The Museum is open 11:00 – 19:00
Cinema is closed now
The Museum is open 11:00 – 19:00
Cinema is closed now
SCULPTURE NOW
This fall, Warsaw becomes one of Europe’s centers for contemporary sculpture. The medium enters the public space in addition to museums and galleries as new objects are being inaugurated that were commissioned specially for the Polish capital. Most notably, Die Doppelgängerin by Valie Export is being erected in front of the Museum of Modern Art, and the exhibition Alina Szapocznikow / Nairy Baghramian opens at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art. These are all remarkable encounters between artists of different generations, backgrounds, and idioms who nevertheless share a deep concern with form—with how it evolves, altering the boundaries of sculpture.
Accordingly, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and Zachęta – National Gallery of Art announce a collaborative season: SCULPTURE NOW. Front and center is the medium which transcends the gallery environment more and more boldly as sculptural interventions respond to the ever-changing reality surrounding them and mark their presence in town.
Why sculpture?
This particular medium seems to be resonating especially well with the present time, with its predicaments, debates, and also quests for innovation in material. The forms that sculpture takes today are not only outcomes of aesthetical experimentation—they respond as well to the changing conditions we live in. These are new ways of reacting to a world that is no longer stable, no longer solid. Starting from this observation, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw holds three events that now locate discussions around sculpture in the very heart of Warsaw, says Szymon Maliborski, curator at MSN.
Instead of looking at individual shows, household names, or institutions, the Museum presents sculpture as a whole realm of its own. Objects will appear in different parts of town, and in different contexts: from entirely new executions in the public space and within the Museum of Modern Art, to exhibitions organized by other institutions operating in Warsaw.
At MSN, the season themed SCULPTURE NOW begins with the unveiling of Sand Fountain by Dominika Olszowy. It’s her debut in public space, specially commissioned for downtown Warsaw. The piece is on show from September 10, on the Museum’s terrace looking out onto the ever busy Marszałkowska street. Throughout the weekends of September 12–13 and 19–20, admission to the terrace where the piece is currently displayed will be free to all visitors.
The piece takes its shape from a stream of water rising up in the air, only halted as it’s reaching its climax—thickened, rigidified, and so transformed surreally into solid substance.
I want it to be a structure that resembles a fountain, not exactly spraying water but rather displaying a memory of it. A fountain made of the material that built our world (concrete, sand) and is now slowly disappearing from it, Dominika Olszowy explains.
The Sand Fountain was produced as a result of last year’s competition organized by MSN in partnership with the work’s funders: YPO Poland & YPO Gold Poland Association and PKO Bank Polski Foundation. The competition was aimed at promoting public art and contemporary Polish women artists.
Among the season’s highlights, too, is the unveiling of VALIE EXPORT’s monumental sculpture Die Doppelgängerin: September 18 on Central Square, right next to the Museum. Taking the form of twin pairs of oversized scissors, the piece represents both working equipment—as a device for agency in the hands of female dressmakers or film editors—and violence. The recently deceased VALIE EXPORT was the pioneer of Europe’s feminist art. In her work she challenged the conservative understanding of gender and sexuality, and through a number of spectacular undertakings targeting the old hierarchies and order she revolutionized contemporary art by introducing new means of, and devices for, artistic expression. Erected in downtown Warsaw, the scissors remind us both of the historical horrors of the place and of the real role of women who were pushed to the very margins of social life. At the same time they stand for cutting the ties with the past, marking new beginnings. Die Doppelgängerin enters the Museum’s collection thanks to the funder Katarzyna Jordan (Visteria Foundation) and the partnership with the Association of Friends of MSN.
Sculpture Beyond the Solid
At the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the fall season culminates in the exhibition curated by Jagna Lewandowska and Szymon Maliborski, titled Sculpture Beyond the Solid. Opening October 16, it presents works by more than thirty artists who translate the world’s volatile state into properties of material and artistic pursuits that give shape to new sculptures. The show unfolds in harmony with the Museum’s architecture, leading viewers from the common areas down on the ground floor to the staircase, to the second-floor galleries as well as the walkways. Crucially, the entire project developed in close collaboration between the institution and the invited artists, resulting in new pieces altogether as well as in direct follow-ups to past artistic experimentation. Featured artists include: June Crespo, Gizela Mickiewicz, Edith Karlson, Jack O’Brien, Iza Tarasewicz, and Dominique White.
Alina Szapocznikow’s centenary at Zachęta
In October, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art extends the coverage of sculpture with an exhibition marking the centenary of Alina Szapocznikow’s birth. Titled Alina Szapocznikow / Nairy Baghramian, the show features the Polish artist’s groundbreaking sculptural pieces, drawings, prints, and photographs in an artistic conversation with most recent works by the German-Iranian sculptress Nairy Baghramian. One of the most prominent figures in today’s sculpture, Baghramian thus receives her first extensive presentation in Poland.
Both Sculpture Beyond the Solid at MSN and Alina Szapocznikow / Nairy Baghramian at Zachęta will be open to the public starting October 16.
SCULPTURE NOW!
