Exhibit

In one of the last scenes of Antonioni’s “Night” the poet Giovanni Pontano says: You industrialists, you have the advantage over us that you are dealing with real people… real houses… real cities… The rhythm of life and time is in your hands… the future is in your hands. The manufacturer Gherardini answers: It is possible that the future will never begin. and Mrs. Gherardini: The future will be a terrible thing! What do you think? And what are your plans for tomorrow?

The exhibition about “Night” will be an opportunity for us to return to questions about the future of
modern cities. The main protagonists of the film Giovanni and Lidia are going through a crisis in their relationship and, like the rest of the characters, they are wondering about their role in society, about what
the artists and the engineers will leave behind. The images of Antonioni Milan’s changing image highlight
their emotional state, the social unrest after the war and the contrasts in the emerging modern city – on the one hand the streets in ruins, on the other hand modernism and the street bustle caused by traffic.

We follow in the footsteps of Lidia and Giovanni by describing and showing, in a perspective other than
that of a film, the buildings they passed, most of which were built in the late 50s and early 60s.
Discovering the social background of architecture allows us to better understand the protagonists, share
with them the emotions and doubts related to the expansion of modernity. Contemporary photographs and shots from Street View of modern buildings (such as the Pirelli Tower or the office building at Corso
Europa 10) are seen in today’s light, inscribed in the urban landscape. Did the future turn out to be
something unbearable?

curators: Aleksandra Czupkiewicz and Łukasz Wojciechowski

Aleksandra Czupkiewicz

Architect, graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Wroclaw University of Technology. On a
daily basis she works in the Maćków Architecture Studio in Wroclaw, co-creating an informal group of
paviliony_pavilions (acting for the protection of Wroclaw’s service and commercial pavilions from the
60s). Sometimes she co-designs theatrical scenery and installations. She is the co-author of a book about Stefan Müller and Jan Szpakowicz (to be published in the autumn of 2020). She has published in
magazines: Architecture Murator, The Architect Profession and Czech ERA21. In 2018 she led the panel
Woman in Architecture as part of the national conference Youth to Lodz. She is interested in the
relationship between architecture and cinema.

Łukasz Wojciechowski

Architect, co-founder of VROA Architects, co-author of the adaptation of the air-raid shelter for the
Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, elementary school in Stablowice, Congress Center at Centennial Hall
and quarter 17 in Nowe Zerniki. Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architecture at the Wroclaw
University of Technology. Author of books: In the Rear-view mirror, Architecture of rational Europe and
‘Bryk do architektury’. Curator and designer of the exhibition Young Polish Architects 2.5D in Tallinn,
Helsinki, Plzeň and Brno, as well as combustion architecture in the Museum of Architecture. He writes to
Architektura-Murator and Autoportrait. Author of the comic book Ville Nouvelle. He is currently
finishing work on a graphic novel, which will be published in France in early 2021.