(Un)realized Utopia: Parks of Culture and Recreation in Poland - Instytut Pileckiego

Presentation by Anna Helena Przybyła about the outcomes of her current fellowship project as a 2025 fellow of the Exercising Modernity program

(Un)realized Utopia: Parks of Culture and Recreation in Poland

presentation by Anna Helena Przybyła

12.05, 18.00 | Pariser Platz 4A, 10117 Berlin 

Registration: https://forms.gle/tuStFrDgqHAZTRA87

During the presentation (Un)realized Utopia: Parks of Culture and Recreation in Poland, architect, researcher, and educator Anna Helena Przybyła—an alumna of the Exercising Modernity Academy 2024 and a 2025 fellow of the Exercising Modernity program—will present the outcomes of her current fellowship project.

In post-war Polish urban planning, the concept of the Park of Culture and Recreation stands as one of the most striking examples of the collision between utopian planning and the country's actual capabilities. This new type of park, developed in the Soviet Union during the 1920s and 30s, was intended to be an ideological and functional alternative to traditional public parks. Its purpose was to provide users with a cultural, political, and sports program within a monumental architectural setting. The model assumed the creation of formalized layouts serving not only leisure but, above all, the political and social shaping of the masses.

During the event, we will examine the adaptation of this idea on Polish soil. An analysis of projects from the Socialist Realist period shows how monumental visions clashed with the economic realities of 1950s Poland. This resulted in much humbler realizations, often stripped of their original ideological functions. Comparing theory with practice reveals a distinct rift between the "paper utopia" and its final form. Many of these sites never fully acquired the characteristics of Parks of Culture and Recreation, remaining suspended between the original design and practical execution constraints.

The presentation will showcase the results of interdisciplinary research that combines a critical look at archival materials with artistic research. The study covered projects from Warsaw and major industrial centers of Upper Silesia, including Katowice, Dąbrowa Górnicza, Gliwic, and Sosnowiec. The research process involved an extensive archival query of design documentation as well as field research. The narrative will be accompanied by a presentation of painted sketches created directly within the park spaces, and collages that serve as a creative interpretation of archival plans and visions juxtaposed with their actual realization.

Anna Helena Przybyła – (born 1994) architect, architectural researcher, and educator. She graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology (2022) and studied Art History at the Faculty of Management of Visual Culture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (2017–2020). Currently, she is a teaching and research assistant at the Department of Architectural and Art Heritage at the Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology. As a PhD candidate at the Doctoral School of the Warsaw University of Technology, she is working on her dissertation on Parks of Culture and Recreation in Poland. She serves as the secretary of the academic journal Kwartalnik Architektury i Urbanistyki (Architecture and Town Planning Quarterly) and collaborates with the architectural quarterly Rzut. In 2025, she was a fellow of the "Exercising Modernity" program organized by the Pilecki Institute in Berlin. She was also awarded the 2nd Honorary Prize in the 2023/24 "Theory" competition with "Architecture Writing Workshops," organized by the Stefan Kuryłowicz Foundation, for her essay titled "Blok i hektar nieba” (A Block and a Hectare of Sky) about a village in the former State Agricultural Farm (PGR) Szklary. She conducts workshops and classes for children and youth on art, architecture, and urbanism. Her research interests focus on post-war art and architecture, particularly the relationship between architecture and power, utopian architectural concepts, and the post-WWII reconstruction and development of Polish cities and rural areas.