Author Description

The exhibition displays various areas and scales of creative activity in which Open Form was applied. "Background of Events" focuses on designs for exhibitions and pavilions, which offered an ideal ground for theoretical experiments due to their ephemeral character. "Politics of Scale" focuses on Oskar Hansen's urban planning projects, displaying their socio-political dimension. "The Individual in the Collective" treats the Hansens' realized residential estates in Warsaw and Lublin, presenting their lesser-known, often unpreserved details. "Architecture as an Instrument" focuses on designs for public buildings: museum, gallery, theatre, recording studio - whose shape was to be determined by the users. "Active Negative" shows the private space of the Hansens and the concept associated with them of sculptural presentation of architectural interiors. "Anti-monument" describes the space-time design for the "Road" memorial to the victims of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a group work that became the sculptural reflection of Open Form. Exercises from Hansen's studio at the Faculty of Sculpture at the Warsaw Fine Arts Academy are mixed into parts of the exhibition. Hansen taught at the academy for 30 years, promoting the tenets of Open Form among his students.--Museum website