In his text entitled Ethics of Elfland Gilbert Keith Chesterton compared our civilization to a wrecked ship, from which the hero of Daniel Defoe’s famous book, Robinson Crusoe, would fish out all objects he needed to survive on a desert island. The British writer pointed out that in a sense our civilization resembles a ship after a disaster, whilst artworks are an element which enables us to rescue the values that define our humanity: the Truth, Beauty and Good, which – for us to survive as mankind – must be saved in every generation. Therefore, the main idea behind the exhibition organized in the former monastery rooms of the Museum of Architecture is to refer to traditional European values through contemporary artists’ visual creativity. These values are the roots of our civilization. Thus, they require salvage and care – especially in today’s world, where several ideas and norms once cultivated become equivalent to remains of a wrecked ship.

For the purposes of the* Robinson’s Ship* show exhibition rooms have been set designed as a shipwreck, with artworks located among its remains. Consequently, the show departs from a linear presentation scheme, while individual pieces have been be closely linked to its scenographic concept. The show features about 190 artworks, which makes it one of the largest exhibitions of figurative art in Central and Eastern Europe. It showcases 55 young and promising artists from Poland (including Marcelina Groń, Paweł Baśnik, Tomasz Poznysz, Zdzisław Nitka, Daniel Pawłowski, Artur Przebindowski and Marcin Kołpanowicz), Czech Republic (such as Martin Mainer, Zbynek Sedlecky and Samuel Pauco), Slovakia (including Silvia Krivosikova, Rastislav Podoba and Veronika Šramatyová) and Hungary (including Imre Bukta, Adam Dallos and Péter Ujházi). The pieces on show include painting, graphics, photography as well as sculpture and glass objects.

Artists: Agata Agatowska (PL), Paweł Baśnik (PL), Zofia Błażko (PL), Imre Bukta (HU), Julia Curyło (PL), Małgorzata Dajewska (PL), Adam Dallos (HU), Andrzej Dudek-Dürer (PL), Jana Farmanova (SK), László Fehér (HU), Paweł Frąckiewicz (PL), Marcelina Groń (PL), Krzysztof Izdebski-Cruz (PL), Andrzej Jarodzki (PL), Adam Kaspar (CZ), Marcin Kołpanowicz (PL), Aleksander Kozera (PL), Silvia Krivošíková (SK), Tomasz Kucharski (PL), Jarosław Kukowski (PL), Henryk Laskowski (PL), Witold Liszkowski (PL), Ida Łotocka-Huelle (PL), Maciej Łubowski (PL), Mária Machatová (SK), Martin Mainer (CZ), Julita Malinowska (PL), Mariusz Mikołajek (PL), Miroir Noir (Miloš Kopták and Rai Escalé) (SK), Zdzisław Nitka (PL), Jacek Paluch (PL), Ryszard Paprocki (PL), Samuel Pauco (CZ), Kazimierz Pawlak (PL), Daniel Pawłowski (PL), Daniel Pielucha (PL), Rastislav Podoba (SK), Miro Polach (CZ), Tomasz Poznysz (PL), Olga Prokop-Miśniakiewicz (PL), Artur Przebindowski (PL), Judit Rita Rabóczky (HU), Zbynek Sedlecky (CZ), Krzysztof Skarbek (PL), Jan Szczepan Szczepkowski (PL), Anna Szpakowska-Kujawska (PL), Janusz Szpyt (PL), Adam Šakový (SK) , Pavel Šmid (CZ), Veronika Šramatyová (SK), Jan Triaska (SK), Przemysław Tyszkiewicz (PL), Péter Ujházi (HU), Tomasz Urbanowicz (PL), Anna Wypych (PL), Mira Żelechower-Aleksiun (PL).

Curator: Mirosław Jasiński

Co-curators: Krisztina Jerger (HU), Ivana Moncolova (SK) oraz Martin Mainer (CZ)

See the film preview of the exhibition: https://youtu.be/CUo3CDZYwSA

Exhibition organiser: Galeria Miejska we Wrocławiu

Co-organiser: Muzeum Architektury we Wrocławiu

The exhibition is under the Honorary Patronage of the Mayor of Wrocław.