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Settle in Void
Our first attempts to tame void were made during the Wola Art 2009 Festival, CityProjectWola edition, when Jakub Szczęsny’s project was presented as a project about the past and the future, about history, impossible architecture and possible fiction.
The present form of Warsaw is a result of the very painful history of the city and subsequent urban decisions. The city’s war and post-war experiences resulted in its being split and smashed by temporary and random building development. Despite the incoherence, Warsaw is an extraordinary city of creative chaos. Warsaw is full of unexpected solutions and mysterious places created by the former tissue of the city and the fact that it is not united with the contemporary, growing urban structure. This process produced literal cracks within the urban system, which function as non-productive void spaces. Jakub Szczęsny decided to fill such a crack, to restore its existence by turning it into a perfectly functional living space and by inviting somebody to take care of this space. The architect designed a House, which, despite its microscale caused by the size of the plot, constitutes a functional space – a place to live. Szczęsny invited an Israeli writer of Polish descent – Etgar Keret to live in the House. By doing so he imparted one more function to the House – the function of a study.
Keret House is a home of an author, a creator who will use the space revived by the architect. Etgar Keret will live in the House, invite guests to his study. All of these will give new meanings to the space. The no-place will be restored for the city and for the citizens.
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