Driven to abstraction

Christian Kerez of the Swiss firm ETH/SIA has been selected as the winner of the design competition for the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Chosen from among 178 submissions from around the world, Kerez's design was deemed a "magnificent work" by famed New York architect Daniel Libeskind, a member of the international jury panel.

The winning entry calls for 30,000 sqm on three floors of a minimalist expanse of glass and concrete at the intersection of ul. Marszałkowska and ul. Świętokrzyska in the city center. The building will stand by the Palace of Culture and Science, the towering edifice many Poles consider an unwelcome symbol of the nation's socialist past. The museum administrators are working in conjunction with the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage to transform the area, which has since fallen into relative disuse, into a center for cultural dialogue for the entire Central and Eastern European region.

At the announcement ceremony, the Mayor of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz declared, "I hope that thanks to this competition, the capital will not only gain another modern and beautiful space, but will be closer to realizing its role as one of the most important centers of artistic and cultural life in this region of Europe."

However, on Thursday the museum's director, Tadeusz Zielniewicz, voiced his vehement opposition to the jury's selection and resigned from his post, giving way to chaos and uncertainty surrounding Kerez's triumph. The project, inspired by the local architecture of the 1950s and 1960s, has also been met with criticism on the part of the public, who resent the symbology of the era. Many would prefer a more progressive approach to the building by an architect with a stronger grasp of the history of the site.

Zielniewicz has declared an "open battle for the project that should have won," referring to the Finnish/Polish collaboration of ALA Architects Ltd/Grupa 5 Architekci/Jarosław Kozakiewicz, which only received an honorable mention.

In response to the news of the resignation, Michał Ujazdowski, the Minister of Culture, assured that he would work to resolve the dispute over a project considered the Ministry's top priority and Warsaw's "calling card."

The museum has been operating virtually since 2005 and is scheduled to officially open its home in early 2010, attracting from 800,000-1,000,000 visitors annually. Kerez's project is estimated to cost $91 (zł.270) million, financed in large part by EU funds.