Has socialist architecture left us legacy other than large-panel housing estates? Yes, indeed! Flying saucers, rocket towers, UFO bridges, pyramid hotels, corn skyscrapers and star skyscrapers, Sun Gates, brutalist buildings and sculptural buildings, tent churches and telescope mosques. A new exhibition at the International Cultural Centre tells their amazing story.

With more than 400 exhibits on display, the exhibition will take visitors on an architectural journey from Estonia to Macedonia, from Tallin to Skopje, through Berlin, Prague, Bratislava, Vilnius, Kyiv, Budapest, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Belgrade, and Bucharest. We will show not only public buildings, theatres, museums and sports halls, skyscrapers and department stores, but also socialist collective houses, ultramodern kolkhozes, wedding palaces and funeral homes. We will show almost perfect cities! Everything that proudly represents the recent past, yet at the same time has been mocked as an architectural failure since the 1990s.

At present, socialist modernism is undergoing a thorough reassessment. The failure and ugly collapse of communism meant that its architectural legacy suddenly became an unwanted heritage. Three decades later, when communist ideology is long gone, aware of the limitations of our own times, we can attempt a different diagnosis – new or at least devoid of negative emotions. Revision of socialist architectural legacy continues, although so far it has rarely crossed the borders of individual countries. We therefore propose a broader horizon and a more thorough reassessment. A look through the lens of the most outstanding works and architects, appreciative of the diversity of forms and attentive to the complexity of the context. Because architecture is so much more than materialisation of politics, socialist modernism demands a new reading without prejudice or preconceptions. — ”Socialist modernity looked the same as the one on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Like it or not, our countries were part of the global experience of modernity. Contrary to popular belief, knowledge, culture, and ideas permeated in many directions inside and outside the political blocs, so the image of socialist modernism is more complex and less obvious than the one produced by the stereotypical image of the two-bloc world. That is why it is so intriguing” — emphasises Dr. Łukasz Galusek, co-author of the exhibition.

Even in unfavourable conditions, socialist architects were able to maintain their originality and artistic autonomy. To design works that evade easy judgments. Stick to their own path. Not be trapped by doctrine – neither architectural nor political. Do their own thing. Despite the unprecedented scale of wartime destruction, despite the need to “start from scratch”, many were architects of continuity, faithful to the ethos of their profession and respectful of the achievements of their predecessors. With such a background, they developed an individual style, and many of their works gained the status of icons. — ”Socmodernism is the architecture and art of a time when we forgot about the horrors of war and looked to the future with hope. In the late 1950s, the fluid shapes of concrete buildings, inspired by the first space missions, resembling saucers or rockets, broke into the spaces of cities on both sides of the Iron Curtain and redefined the cultural landscape of Europe. The Cold War division meant that for a long time we pushed out from our consciousness and from our surroundings many — often outstanding — designs and works of art of that period” — explains Dr. Michał Wiśniewski, co-curator of the exhibition.

”Socmodernism. Architecture in Central Europe during the Cold War” is the first overview exhibition of the post-war architectural achievements of our part of the continent. It is the result of cooperation between the ICC and leading architectural institutions in the region. The designs, models, and works of art come from the collections of institutions such as: the Architecture Museum in Vienna, the Croatian Museum of Architecture and the Museum of Arts in Zagreb, the National Gallery in Prague, the Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana, the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, the Estonian Museum of Architecture and the Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn, the Olomouc Museum of Art, the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava, the Municipal Museum in Tychy, the Institute for Documentation of Architecture of the Silesian Library, Museum of Katowice History,  SS. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje., as well as from many private collections.

Curators:

Dr. Łukasz Galusek — ICC Programme Director,architectural historian. His research interests focus on the culture and art of Central Europe, especially the relationships between space, memory, and identity. He is the author of over one hundred and fifty scientific publications on the cultural heritage of Central Europe and issues of memory and cultural education. Co-author and curator of exhibitions presenting the art and heritage of Central European cultures: Slovenia (2006), Poland and Ukraine (2007), Romania (2013), Croatia (2017), as well as Architecture of Independence in Central Europe (2018–2019). Member of the College for International Policy of the President of the Republic of Poland, the Social Committee for the Restoration of Krakow Monuments, the Working Group of Experts on Cultural Heritage of the Visegrad Group, the City History Museums and Research Network of Europe, and the Council of the Borussia Foundation.

Dr. Michał Wiśniewski — architectural historian, he studied art history and architecture. He works at the University of Economics in Krakow; at the ICC he is the head of Education Department – Academy of Heritage. Fulbright fellow. Author of many academic and popular publications on the architecture of Krakow and Poland in the 19th and 20th centuries, including monographic studies on Krakow architects: Ludwik Wojtyczka, Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz, and Tomasz Mańkowski. Member of the board of the Institute of Architecture Foundation. Co-author of exhibitions and publications authored by the Institute of Architecture.

Natalia Żak— art historian, curator, and writer. She has collaborated with art galleries in Poland and abroad. She works at the ICC in Krakow, where she curated exhibitions such as: ”Lithuania. Two Centuries of Photography” (2023, with Adam Mazur), ”Travelling Images. Małgorzata Mirga-Tas” (2022, with Wojciech Szymański), ”More Than Bauhaus. German Photography between the Wars and Polish Parallels” (2021, with Adelheid Komenda, Sebastian Lux and others), ”Photobloc. Central Europe in Photobooks” (Krakow 2019–2020, Olomouc 2020, Vilnius 2021; with Adam Mazur, Łukasz Gorczyca), ”Architecture of Independence in Central Europe” (2018–2019, with Łukasz Galusek, Żanna Komar and others). She is currently working on a project about Central European design after 1945.