According to Zvi Hecker, architecture does not begin and end with the building. It remains in a state of continuity, subject to constant metamorphoses. The exhibition devoted to his work presented a vivid picture of this process, and at the same time shows a collection of exceptional projects and buildings created as a result.
The presentation included: examples of ” polyhedron architecture ” - Bat Yam City Hall (1960-1963) and Dubiner’s residential building in Ramat Gan (1961-1963); examples of advanced geometry - the Spiral Apartment House in Ramat Gan (1985-1989) and the Heinz-Galinski Jewish school in Berlin (1991-1995); or the Jewish Cultural Centre in Duisburg (1996-2000) as an example for which the inspiration was a book; and the monument on the site of the burned synagogue at Lindenstraße in Berlin commemorating Crystal Night (1938). In addition, the exhibition featured selected competition projects from recent years on museum buildings in Poland, including the awarded project of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.
Zvi Tadeusz Hecker was born in Cracow in 1931. He spent the war years in Samarkand. He began his education in architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of Cracow AGH University of Science and Technology. He immigrated with his family to Israel in 1950, where he continued his studies at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. After graduation and military service in 1960, Hecker founded a firm with Eldar Sharon (a friend from college) and Alfred Neumann (his teacher and mentor), and just a few years later he started his own career path. He repeatedly represented Israel at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. Hecker has taught at universities in Europe and America. He remains professionally involved with Berlin and Tel Aviv and he is author and co-author of publications on contemporary architecture.
The „Zvi Hecker. Pages of the Book” exhibition was a retrospective of Zvi Tadeusz Hecker and a record of successive stages of his oeuvre, which was based on geometry in the 1960’s and 1970’s and metaphorical qualities in later decades. The exhibition organized by the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław was accompanied with exhibitions devoted to the work of his teacher and master - Alfred Neumann and student - Rafi Segal.
Curators: Ursula Gołota and Michał Duda, Museum of Architecture in Wrocław
The exhibition was organized to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw