Open Letter Regarding SEPR
at MSN

Warsaw, 30 June 2026

The Honourable Minister Marta Cienkowska

Ministry of Culture and National Heritage

ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 15

00-071 Warszawa

 

Dear Minister,

 

With regard to the project of reconstructing the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, being carried out by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw in collaboration with Polish Radio, we kindly request funding for the project submitted by the Museum under the 2027 State Budget Investment Programme.

 

Next year, we will be celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio (which was officially established on 15 November 1957). This is an excellent opportunity to mark the anniversary by reviving this project, which is unique on a European scale, and to officially launch it with an international event involving representatives of electronic music studios from across Europe (GRM in Paris, EMS in Stockholm, SEM in Cologne, and the Institute of Sonology in The Hague), with whom we have already established contacts.

 

Established in 1957 in Warsaw, in the Polish Radio building on Aleja Niepodległości (as the first centre of its kind in Eastern Europe and one of the first in the world), the Polish Radio Experimental Studio pioneered the development of electroacoustic music and sound art in Poland. It is an extremely important project in the history of 20th-century Polish culture – the unique space, specially adapted for music-making, was designed by Zofia and Oskar Hansen, and its first director was the eminent musicologist and composer Józef Patkowski. It is to the Studio that we owe pioneering compositions, sound installations and incidental music for films, plays and radio theatre. It was formally closed in 2004. During its existence (1957–2004), 93 composers worked at the Studio, including 59 Polish composers (among them: Bogusław Schaeffer, Krzysztof Penderecki, Włodzimierz Kotoński, Andrzej Dobrowolski, Elżbieta Sikora and Krzysztof Knittel) and 34 foreign composers (including François-Bernard Mâche, Lejaren Hiller, Arne Nordheim and Kåre Kolberg). Together, they created a total of around 300 independent works.

 

The Museum of Modern Art has made every effort to bring this project to fruition. In June 2022, we signed a cooperation agreement with Polish Radio, the project’s strategic partner, under which the original musical and electroacoustic equipment historically used in the Polish Radio Experimental Studio was transferred to the Museum. In 2023, we carried out maintenance work aimed at repairing and restoring these devices to working order. The Museum also has a final design ready, covering the following disciplines: architecture, acoustics, telecommunication systems and electroacoustic systems, and HVAC systems. It was developed in close cooperation and consultation with former staff of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio and specialists in the relevant disciplines.

 

The concerts and accompanying events held to date as part of the project to reconstruct the Polish Radio Experimental Studio at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw – organised in collaboration with Polish Radio 2 and utilising the restored, original electroacoustic equipment from the Studio – have demonstrated its appeal to contemporary artists and the broad, cross-generational interest in the project, including international interest. To date, the following artists have worked with this equipment: Aleksandra Słyż (winner of the ‘Polityka’ Passport Award in the ‘Classical Music’ category), Yoannis Patoukas (Institute of Sonology in The Hague, Netherlands) and Mathijs Leeuwis (Het Concreet in Tilburg, Netherlands). New commissions from young Polish composers are planned in collaboration with Polish Radio 2 to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, alongside concerts of archival works in collaboration with electronic music studios across Europe.

 

The project, which encompasses acoustic refurbishment, electroacoustic and telecommunication systems, and interior design based on the original architectural design by Zofia and Oskar Hansen from 1962, goes beyond the confines of a museum – it creates a living laboratory for contemporary composers and sound artists. Equipping the studio with professional digital systems, while preserving the analogue spirit of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, will enable the production of works of world-class standard. The reconstructed and fully functional Polish Radio Experimental Studio at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw will become a centre of expertise and skills development in the field of analogue studio technologies, which are becoming increasingly popular among contemporary artists.