As part of the public program Chalk Circle of the exhibition Stammering Circle, we invite you to a lecture by Gerd Zillner, Director oft the Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation in Vienna:
Frederick Kiesler: Magic Architecture
Friday, June 20, 17:00
Lviv Polytechnic Machine Hall (Room 114, Building No. 10), 5 Ustyianovycha St.
Under the shadow of the destructions during World War II and the profound paradigm shift ushered in by atomic warfare, artist-architect Frederick Kiesler (*1890 in Chernivtsi, +1965 in New York) developed an alternative vision of architectural history and theory.
His most ambitious–and arguably most extraordinary–publication project was Magic Architecture. Conceived as a neo-Vitruvian Renaissance treatise, Kiesler envisioned a ten-part cultural history of human habitation, spanning from prehistory to the atomic age. This comparative study explored quasi-»magical» practices, animal-built structures, and the fantastical architectures imagined by poets and painters. Despite its scope and originality, the project remained unfinished and unpublished.
This lecture presents selected chapters from Kiesler’s Magic Architecture, based on original archival materials. A posthumous critical edition, co-edited by Spyros Papapetros (Princeton University) and Gerd Zillner (Frederick Kiesler Foundation), is currently in preparation and scheduled for release by MIT Press in October 2025.
Gerd Zillner is Director oft the Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation in Vienna. He has lectured and published on Frederick Kiesler and curated shows on Kiesler and contemporary art.
The Stammering Circle exhibition is curated by Marta Kuzma. The Stammering Circle and The Chalk Circle are a part of Faktura 10, a core initiative of Ribbon International. The main exhibition venues of Stammering Circle include the Jam Factory Art Center, Dim42, and the Machine Hall of Lviv Polytechnic National University
