Architect Jakub Szczęsny and Israeli artist Hadas Tuval, with their joint project The Fifth Space, inaugurated a series of events planned in the historic Liebling Haus building in Tel Aviv - "Re_Public." Participating artists from around the world will shape new definitions of public space.
Public and private space is being redefined, shrinking and expanding to the rhythm of changing regulations and requirements, pushing the limits of our physical and mental capacities. We tried to find the right moment between lockdowns and redefine the building as a time capsule and public space. By doing so, we create additional perspectives on public space for us as individuals and citizens," says curator Shira Levy-Benyemini about the project.
The project will run simultaneously in the modernist building built in 1936 - Liebling Haus (the new cultural center - The White City Center), as well as on an online platform dedicated to the event. The installation, The Fifth Space, which the Adam Mickiewicz Institute helped create, is a lightweight, openwork canopy placed on the roof of the building, its fifth elevation.
bird's eye view
© Yakov Shattanzani, Hadas Tubal
On metal cables stretched above the building, the designers hung a decoration made from recycled white bags formerly used to cushion goods carried in shipping containers. The lightweight structure, a hybrid of a sail and a tent, from a bird's-eye view resembles two dream catchers unfurled in the wind, which gently filter the light falling on the surface of the roof, while casting a pleasant shadow that creates dynamic shapes.
Prepared by Jakub Szczęsny and Hadas Tuval, the installation is designed to bring neighbors together again - Liebling Haus and the surrounding buildings, residents and visitors, creating new connections and building relationships. The Fifth Space is also a space for cultural events, says Barbara Krzeska, deputy director of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
© Yakov Shattanzani, Hadas Tubal
Ola Kloc: Together with artist Hadas Tuval, you designed a temporary canopy on the roof of the modernist Liebling Haus building in Tel Aviv, a hybrid of a sail and a tent. Tell us, please, how did your collaboration begin and what is the final form of the installation?
Jakub Szczęsny: Five versions of the concept were created, mainly for budgetary reasons and a desire to simplify the implementation process. From the moment I was invited to the project by the management of Liebling Haus, I thought about making an overhead that would be equivalent to what would go on underneath, so that both the slope of the terrace and my form would be platforms for interaction. Shira Levy-Benyemini, one of the directors, suggested I work with Hadas Tuval. We quickly came to an agreement: I prepared a system equivalent to a warp, and Hadas was to fill it with a "weft," i.e. a visible, evocative form, quite like working with fabric. Hadas is involved in artistic textiles, as is my aunt Anna Szczęsna, whose studio I came to throughout my childhood, so it was a natural and obvious idea for both of us. The basic question became what the plot should be. Since we had a small budget, I proposed to recycle whatever was lying in the basement of the institution. It turned out that for several years there have been lying there polyethylene bags once used for the inflatable installation of the Raumlabor group, with which we did not know what to do. And so we gave new life to the bags, which Hadas configured and connected in such a way as to give maximum shade. After all, we were doing it for the shade!
The 
The installation gently filters the light falling on the roof surface
photo: Hadas Tuval
Ola: The installation was created on the roof of a unique building. Did and how did the architecture of Liebling Haus influence your design?
Jacob: A pergola made of wooden lamellas was originally supposed to stand on the roof, but it was never built, causing the roof to become a dead space, bombarded mercilessly by the sun. Liebling Haus was designed by Dov Karmi, author of perhaps two hundred buildings in Tel Aviv alone, including the Knesset headquarters. The design is clever: the loggias, open to the north, allowed the sea breeze to penetrate into the building, and despite the difficult shape of the plot, he managed to solve the apartments very practically, by the way, one of them is today restored with details included. The creation of this small museum arose precisely from the desire to bring closer the moment when the Bauhaus influenced thinking about the shape of Tel Aviv, especially the part known as the White City, where, in addition to the six designers who actually came from the Dessau school, dozens of German-inspired modernist architects, including Karmi, built.
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elevation of Liebling Haus in Tel Aviv
photo: Yael Schmidt
Ola: The roofs of buildings in cities are increasingly designed to be green, but not necessarily with a concern for creating open space that is accessible to residents and conducive to relationships. How, through small interventions like yours on the fifth elevation of Liebling Haus, can this space be reclaimed in existing buildings?
James: The intention from the beginning was clearly expressed: we were to give life to the roof. The management of Liebling Haus was familiar with my Polish Refuge project from the roof of Casa do Povo in Sao Paulo, where I made an elaborate skyway, under which I myself lived for five weeks, inviting people into my "living room." The acerbic idea of my living on the roof of Liebling Haus was thwarted by the pandemic, but we quickly began working on a program of events, enlisting, among others, theater director Dafna Kron, with whom I had already collaborated on the Pchechong installation during the Polish Culture Season. Despite the outbreak of another Israeli-Palestinian conflict, new things are still happening on the roof - from workshops to performances. All in all, we made a simple revitalization and getting people "off the street" onto the roof!
Ola: Thank you for the interview.
