THE AWARDS – Golden Lion for Best National Participation to Poland for Hotel Polonia The Afterlife of Buildings – Nicolas Grospierre and Kobas Laksa. Curators: Grzegorz Piatek and Jaroslaw Trybus. Welcome to Hotel Polonia: The Afterlife of Buildings. Have some rest, please. Take a seat on the hotel beds. The Polish Pavilion presents six buildings raised in Poland within the last decade.
Nicolas Grospierre The Life of Buildings. The Sanctuary of Lichen, 2008 photography - (photograph by Manfredi Bellati).
Each of them is shown in two photographs by Nicolas Grospierre. The chosen buildings represent different styles and tastes. They perform various functions as well. What they have in common is their rank and prominence. As for their base level, it is the faith in infinite lasting and permanence of architecture, as well as, in its acquired, prestigious function. We doubt permanence. Give your fantasy free rein. After all, we know that nothing last forever. Everything is changing. The world is in a constant rush. Architecture will also be subject to modification. Each of the six grand edifices will have to surrender to the passage of time.
Kobas Laksa The afterlife of Buildings. The Sanctuary of Lichen, 2008 photomontage - (photograph by Manfredi Bellati).Please, take a look at the possible scenarios of a change to their function and appearance, visualized by Kobas Laksa. These visions of the future are likely, though one can imagine alternative ones as well. Our aim is to provoke. Since Although “We feel, guess, suspect what needs to be done. But we cannot know the shape and form it will eventually take. It will be different from everything we’ve got used to,” (Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Life, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005)