Magdalena Abakanowicz: Crossing Boundaries

HAM Helsinki Art Museum presents Magdalena Abakanowicz's first solo exhibition in Finland. The museum’s two main exhibition halls will be filled with diverse work of the influential artist—from her iconic woven textile sculptures, Abakans, through to the expressive series of sculptures from her later period.

Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930–2017) was one of the most famous Polish artists of the second half of the 20th century. She gained international fame as a creator of unique textiles and Abakans, named after the artist’s surname in the 1960s. Recognised internationally as early as 1962 at the International Tapestry Biennial in Lausanne, she was awarded the Gold Medal at the São Paulo Biennial three years later.

Abakanowicz’s career was also intertwined with the political realities of her time: in communist Poland during the 1960s and 1970s, her art was a constant search for freedom within a restricted environment. Despite these circumstances, she went on to build an exceptionally significant international career. 

Magdalena Abakanowicz wanted to be seen, above all, as a contemporary sculptor. With her work, she challenged the boundaries of both textile art and sculpture. The Abakans were not textiles with a practical purpose, but at the same time, due to their material, did not meet the existing definitions of sculpture either. The artist removed them from the wall and placed her ever more three-dimensional works in the open space, creating comprehensive installations.

Abakanowicz brought natural fibres to the attention of the art world and developed a remarkably personal artistic language. Throughout her sixty-year career, she explored various artistic disciplines, pushing boundaries and combining diverse media and forms of expression.

The Crossing Boundaries exhibition explores Magdalena Abakanowicz’s interest in the human form and nature. Throughout her life, Abakanowicz maintained a strong connection with the natural world and the biological, organic fabric of life. As she herself said, ”I see fibre as the basic element constructing the organic world on our planet. (…) It is from fibre that all living organisms are built—the tissues of plants, and ourselves, our nerves, our genetic code, the canals of our veins, our muscles. We are fibrous structures.”

The exhibition is divided into two parts. The first one features the artist’s fibre works from the late 1950s to the late 1970s: early woven pieces, rope works, and Abakans, which have been installed as spatial environments according to the artist’s original instructions. The second part of the exhibition focuses on burlap sculptures, which the artist began making in the early 1970s. The sculptures consist of a series of similar forms, depicting groups of people and various forms from nature.

The exhibition also features Jarosław Brzozowski and Kazimierz Mucha’s film Abakany (1970), documenting the installation of the artist’s works in the coastal landscape of Łeba, as well as screenings of the recent documentary film ABAKAMANIA. Magdalena Abakanowicz – An Individual Artist (2025) by Róża Fabjanowska and Sławek Malcharek.

For the duration of the exhibition, HAM’s art workshop will host a Weaving Club, where visitors can explore weaving, meet others, and spend time together inspired by the art of Magdalena Abakanowicz. The club has been realized in collaboration with textile designer Rosa Tolnov Clausen. 

In conjunction with the exhibition, HAM presents the catalogue Magdalena Abakanowicz: Crossing Boundaries, the first publication on the artist in Finland. It features previously unpublished texts by Eulalia Domanowska, curator of the exhibition, and Marta Kowalewska, Chair of the Board of the Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz Kosmowska and Jan Kosmowski Foundation. Richly illustrated, it brings together a wide selection of archival photographs spanning Abakanowicz’s career, as well as numerous images of her works.

The curator of the exhibition is Eulalia Domanowska, Director of the State Gallery of Art in Sopot.

The exhibition is organised in cooperation with the Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz Kosmowska and Jan Kosmowski Foundation. The exhibition is supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.