Space-time of the collection

22.10.2021–27.2.2022

Shaping and experiencing space, the harmony and physical properties of colors, the optics of light, the kinetics of rhythms and the proportions of shapes were all referred to by the exhibition Contemporary art related to architecture. Ideological and formal connections opened at the Museum of Architecture in 1977. The exhibition was a prelude to the already non-existent, permanent display of the Museum of Architecture art collection, which was to constitute a constantly updated, open laboratory of formal experiences in relations between visual arts and contemporary architecture.

Space-time of the collection refers to the idea of the 1977 exhibition and takes us to the 1960s and 70s, when art was collected in the ‘visual arts related to architecture’ section. The Museum of Architecture collection of contemporary art, which today numbers almost 1,100 items, has been created since 1966 on the basis of a belief in the similarities and mutual influence of art and architecture. The collection predominantly includes works of a rational nature, based on criteria similar to the methods used in the exact sciences, and formally falling within the current of geometric abstraction. They mostly refer to the traditions and experiences of constructivism, with its idea of a synthesis of art, science and technical knowledge. However, it often happens that geometry abandons the orthogonal order here, creating organic forms that make up utopian visions of artistic and architectural fantasies, in which space can be perceived as both real and illusory.

The exhibition consists of over eighty paintings, sketches, graphics, reliefs, spatial objects and models, alluding to the revolutionary avant-garde of the interwar period, developing constructivist themes in the art of the 1960s and 70s. Examples of geometric abstraction coexist with the op-art illusions of space, items crossing the boundaries of traditionally understood image and artistic disciplines, as well as projects annexing the real space of exhibition halls and the city tissue. When put together in contractual subsets, they provide an opportunity to reflect on the meaning and place of the collection that change in time and space, and also – or perhaps above all - become a reason for reflection on the mutual relations of visual arts several dozen years ago and today.

Space-time of the collection is also the first in two decades opportunity for a wide presentation of works kept in museum stores, which - for the most part - belong to the canon of Polish and European contemporary art of the second half of the 20th century.

Artists included in the exhibition:

Magdalena Abakanowicz, Getulio Alviani, Roman Artymowski, Zofia Artymowska, Jan Berdyszak, Alberto Biasi, Marian Bogusz, Jerzy Budziszewski, Jan Chwałczyk, Zbigniew Dłubak, Jerzy Fedorowicz, Wanda Gołkowska, Zbigniew Gostomski, Aleksandra Jachtoma, Mieczysław Janikowski, Maria Jarema, Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz, Zdzisław Jurkiewicz, Tadeusz Kantor, Edward Krasiński, Gerard Kwiatkowski, Adam Marczyński, Maria Michałowska, Janusz Orbitowski, Ludmiła Popiel, Jerzy Rosołowicz, Jerzy Skarżyński, Kajetan Sosnowski, Antoni Starczewski, Henryk Stażewski, Maciej Szańkowski, Marian Szpakowski, Wacław Szpakowski, Alina Ślesińska, Marthe Wery, Ryszard Winiarski, Bohdan Załęski, Krystyn Zieliński, Jan Ziemski.

Curator: Małgorzata Devosges-Cuber

Design: Feliks Marciniak

Producers: Michał Duda i Wiktoria Litwinowicz

Exhibition design: BudCud

The exhibition is cofinanced by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.