Aleksandra Nowysz, A Better Tomorrow

Curator: Joanna Rzepka-Dziedzic

Can you imagine cities in a different way?

For example, must a multitude of buildings and streets be crammed into every square metre of the grid for a place to be considered a city? And if there are fewer buildings, and through every window instead a garden, or even a field or forest, are we then talking about the countryside?

What if cities were defined not by population density or gallons of poured concrete, but by their primary functions? Cities as spheres associated with certain activities. In cities, institutions and organisations are established whose influence extends beyond the boundaries of developed areas. Cities are places for meeting, for the exchange of goods, knowledge, skills, customs, and culture, and for political activity.

Imagine urban living attuned to nature, in harmony with myriad species of flora and fauna. Imagine a stewardship of the land that does not necessitate its despoilment. Or must the ‘value’ of civilisation be pegged to the exploitation of nature and rapid growth (let us add: rampant and short-lived); a squeezing of nature that inhibits its regeneration? What do you think? Which approach is conducive to the sustainability of civilisation, and which will precipitate its collapse? Imagine an urban fabric interwoven with nature, which provides you with sustenance and breathable air, and in which you are integrated. This can become ‘a better tomorrow.’

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Aleksandra Nowysz (born 1987, Wrocław, Poland) is an architect, photographer, and researcher into the architecture of urban agriculture. Since 2016, she has been studying at the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava (Czech Republic). In 2019, she obtained her doctorate in Architecture and Urban Planning from the Wrocław University of Science and Technology. She is a graduate of the Sputnik Photos collective’s Mentoring Programme, and a recipient of the city of Wrocław’s Jerzy Grotowski Scholarship for the field of art. The author of photographic projects devoted to vernacular architecture and landscapes, her works have been exhibited in venues including the BWA Wrocław Studio Gallery and Photon Galleries in Ljubljana and Vienna.

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION! Due to sanitary restrictions max 50 people are allowed to stay in the exhibition space, addition to the artists and curators.