Album Skopje. City, Architecture and Art of Solidarity

On 26 July 1963 the capital of Macedonia found itself at the epicentre of the most powerful and destructive earthquake in the modern history of the country. In its aftermath the city, with 80 percent of its area destroyed, had to reinvent itself. The rebuilding process is a forgotten example of great international solidarity – of politicians, urban planners, artists, and numerous benefactors.

Thanks to new urban designs Skopje became a laboratory of innovative thinking about city planning and management. The plan of the city centre was developed by the famous studio of Kenzō Tange – a Japanese architect known for designs such as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The book addresses also the invaluable contribution of Polish architects and urban planners, including Adolf Ciborowski (1919–1987), who was appointed by the UN to oversee the rebuilding process, as well as the urban planner Stanisław Jankowski (1911–2002), head of the Polish team that developed a general plan for the new Macedonian capital.

A separate theme of the book is the story of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje – a gift of the Polish government, whose venue on the hill by the Vardar was designed by Polish architects from the “Tygrysy” design group: Wacław Kłyszewski (1910–2000), Jerzy Mokrzyński (1909–1997) and Eugeniusz Wierzbicki (1909–1991).

The core of the museum collection was donated to Skopje by renowned artists such as Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Alexander Calder (1898–1976), Hans Hartung (1904–1989) and Victor Vasarely (1906–1997). It remains relatively unknown that 170 Polish artists donated their paintings, sculptures, and prints. The book contains previously little known reproductions of works by artists such as Tadeusz Brzozowski (1918–1987), Jerzy Krawczyk (1921–1969), Alfred Lenica (1899–1977), Benon Liberski (1926–1983), Ewa Maria Łunkiewicz-Rogoyska (1895–1967), Jerzy Nowosielski (1923–2011), Teresa Pągowska (1926–2007), Henryk Stażewski (1894–1988), Andrzej Strumiłło (1927) and Rajmund Ziemski (1930–2005). The collection of the Skopje museum is an important part of both Polish as well as global art history of the 20th century.

The book was published on the occasion of the exhibition Skopje: City, Architecture and Art of Solidarity on show at the ICC Gallery from 10 July to 20 October 2019.

With this exhibition it has been the aim of the team at the International Cultural Centre in Kraków, which has worked since its inception to build a network of connections and positive relations across Central Europe, to tell a very complex story. At its heart is the city of Skopje, the backdrop, as in a theatre, to a narrative about its 'ugly' sculptural concrete Brutalist architecture which we hope will prompt reflection on its value. We have studded the exhibition with gems of Polish art from the 1960s and 1970s – paintings, sculptures, prints, and medals, which, donated so many years ago to Skopje, are now paying a visit to their homeland. We also include the biograms of many of the artists through whose work Poland has made its mark in Macedonia.

Agata Wąsowska-Pawlik, Director of the International  Cultural Centre in Kraków