The fall season is undoubtedly the busiest period for the arts community, returning after the vacation period with a full institutional program. Here is an overview of the most interesting cultural events from all corners of Poland, for the end of this year and the beginning of the next one.
WARSAW
Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw,
ul. Marszałkowska 103
(from 25.10.2024)
The most important cultural event in the capital city this fall is the long-awaited opening of the new building of the Museum of Modern Art. After nearly two decades the museum is finally getting a permanent address. The building, designed by American architect Thomas Phifer, has become a symbol of Warsaw’s changing center. The inauguration planned for October 25 will go beyond a traditional exhibition—the new headquarters is to be a site open to various initiatives, integrating the local society.
The opening will be accompanied by a wide range of events. The first presentation in the new space, devoted to large-format sculptures and installations, is a foretaste of the MSN collections, which will be presented in early 2025. At the same time, the sixteenth edition of the WARSAW UNDER CONSTRUCTION festival will get underway, titled Tough Love: The Museum Between the Square and the Palace. Here too, with reference to the watershed moment in the history of the Museum of Modern Art, the focus will be on the role of contemporary cultural institutions and the history of Defilad Square and Marszałkowska Street.
The inaugural programme will run until 10 November. Admission to all events is free.
SOPOT
We Want the Whole Life. Feminisms in Polish Art
State Art Gallery in Sopot, ul. Plac Zdrojowy 2
(19.10. 2024 – 31.01.2025)
In mid October the State Art Gallery in Sopot opened the exhibition We Want the Whole Life. Feminisms in Polish Art. This is a collective exhibition devoted to emancipatory art in Poland, both from a historical and a contemporary perspective. The exhibition speaks of community practices based on mutual relations and care, from the communist era to the system transformation and the present day. The story here ties in to the idea of heteroglossia, providing a chance to swap experiences and create multigenerational feminist coalitions.
The exhibition features some classic figures, such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Natalia LL, Ewa Partum, and Alina Szapocznikow, but also younger feamle artists. These include Agata Bogacka, Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Paulina Ołowska, Agata Słowak, and many other artists and collectives. The exhibition emerged through the work of a curator group that together forms the Feminist Seminar, thus stressing the idea of the feminist community not only in the content, but also in the creative process.
KRAKOW
Transformations. Modernity in the Third Polish Republic
National Museum in Krakow, ul. 3 Maja 1
(06.12.2024 – 04.05.2025)
In early December, the National Museum in Krakow will open an exhibition, Transformations. Modernity in the Third Polish Republic, the finale of the 4 x Modernity series, ongoing since 2021. As part of this series, modernity has been interpreted in Polish art, design, and architecture from the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the present. This final exhibition will explore a range of artistic strategies and attitudes that emerged with the system change in 1989. It will reflect on the tradition of modernism and today’s crises. One of the pieces on show will be Tomasz Kowalski’s BBAARR from the PURO collection, on show daily in the Loreta Bar in PURO’s Warsaw Center hotel.
BIELSKO-BIAŁA
Katarzyna Kozyra – Being somebody who you are (not)
Bielska BWA Gallery in Bielsko–Biała, ul. 3 Maja 11
(17.01.2025 – 16.03.2025)
The beginning of next year at Bielska BWA Gallery in Bielsko-Biała will see the opening of Katarzyna Kozyra— Being somebody who you are (not). The exhibition will be a cross-section of the work of one of the most iconic critical artists in Poland. Known for her controversial interdisciplinary projects, Kozyra did an extended performance for part of her most recent exhibition, Tears of Joy at Zachęta—National Gallery of Art, living in the gallery space. During this action, the artist made direct contact with the visitors—they got into discussions or just relaxed in the gallery space.
The Bielsko-Biała exhibition is meant to cover the artist’s main spheres of interest and subjects she has been exploring since her work began, such as identity, the body, and cultural taboos.
WROCŁAW
Open Collection
Four Domes Pavilion in Wrocław, ul. Wystawowa 1
(06.12.2024 – 02.03.2025)
In December the Four Domes Pavilion will launch the Open Collection exhibition, presenting pieces purchased for the National Museum in Wrocław collection over the past decade. These include works by Natalia LL, Dorota Nieznalska, Ewa Partum, Joanna Rajkowska, Bożenna Biskupska, Ewa Zarzycka, Olaf Brzeski, Łukasz Korolkiewicz, and many more. The exhibition will also serve as a point of departure for broader reflections on the subject of work with museum collections, showing a vital role that visitors seldom see: the people responsible for maintaining the collections of the National Museum in Wrocław.
Author: Weronika Jakubowska
- View of the staircase in the building of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, photo by Marta Ejsmont (2024)
- Zuzanna Janin, Fight, frame from film, courtesy of the Artist
- Wilhelm Sasnal, Untitled, 1999, ING Polish Art Foundation Collection, courtesy of the ING Polish Art Foundation
- Katarzyna Kozyra, Cheerleader, 2006, photo by Marcin Oliva Soto
- Nicolas Grospierre, from the series Lithuanian Bus Stop No. 1 (b), 2003, National Museum in Wrocław
- The building of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, view from Świętokrzyska Street. Photo by Marta Ejsmont(2024)
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