In Architecture as Invention, Danish director Michael Madsen enters into a creation process with Daniel Libeskind, the visionary architect behind the Jewish Museum in Berlin and Ground Zero in New York, during which both men will seek to explore “the edge of human creativity.” In the film, sold by Autlook, Libeskind has to tackle six architectural challenges over six days, aiming to create a final masterpiece reflecting his previous work and his life story.
“What happens inside the creative process, and how does art eventually emerge from it? These are the questions Madsen and Libeskind will set out to explore,” producer Damgaard Hansen tells Business Doc Europe. “Architecture as Inventionis a journey into the creative process of one of the world’s most brilliant and enigmatic architects. It is not, however, meant to be a profile of his genius…The film’s aim is to travel inside Mr. Libeskind’s memories, dreams, and fears, into what lies beyond the darkness that he so clearly sees, when he looks into the future.”
Madsen directed the multiple award-winning documentary Into Eternity (2010), selected for Tribeca, HotDocs and IDFA among others. Other films include The Visit (2015), selected for Sundance, SXSW and Visions du Réel, and Halden Prison which is part of ‘Cathedrals of Culture’ initiated by Wim Wenders, and which world premiered at Berlin International Film Festival.
“On the one hand, Architecture as Invention will aim to be a creative playground; and on the other, it will aim to be a portrait of this century as envisioned by Mr Libeskind: the chaos, the wars, the destruction, the Holocaust; but also, the love, the memories and the dreams,” Damgaard Hansen continues.
“[It] will seek to be more than an intellectual exercise. Its aim will be to create a sensorial experience in the audience, through its imaginary journeys. It will seek to create a building inside the audience’s mind, a refuge. The hope for Architecture as Invention is that the audience will experience architecture as much more than the walls, floors and ceilings that make up their homes or workplaces. It is for them to get a glimpse into what it also can be: spaces to contain and embody memories.”
Films produced by Damgaard Hansen’s by Paloma Pictures, which he founded with Julie Friis Walenciak, include Triangle of Sadness (Palme d’Or, Cannes), Club Zero (Cannes Official Selection), Tótem (Berlinale) and Acts of Love (Rotterdam IFF).
Co-Producers on Architecture as Invention are Ove Rishøj Jensen (Auto Images, Sweden) and Heino Deckert (Ma.Ja.De, Germany). The film is currently in post-production ahead of a proposed international release in 2026, the same year Daniel Libeskind turns 80.
The Danish producer further underlines Madsen’s credentials as a director who is highly capable of delivering this highly ambitious project.
“Having once considered architecture as a potential career, [Madsen] was always deeply intrigued by the ability to modulate space. He followed and studied Daniel Libeskind’s pieces around the globe, read his considerations on them and found his instinctive connection with preservation of memory extremely powerful,” Damgaard Hansen underlines. “With Daniel Libeskind as its main protagonist, Architecture as Invention will offer the audience a unique cinematic experience based on an innovative approach to describing and communicating art and creative processes.”
“The aim is not to ‘show’ architecture but to explore it as expression, extension and an interpretation of what it means to be human,” the producer adds. “There will be a special focus on what remains unbuilt, making the normally hidden/secret creative process visible, and thereby engaging the audience’s imagination in new ways: perhaps creating of their own, in a way? With this, Michael Madsen’s [intention] is to establish the film, not as a testament to Libeskind’s work, but rather a dialogue with the audience inviting them into the creative space in a way they have never experienced before.”
