MARIA ZWIERZ

Wrocław, a city with a long tradition of exhibitions, has since 1913, at the edge of the Szczytnicki Park, possessed a vast Exhibition Areas with a monumental building - the Hall of the Century (design: M. Berg) - recently entered to the UNESCO World List of Cultural and Nature Inheritance, a pergola and the Pavilion of Four Domes (design: H. Poelzig). In their neighbourhood, in the 1920s and 1930s, two large pavilions and a columned courtyard were erected, as well as two concrete viaducts forming an above-street connection with the Southern part of the area, adjacent to the Zoo and reaching the bank of the Odra river.

In 1948, the new Polish authorities built a propaganda Exhibition of the Reclaimed Territories in this location. It was supposed to emphasise the historical right of Poland to the Western Lands merged into Poland after the Second World War. This involved the engagement of many architects and constructors, primarily from Warsaw, who designed the Polish pavilions at the world exhibitions in Paris (1925, 1937) and New York (1939) - J. Hryniewiecki, St. Hempel, K. Danko, St. Zamecznik, and also local architects from Wrocław. The post-German constructions (Exhibition A) were dedicated to a issue-related exhibition, and in the Southern area (Exhibition B) the social and economic exhibition was located, together with numerous light pavilions with interesting architecture of streamline, ready-made styles and others with light construction, open to the environment or with a shape indicating function of the building.

In the arrangement of the exhibition, aesthetically thought as a synthesis of art, a vital role was played by sculpture, painting, and film, an expressive trend to operate a sharp contrast of light and shadow was observed.