Lviv, 24th June 1937. City, Architecture, Modernism

Caught up in their everyday lives, did the residents of one of the most important cities in the Second Polish Republic envisage the forthcoming end of an era, described by Stefan Zweig in his book The World of Yesterday. Memories of a European? The exhibition at the International Cultural Centre Lviv , 24th June 1937. City, Architecture, Modernism recalls the period described by the “Sygnały” magazine in 1934 as “a time of general global disarray in a brief interval before the inevitable”. The two decades in the life of free Poland was a time of rapid development of the multicultural city (today in western Ukraine) which quickly became an important cultural and academic centre in central eastern Europe. It was the dawn of the idea of “Great Lwów” inspired by contemporary urban concepts. Strong local traditions, avant-garde abstractions and rational form and functions all came together to create an image of a metropolis flourishing in spite of the global crisis. The exhibition presents models of Modernist buildings and examples of designs by the Lwów architecture school of the interwar period. Paintings, prints, photos, films, postcards and posters all recall the atmosphere of the lost city. (Dorota Dziunikowska, "Karnet" monthly)