What can we learn from Warsaw? Is it the rise and fall of the different epochs, which fascinates us?
The city of Warsaw is an interesting reading material, which is characterized by different times and ideologies. The urban structure seems to consist of contradictions on every level. The city was rebuilt from the scrap many times. Every time another storyline was used. The contradictions are representing the disruptive Polish history and you can see the manifestation of it on many levels. In Warsaw, main epochs are shaken together like in a vodka sour.
See the city with the eyes of a stranger
Inspired by the classic architecture book, «Learning from Las Vegas», 20 artists and thinkers from Switzerland and Poland explored Warsaw. While Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown were analysing Las Vegas through photographs, the book looks at the polish capital with the means of artistic tools. It’s definitely a look with a fresh mind on this city. Some authors are just visitors for some days, others are writing on their field of expertise. «Learning from Warsaw» consists of an outside and inside view. The Lessons are considered as a collection of ideas, experiences, memories or theories of this city. Together, they give a realm of stories about Warsaw’s contemporary state of mind.
Contributions: Jakub Szczęsny (Centrala), Martin Waldmeier, Zosia Kwasieborska and Georg Keller, Małgorzata Kuciewicz and Simone De Iacobis (Centrala), Werner Huber, Barbara Basting, Czułość, Karol Radziszewski, Roland Roos, Neue Galerie, Esther Kempf, Raphael Hefti, Michael Meier and Christoph Franz, Roland Früh, Centrum w Ruchu, Gruppe, Konrad Smoleński, Daniel Morgenthaler, Sven Behrisch, Nino Baumgartner. In collaboration with A-I-R Laboratory CCA Ujazdowski Castle (Poland); Graphic Design: Atlas Studio; Co-published with CCA Ujazdowski Castle and Fundacja Bęc Zmiana (Poland)
