In the Heart of the Country: The Collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
May 14, 2013–January 6, 2014
Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
ul. Emilii Plater 51
00-124 Warsaw
Poland
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday noon–8pm
Admission free
The exhibition In the Heart of the Country is the first comprehensive presentation of the international collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, established in 2005. Many of the collected works were commissioned by the Museum for its exhibitions and public projects (such as pieces by artists like Sanja Iveković, Zbigniew Libera, Sharon Hayes and Paweł Althamer). The Museum collection also includes artistic archives—a good example are over 150,000 negatives from the eminent photographer Eustachy Kossakowski. There is also a collection of several hundred films by artists, available online in the Museum’s Filmoteka.
In the Heart of the Country presents over 150 exhibits and is merely a foretaste of the full collection, which will be exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art’s future building. It is an attempt to respond to the Polish art world’s enduring calls to create a global art collection that would both define and exhibit crucial attitudes and trends in Polish art. The collection examines ties between art, cities, politics and history, in the search for visions of the future and new interpretations of the past. The collection focuses on the roots of modernity, as well as the approaches of charismatic 20th-century artists like Alina Szapocznikow and Andrzej Wróblewski, who are still an inspiration to contemporary art practitioners and theoreticians.
In the Heart of the Country also attempts to shed new light on the Polish experience of political and economic transition (as well as its moral, ethical and social repercussions), and describe the artistic phenomena which accompanied change in Central and Eastern Europe during the second half of the 20th century.
Artists taking part in the exhibition: Paweł Althamer, Francis Alÿs, Mirosław Bałka, Yael Bartana, Wojciech Bąkowski, Miron Białoszewski, Cezary Bodzianowski, Geta Brătescu, Ivan Brazhkin, Wojciech Bruszewski, Michał Budny, Rafał Bujnowski, Duncan Campbell, Olga Chernysheva, Anne Collier, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Julia Dault, Oskar Dawicki, Nathalie Djurberg, Jimmie Durham, Bracha L. Ettinger, Ruth Ewan, Omer Fast, Yona Friedman, Ion Grigorescu, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Wiktor Gutt and Waldemar Raniszewski, Sharon Hayes, Jonathan Horowitz, Sanja Iveković, Ken Jacobs, Zhanna Kadyrova, Polina Kanis, Leszek Knaflewski, Daniel Knorr, Prof. Grzegorz Kowalski’s Workshop Archive, Wojciech Krukowski and Akademia Ruchu, Paweł Kwiek, KwieKulik, Zbigniew Libera, Klara Lidén, Sarah Lucas, Goshka Macuga, Teresa Margolles, Adrian Melis, Gustav Metzger, Aernout Mik, Teresa Murak, Laurel Nakadate, Deimantas Narkevičius, Krzysztof Niemczyk, Paulina Ołowska, Ewa Partum, Dan Perjovschi, Pratchaya Phinthong, Marek Piasecki, Seth Price, R.H. Quaytman, Joanna Rajkowska, Mykola Ridnyi, Józef Robakowski, Bianka Rolando, Wilhelm Sasnal, Jadwiga Sawicka, Jacek Sempoliński, Wael Shawky, Ahlam Shibli, Slavs and Tatars, Jack Smith, Roman Stańczak, Frances Stark, Jan Styczyński, Alina Szapocznikow, David Ter-Oganyan, Teresa Tyszkiewicz, Piotr Uklański, Zbigniew Warpechowski, Helena Włodarczyk, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Andrzej Wróblewski, Akram Zaatari, Stanisław Zamecznik, Anna Zaradny
This exhibition is under the patronage of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Bogdan Zdrojewski.
