. In general, the exhibition’s arrangement followed regional divisions, i.e. both the historical and contemporary material were arranged according to region. An analysis of this plan reveals that it was profoundly ill-suited to the realities of producing architecture in the state-owned design offi ces when the emphasis on typicality was increasing. The initial stage of the critique of Socrealism is also inseparably linked with the PWA; the essay appraising the exhibited designs as delivered at the First National Council of Architects in April 1953 must be considered the fi rst text of this kind. Both the OPA and the PWA are, above all, reminders of the practice of institutional coercion and of the ideological approach to history that were typical of Stalinism. At the same time, however, it should not be forgotten that the exhibition of 1953 resulted in the publication of a series of valuable publications concerning history and art, while the Regional Architectural Shows, instituted in order to select designs to be exhibited at the PWA, evolved into recurring events which in some centres are still organised today.

Authors and Affiliations

Marek Czapelski

Keywords

The Exhibition-Organising Activity of the Committee for Cultural Cooperation with Foreign Countries (1950–1956) Based on the Example of Selected Exhibitions at the Zachęta Central Bureau of Art Exhibitions

The documentation of the Committee for Cultural Cooperation with Foreign Countries, which was an offi cial agency active in the years 1950–1956, is currently deposited at the Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw...

EP ID EP191145
DOI 10.5604/01.3001.0010.1672
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