What form can architecture take when it is created without the architect, without permission – answering to nothing and no one at all? What happens when we remove not only the designers but also the values they profess and the rules they follow from the design process?

The exhibition “Private Property” was inspired by the Polish building projects of the turn of the 20th and 21st century – a period in which declining communism and hastily constructed, chaotic capitalism gave rise to a range of alternative architectural practices. Self-builds are an interesting illustration of the spirit of this era, reflecting its aspirations or aesthetic preferences in a more perfect way than any legitimate architecture. 

Extremely often there are easily identifiable economic, social or political reasons behind the creation of self-builds; usually, whatever the genesis, these buildings raise legitimate legal objections. However, these considerations (as far as possible) will not be the focus of “Private Property”. The exhibition will concentrate not on answering the question ‘why’ but ‘how’ the self-builds were and are realised – it presents a selection of buildings that, created without permits and therefore without restrictions, have taken on the most interesting and unusual, and at the same time often controversial and provoking heated debates, forms. Each of them is an example of architecture with a strong point of view, expressive, not making concessions. Making mistakes, but making them with a brazen self-confidence. Risky, even dangerous at times. Always putting individual freedom before collective harmony. A manifestation of the fact that one can be oneself in one’s own home – and it’s nobody else’s business. 

We will not see documentation of any of the objects in the exhibition, but we will experience them through the artistic comments of the creators invited to contribute to the exhibition. They shed new light on the portrayed self-builds – not always favourable, not always critical either, simply the new one. They allow us to distance ourselves from our own opinions, perceptions and prejudices and try to answer the question: what can we learn from the Czarny Kot hotel, the castle in Łapalice or the villa in Jastrzębie-Zdrój? 

Creators of the exhibition:

Curator: Kuba Żary
Artists: Olga Budzan, Agnieszka Dybowska, Vinicius Libardoni, Szymon Rogiński, Łukasz Stokłosa, Andrzej Tobis
Architectural drawings, production cooperation: Vinicius Libardoni
Visual identity: Sara Makuch
Organizer: Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa
Partners: Wrocławska Fundacja Filmowa / festiwal MIASTOmovie, Muzeum Architektury we Wrocławiu, Krupa Gallery