Photographs of the ruins of abandoned holiday resorts from the 1960s and 1970s will fill the main gallery of the Institute of Design in Kielce. The exhibition "The Last Turn" will be launched, to which viewers will be taken by Marcin Wojdak, author of an instagram profile about the architecture of post-war modernism - Cosmoderna.
The main element of the exhibition will be photographs depicting hotels and sanatoriums that have their glory years long behind them. With their help, the author of the exhibition tries to convey the nostalgia accompanying his trips, to convey the spirit of the era filled by the bustle of tourists and visitors. The buildings, which have long since ceased to serve their function, nevertheless still bear clear traces and tell the story of the times in which they were built. In addition to the photos, the exhibition will feature short stories by Marin Wojdak. Cosmodern 's Instagram profile is used primarily for his writing, and the photos are just a pretext for that.
constitutional right to rest
photo by Marcin Wojdak
The texts recall the history of the Employee Holiday Fund, which allowed factory-supported workers to use state-run resorts. This was the result of, among other things, the right to rest enshrined by the authorities in the Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland in 1952. A resolution of the Central Council of Trade Unions proclaimed: "thanks to holidays, a miner, teacher, steelworker or fiber worker, who may never have seen mountains or the sea in his life, has the opportunity to get to know the most beautiful regions of our country."
leisure time infrastructure
photo by Marcin Wojdak
Political declarations have been followed by infrastructure development. Hotels, sanatoriums and vacation centers were built from the mountains to the Baltic Sea. Among them there were iconic realizations - such as Ustroń Zawodzie or Sanatorium Granit in Szklarska Poreba, but the majority were simple buildings, inscribed in the landscape and devoid of unnecessary ornamentation.Itwasa style that assumed that the function of the building was the most important, and in the visual setting - the less the better.
The exhibition The Last Turn. Architecture of resorts from the communist era.
Opening 08.10 at 18:00, Main Gallery of the Institute of Design
Duration 08.10.21- 31.01.22
Marcin Wojdak, 1984, a resident of Lodz, creator of the instagram profile Cosmoderna documenting the architecture of post-war modernism in Poland, photographer and aspiring writer, whose book on resorts built during the communist era will be published next year.
For more information, visit the website of theInstitute of Design in Kielce.
