a conference co-curated with Łukasz Ronduda in collaboration with Łukasz Stanek, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, 6–7.06.2013

Oskar Hansen: Opening Modernism was the first international conference devoted to the oeuvre of Oskar Hansen (1922-2005), architect, artist and educator affiliated with the milieu of Team 10, which acquired seminal importance to post-war modernist architecture.

Gathering outstanding researchers in art and architecture history, the conference provided a platform to investigate anew selected aspects of Hansen’s practice – position it among the work of other Central-Eastern European architects connected with Team 10; discuss designs that merge architecture and the media; and last but not least, depart from investigations into his teaching activity at Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts in order to enquire if a Hansen’s tradition exists in visual arts.

The conference inaugurated a research and exhibition project run in collaboration with the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) and the Bergen School of Architecture. The initiative embraced meetings devoted to Oskar and Zofia Hansen, symposium and architectural workshop, among other activities, and two publications (Oskar Hansen—Opening Modernism: On Open Form Architecture, Art and Didactics and Team 10 East: Revisionist Architecture in Real-Existing Modernism, elaborating on one of the concepts outlined during the conference panels and post-conference workshops). The project culminated with a touring exhibition presented at Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Museum Serralves in Porto, Yale School of Architecture, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and Nacionalinė Dailės Galerija in Vilnius.

Conference was organised with the financial support of Island, Liechtenstein and Norway within the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism.

It was generously supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

Participants: 

Claire Bishop, Tamara Bjažić Klarin, David Crowley, Tomasz Fudala, Jola Gola, Svein Hatloy, Dirk van den Heuvel, Bartomeu Marí, Ákos Moravánszky, Maroje Mrduljaš, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Joan Ockman, Grzegorz Piątek, Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, Felicity D. Scott, Karol Sienkiewicz, Łukasz Stanek, Andrzej Szczerski, Mark Wasiuta, Axel J. Wieder, Łukasz Wojciechowski

Full program and video documentation available on the website of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.