Grunt i horyzont. Interpretacje nowoczesnej architektury i sztuki

The Ground and the Horizon: The Interpretations of Modern Architecture and Art

The reflections from the years 2013-2020 concerning the theory and history of modern architecture as well as space and the representation of architecture in modern visual arts. The interpretations of selected architectural and art. Works are built around the notions borrowed from phenomenology (Hans-Georg Gadamer, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Hermann Schmitz), Gestalt psychology (Rudolf Arnheim, Juliusz Żórawski), modern aesthetics of atmospheres (Gernot Böhme, Tonino Griffero) and theories of architecture related to it (Hubert L. Dreyfus, Alberto Pérez-Gómez, Peter Zumthor).

The ground and the horizon, visual forces in architecture, transparency and clarity, edgeless space, atmospheres and moods, weirdness – these are the terms which facilitate experiencing works of architecture and art. Such as „L’Esprit Nouveau” – a pavilion built by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret around a tree (1925), a monument design “A Road to Żelazowa Wola” by Krystian Burda (1961) or “Cloud” – an installation by Jacek Damięcki (1994).

Keywords: modern architecture, phenomenology of architecture, aesthetic of atmospheres, Gestalt, Polish contemporary art.

Gabriela Świtek – art historian, graduate of the University of Warsaw and the University of Cambridge (history and philosophy of architecture). Since 2001, he has been working at the Institute of Art History at the University of Warsaw.