INTERWOVEN. Barbara Brukalska, Helena Syrkus and the Networks of Modernism - Instytut Pileckiego

Exhibition Opening at the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław

25. June 2026, 18.00
Opening of the Exhibition „INTERWOVEN. Barbara Brukalska, Helena Syrkus and the Networks of Modernism“
Museum of Architecture in Wrocław
Bernardyńska 7, 50-156 Wrocław

What shapes architecture beyond bricks, concrete, and design? Can buildings tell stories about friendship, collaboration, and political choices? And how do ideas travel across borders, generations, and periods of upheaval?

This summer, we invite you to explore these questions through a remarkable exhibition opening in Wrocław. Just a few hours from Berlin, the city offers an inspiring destination for a summer trip - and an opportunity to discover a fascinating chapter of European modernism.

On 25 June 2026, together with the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław (Muzeum Architektury we Wrocławiu) the Pilecki Institute will open the exhibition INTERWOVEN. Barbara Brukalska, Helena Syrkus and the Networks of Modernism.

Focusing on two pioneering architects of the twentieth century, Barbara Brukalska (1899–1980) and Helena Syrkus (1900–1982), the exhibition traces lives that developed in parallel, intersected repeatedly, and were ultimately shaped by personal decisions and the dramatic political transformations of their time. Both architects were closely connected to the avant-garde Praesens group and the International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM), placing them at the heart of European modernist networks.

Rather than presenting a traditional biographical narrative, INTERWOVEN explores architecture as a web of relationships: between people, institutions, places, and ideas. Through photographs, drawings, and films - many shown to the public for the first time - the exhibition reveals how professional collaborations and personal friendships helped shape modern architecture, while also exposing the fragility of these connections in times of political turmoil.

The exhibition is further enriched by newly commissioned contemporary works: a sound composition by Barbara Kinga Majewska and a textile installation by Alicja Bielawska, which poetically reconnect the stories of the two architects and the networks that linked them.

INTERWOVEN. Barbara Brukalska, Helena Syrkus and the Networks of Modernism
25. June – 4. October 2026
Museum of Architecture Wrocław, Bernardyńska 7

Curators: Dr. Małgorzata Jędrzejczyk, Aleksandra Kędziorek

Organizer: Pilecki Institute

Main Exhibition Partner: Museum of Architecture in Wrocław

The exhibition was developed as part of the Exercising Modernity programme.

Exhibition Design: Studio ŚŃŃ – Tomasz Świetlik, Nana Ciastoń, Maciej Chodziński

Media Partners: TVP Kultura, Program 3 Polskiego Radia, Architektura i Biznes, Vogue Polska Living, Zwierciadło, Autoportret, Tygodnik Powszechny, Magazyn SZUM, Notes Na 6 Tygodni.

Curated by Dr. Małgorzata Jędrzejczyk and Aleksandra Kędziorek, the exhibition has been developed within the Exercising Modernity programme and draws on collections from leading institutions in Poland and abroad, including the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, the Museum of Art in Łódź, gta Archiv ETH Zurich, Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin, RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History, and the National Museum in Warsaw.

We warmly invite you to join us for the opening or to include Wrocław in your summer travel plans. Discover an exhibition that brings together architecture, history, and human connections—and reflects on what remains when ideas, people, and places become interwoven.

This exhibition also builds on a project that some of you may have encountered earlier this year in Prague. In March 2026, the Pilecki Institute Berlin and VI PER Gallery presented Interwoven: Women Architects and the Resilience of Modernist Networks, co-curated by Dr. Małgorzata Jędrzejczyk and Aleksandra Kędziorek as part of the Exercising Modernity programme.

Conceived as a prelude to the Wrocław exhibition, the Prague project focused on the often-overlooked role of women within international modernist networks. It highlighted how architects, designers, editors, translators, and organizers helped sustain professional connections and facilitate the circulation of ideas across Europe despite war, shifting borders, and political divisions. By foregrounding these largely invisible forms of work, the exhibition offered a fresh perspective on architectural history and the resilience of cultural exchange in Central and Eastern Europe.

While featuring selected themes, stories, and protagonists that reappear in INTERWOVEN. Barbara Brukalska, Helena Syrkus and the Networks of Modernism, the Prague exhibition was developed as an independent project with its own exhibition design by Marko Čambor. Visitors to Wrocław will now have the opportunity to discover the broader and more comprehensive exhibition, expanding these questions through new archival materials, artworks, and narratives.