The interview is from A&B issue 6|23
A new permanent exhibition, controversial topics, a nationwide collection of architecture and many other novelties. These are the plans of the Wrocław Museum of Architecture. We talk to its new director—Michał Duda.
Michał Duda —A graduate of art history at the University of Wrocław and a graduate of Curatorial Studies at Jagiellonian University. He has been working at the Museum of Architecture since 2006: first as an assistant in the Department of Contemporary Architecture, then as head of the Department of International Cooperation and Exhibition Organization, and later as deputy director for programming. On July 4, 2022, he was elected director of the Wrocław Museum of Architecture. Curator and co-curator of many exhibitions on pre-war and contemporary architecture, including „Patchwork. The Architecture of Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak” (also shown in New York and Portugal), „Landscapes of Leisure” (shown during EXPO 2020 in Dubai), „Three Beginnings. 1918/1945/1989,” "Terra X. Archive of the Future,„ "Heinrich Lauterbach. Architect of Wroclaw Modernism,” "Zvi Hecker. Pages of a Book,„ or "Dagarama. Back to the Future.” His book „Patchwork. The Architecture of Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak,” the first monograph devoted to the Wroclaw architect, received the prestigious 2017 DAM Architectural Book Award for the ten best architectural books in the world. Michał Duda was also the initiator and curator of the series „Action-Creation” and „Archi-box”, an open-air space for conversations about architecture.
Jakub Glaz:You are only the third director in the sixty-year history of the Museum of Architecture. You have been in charge of it for nine months, which is—compared to your predecessors—a very short time. Have you already solidified at least a little in your new position?
Michał Duda: Nine months sounds like an ideal period, after which something concrete should be born. However, on the scale of the institution, some more time is needed. We are now implementing the plans developed last year, and we will share our new intentions regarding, among other things, the museum's activities and the inauguration of a new publishing series in September. I think it will be interesting, although right now I don't want to reveal much yet. And in the meantime, there are no spectacular fireworks with us: we are solidly cleaning up, strengthening the foundations of the institution's operations, and creating new tools for cooperation. After a long reign of predecessors, a solid overhaul is always advisable, so we are fixing a lot of things that have been waiting a little too long for their turn. We are now focusing primarily on a very thorough inventory of the collection. This is not only because we are required to do so from time to time by regulations. We want this particular inventory to be the starting point for a new strategy for expanding the museum's collections and proposing a mechanism that I announced when I ran for the head post, and what I'm laboriously calling a national architecture collection.
„Patchwork. The Architecture of Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak,” 2016.
Photo: Jakub Certowicz
Jakub: I see that the serious adjective „national” has a growing following.
Michał: Such an adjective increases the attentiveness of decision-makers. And in this particular case, I think such a strong gesture is needed. Just as it is obvious that there are reputable „national” art collections, there should be equally serious collections concerning architecture. However, preparing such an effort is a great challenge, and we can only manage it in close cooperation with other architecture and heritage institutions in the country. Like national collections of contemporary art, this collection is also impossible to centralize. As still the only Polish museum of architecture, we see ourselves in the role of coordinator of this task, one who, having some know-how on how to acquire, preserve and make available the collection, after discussions and arrangements with others, will set in motion the process of creating a strategy to save and preserve the most valuable materials on architecture. From design and photographic documentation, drawings, correspondence, to professional legacies and private archives. The collection is intended to be „national,” that is, nationwide, and not—as could also be derived from this capacious word—ethnically characterized. It would be very strange, moreover, to approach the subject in this already breakneck manner from the perspective of a city with such a multi-layered history as Wroclaw. We could get lost in defining ethnos. All the more so because an honest story about architecture, its origins, its creators and creators, the context in which it was created, is one of the most important keys to understanding the world we live in—created by a great many nations.
„Patchwork. The Architecture of Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak,” 2016.
Photo: Jakub Certowicz
Jakub: How do you intend to make these collections available? Primarily in the museum, or also online?
Michał: Online is a necessity and a matter of course, but perhaps not at all under the banner of the museum, but as a separate entity: in the form of a platform created jointly with other institutions, universities, archives and associations. Online activities, however, will always be a derivative of our work within the real walls of the museum.
"Jan Szpakowicz. Elementary space", 2020-2021
Photo: Jerzy Wypych
Jakub: The walls are sizable, historic, difficult to maintain and adapt. After all, the museum is located in a former church and monastery.
Michał: That's why one of the working teams that is working at the museum on the vision for the future of our institution is now engaged in a thorough diagnosis of our needs, preparing assumptions for the functional-utility program and guidelines for the planned competition for the reconstruction and slight enlargement of our headquarters. It will be a complicated puzzle: with a completely new permanent exhibition, space for temporary exhibitions, increased space for educational and workshop activities, a recreation area, and rooms for the Building Archive of the City of Wroclaw, which is part of our museum, but located on the opposite side of the Old Town. A thorough, wise and sensitive modernization is also needed to make the museum modern and environmentally friendly. All in a difficult, historic building whose structure shows traces of centuries of build-up. Determining our competition expectations will therefore take some time and will be the result of in-depth analysis. We want to avoid the situation of twenty years ago, when the competition for redevelopment did not bring the expected results, among other things because the conditions were prepared without decent thought. As a result, the results were not able to satisfy future users.
"Jan Szpakowicz. Elementary Space," 2020-2021
Photo: Jerzy Wypych
James: You mention the new permanent exhibition. Today it is not the museum's strong point. How do you plan to change it? Who, above all, should be its audience?
Michał: The change has to be dramatic. Although there used to be three permanent exhibitions at the museum, their turbulent fate turned out in such a way that only the exhibition of artistic craftsmanship "serving" architecture, prepared in the 1990s, is still on display: details, tiles, decorations. It is to be quite different. We are working on a completely new narrative. We want the main exhibition to be an attractive story about architecture, one that is not a presentation of an architectural „constellation” of works and outstanding or spectacular architecture. Instead, we are concerned with highlighting the processes behind the shaping of the space around us: both the buildings and the space between them. We also want our audience to be as wide as possible, and the communicative and attractive message to reach also those who have not been interested in architecture so far, and who deserve smart and clear information and interesting experience.
"Obverse/Reverse. Architect Bohdan Lachert," 2017-2018
Photo: Agata Kaczmarek
Jakub: What is the exact idea for this story?
Michał: The script is still in its infancy, but thinking about it, today I would say that the narrative will be based on the Wroclaw local context. Not only because it's the matter closest to us, i.e. the residents of the city who visit the museum, but mainly because of the rich Wroclaw history, space and interesting processes that took place in them. Almost all important phenomena within architecture and urbanism can be told through this prism, including such difficult episodes as the destruction of the city and its reconstruction, accompanied by large-scale forced migrations. Developing a permanent exhibition, however, is a matter of several years, requiring much analysis and work.
"Obverse/Reverse. Architect Bohdan Lachert," 2017-2018
Photo: Agata Kaczmarek
Jakub: Will you have enough strength for temporary exhibitions?
Michał: Sure. After all, the museum has to live, although we will change our approach to these kinds of exhibitions. There will be fewer of them: about six, rather than a dozen as before. Instead, we intend to develop them more deeply and broadly, with a very extensive accompanying program, such as the one that complements and develops the themes of the "Anthropocene" exhibition currently on display, produced by the NIAiU team [cf. A&B 03/2023—editor's note]. I also want our temporary exhibitions to be more critical, tackling difficult or even uncomfortable topics. One of them, for example, is the issue of residential architecture, which, on the one hand, can be admired for its momentum, and on the other, shown through the prism of the housing crisis and spatial chaos. Here, for example, the sad 100th anniversary of Polish housing cooperatives, now in decline, could be a starting point. Accompanying the important topics are discussions, meetings, and workshops, which are intended to effectively attract female and male viewers and make them stay longer. Hence the idea in the plans to increase the space for education and recreation. We want to address the transformation of the headquarters as soon as possible to best serve our long-range plans.
"Obverse/reverse. Architect Bohdan Lachert," 2017-2018
Photo: Agata Kaczmarek
Jakub: Where did the money for such a large undertaking come from? Your budget is very modest.
Michał: Fortunately, there are some opportunities. First of all—despite the crisis—our cooperation with the Wroclaw City Hall is going very well. New opportunities for external funding are opening up: the new EU perspective with modernization programs also for culture. I am not hiding plans to apply for co-management of the museum with the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. In fact, co-management by the Municipality of Wroclaw and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage would only describe the actual state of affairs—for a long time our activities have been based on focusing on two perspectives: local and national. We assume that, by the way, it would improve our financial situation. The current one—let's call it crisis-inflationary—makes it significantly more difficult for us to build solid strategies and dissect them into realistic plans. And for now, more than 90 percent of our budget is consumed by the ongoing maintenance of the building and salaries for employees. Little remains for program activities.
"Vladislav Wincze," 2019
Photo: Michał Pietrzak
Jakub: How did you survive the recent increases in energy prices?
Michał: In sweaters. We had to tightly screw down the radiators. The current situation is a great challenge for cultural institutions, which—regardless of the general economic situation—have learned to function and maneuver in crisis conditions. Now we are running out of room for maneuver: it is almost impossible to respond flexibly, because the budget is stretched to the limit. And this in a situation where the museum has—hopefully, temporarily—reduced the size of the team. Nevertheless, the current turmoil has pulled us out of our previous comfort zone.
"Tomasz Mankowski. Architecture is the most important", 2022
Photo: Michał Lagoda
Jakub: Have you been in it at all?
Michał: Compared to what we are experiencing now, yes, we were. Although, if one were to look at the financial situation of facilities similar to ours and located on the western side of the Oder and Neisse rivers, we have always been operating in conditions bordering on an economic miracle.
"Tomasz Mankowski. Architecture is most important," 2022
Photo: Michał Lagoda
Jakub: Speaking of foreign countries, when you are planning the transformation of the museum, do you have foreign institutions or museums in mind that can be a reference for you?
Michał: I've been looking at the activities of the Canadian Centre for Architecture for years, especially from the days when it was run by Mirko Zardini. From him, by the way, I heard one of the more inspiring curatorial tips: if someone wants to do important exhibitions about architecture and urbanism, add hours of preparation with lawyers to all activities, because it's good to have lines of defense laid out in case of possible lawsuits. There is no such risk only in the case of "smooth" and easily digestible exhibitions. It was a bit of a joke, but only a bit. Anyway, if we talk about inspiration, it can always be only partial. This will sound like a cliche, but an institution's program must stem from the local context and respond to the problems of the country or city in which it is located.
"Leon Tarasewicz," 2018
photo: Peter Kreibich
James: So it looks like there are years of hard work ahead for you and the museum as a whole. Do you intend to be head for as long as your predecessor?
Michał: This is exactly the tradition that I don't want to refer to, although, of course, with time I may change my point of view. Nevertheless, it seems to me that a middle distance is best. In establishments like ours, both too frequent changes and their absence for many years are bad.
"Leon Tarasewicz," 2018
Photo credit: Peter Kreibich
interviewed by Jakub Głaz
Illustrations provided courtesy of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw.
