Lecture: On visionary art and urban planning

The work of Katarzyna Kobro and Władysław Strzemiński is seen as a manifestation of the modernistic quest for the essence of art but, as a matter of fact, they both understood art as a tool for new politics. According to them, art was supposed to provide prototypes for solutions serving to organize life of the individuals and the society as a whole. Architecture, urban planning and social design, developed on the basis of the principles elaborated in painting and sculpture, were to order all human activities, thereby giving them the right social direction.

Jarosław Suchan is an art historian, critic, curator and director of Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, and will talk about different aspects of of this specific form of avant-garde politics.

Victoria Percovich Gutierrez, process leader at White arkitekter focusing on equality, democracy and participation issues, will talk about why the development of a city is important when democracy is in crisis. What is the difference between building houses to live in and building a living city? Why will this work never be finished?