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Polish postmodernism

Polish postmodernism refers to the cultural, artistic and philosophical development within the Polish society coinciding with the downfall of communism and the democratic transitions leading to Poland’s 2004 accession into the European Union.

Background
The discourse on the philosophical concept and literary awareness of postmodernism appeared in Polish criticism long before the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, triggered by numerous publications of writers now characterized as postmodernist, including Borges, Vonnegut, Nabokov as well as Federman, Hawkes and Hassan among others (separate anthologies). Already before the end of the 1970s Samuel Beckett was produced in Poland by over a dozen national theatres in seven metropolitan cities including primary TV broadcast in 1971. His En attendant Godot in translation premiered as far back as 1957 both in Warsaw (at Teatr Współczesny) and in Kraków (Teatr 38). Polish postmodernism can be identified in the work of prolific poet and playwright Tadeusz Różewicz, philosophers Leszek Kołakowski, Stanisław Lem, Tadeusz Kantor, or in the output of various Polish émigré writers such as the Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz (The Captive Mind) and his contemporaries including Witold Gombrowicz. The basis for the distinctiveness of Polish postmodernism were established avant la lettre already in the Interbellum through controversial, though widely recognized works of Witkacy (the Golden Laurel of PAL, 1935), and Karol Irzykowski among others.

In the Polish context, postmodernism has been categorized by literary critics as the framework of pluralism necessary for the success of European integration as far as post-national diversity and regional differences are concerned.

The official welcome of postmodernism in post-communist Poland was somewhat late; it met with severe impediments not so much from the former communist establishment as from Solidarity itself and the Catholic Church, both of which promoted “collectivist” rather than “liberal” values. However, beginning in the 1990s and throughout the early 21st century, postmodernism began to take a firm hold especially in the realms of poetics and art theory. Polish architects (Czesław Bielecki, TVP; Marek Budzyński) and selected filmmakers (i.e. Kieślowski, Machulski, Agnieszka Holland, Komasa: the Suicide Room) contribute substantially to the Polish postmodernist anti-foundationalism in popular culture.

Artistic origins
Although postmodernism was widely promoted in the so-called Drugi obieg (the Second circulation) by Polish underground press, it has also been criticized as amorphous by both, Catholic philosophers, as well as “fallen Marxists”, credited with the emergence of soc-postmodernism in Poland – based on extreme relativism and bitter sense of humor (see Mrożek). The continuous dialog extending well-beyond the Martial law in Poland, eventually led to destruction of the totalitarian ideology, and the inevitable acceptance of pluralism over foundationalism in art theory.

Postmodernism entered Poland in the 1960s at the end of the Stalinist period (with Wróblewski having the greatest impact on postwar figurative painting). It was coupled with the advent of conceptualism, Pop art, as well as neo-expressionism. These new movements – beginning as unofficial political and artistic discourses – challenged the vast matrix of Polish institutionalized culture defined before 1989 by the one-party system and the use of politically charged realism as method of social control.

Postmodern architecture
Postmodernism as a current in the architecture of the turn of the 20th and 21st century appeared in Poland with a long delay, for its beginning should be considered the turn of the 80s and 90s.

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In sacral architecture, in which the investor (mainly the Catholic Church) and architect designing for him were not constrained by centrally set standards, and the most serious limitation was the availability of building materials, modern trends from world architecture appeared in Poland much earlier, as already in the mid -1970s. At the same time was growing criticism of industrialized construction and typical projects, and urban planning appeared in the search for spatial arrangements referring to the historical theme of the street. In single-family housing, the use of pitched roofs has been resumed.

In the mid -1980s, the first so-called seals, or buildings filling gaps in existing urban tissue. They were erected to make better use of the existing infrastructure and to improve the image of the urban space, whether in places after the historical building destroyed during the war or among large-panel buildings. The infill buildings usually referred to the image of a traditional tenement house, by introducing a mansard, peaks, bay windows or breaks, but not a direct pastiche.

The flourishing postmodernist architecture took place after 1989. Commercial buildings, such as multi-screen cinemas or shopping centers, are often examples of completely functionally solved objects, additionally decorated with towers, arches, etc. At the same time, higher-class objects were created, with a deeply thought-out form, often inscribed in the difficult urban context of the centers of big cities and interpreting the neighboring with them, old architecture.

There are several currents in Polish architecture: the nostalgic trend is very strong, striving to restore the traditional forms of architecture, manifested in the reconstruction of destroyed historical districts of many cities (Szczecin, Elbląg, and Głogów) in the 1990s. There are also neomodernist tendencies, especially in the architecture of Krakow and Warsaw.

Selected examples of postmodernism and contemporary architecture in Poland
St. Ducha in Wrocław, Tadeusz Zipser, Waldemar Wawrzyniak, Jerzy Wojnarowicz, 1973 – 1985 – a two-level church on the central organic plan with an integrated presbytery. The roof covered with copper in the form of drapery is topped with a floral goblet with a cross. The form is inspired by both modernist architecture (including Le Corbusier and local tradition (including Gothic) and archetype of the church.The current form of the building is significantly distorted by the renovation carried out in the first years of the 21st century.
church of the Ascension of the Lord in Warsaw, Marek Budzyński, 1980-1985
department store Solpol at ul. Świdnicka in Wrocław, Wojciech Jarząbek and the band, 1992-1993
Museum of Japanese Art and Technology “Manggha” in Krakow, Arata Isozaki and Krzysztof Ingarden, 1994
University Library in Warsaw, Marek Budzyński, 1994-1999
Stock Exchange in Warsaw, Stanisław Fiszer and Andrzej Chołdzyński, 1999
office building of Agora SA in Warsaw, design of the JEMS Architekci office, 2002
Metropolitan office building in Warsaw, Norman Foster, 2003
Metro station of Warsaw’s Dworzec Gdański, Stefan Kuryłowicz, 2003, reference to the trend of high-tech architecture
Lodz Philharmonic Artur Rubinstein, Romuald Loegler, 2004
Sfera Gallery in Bielsko-Biała, 2003-2009

Representatives of postmodernism and contemporary architecture in Poland
Marek Budzyński
Stanisław Fiszer
Stefan Kuryłowicz
JEMS Architects
Romuald Loegler
Stanisław Niemczyk

Source from Wikipedia

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