Yael Bartana, Mur i wieża (Wall and Tower), 2009; Collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
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Paulina Ołowska (in collaboration with Mateusz Romaszkan), MUZEUM (Museum), 2008; Photo: Bartosz Stawiarski; Courtesy of the artist and Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
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Wojciech Bąkowski, Film mówiony 4 (Spoken Film 4), 2010; Courtesy of the artist and Leto Gallery
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KwieKulik, Działania z Dobromierzem (Activities with Dobromierz), 2009; Collection of Museum of Modern Art Warsaw
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Anna Molska, Płaczki (The Mourners), 2010; Courtesy of the artist and Foksal Gallery Foundation
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Sharon Hayes, In the Near Future, 2008; Courtesy of the artist and Tania Leighton Gallery
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Currently, the Polish art scene is considered to be one of the most vital worldwide, while young artists like Wilhelm Sasnal, Rafal Bujnowski, and Monika Sosnowska are celebrated internationally. In comparison, however, the response in their home country remains weak. But this will presumably change with the new planned building for the Museum for Modern Art in the center of Warsaw. Supported by politicians as a flagship for a modern Poland, the project is highly controversial in certain parts of the population. In this context, the exhibition Early Years at the Kunstwerke in Berlin reflects the art museum’s birth in the midst of a political and social discourse.
While Paulina Olowska, who is represented in the Deutsche Bank Collection, has created a fluorescent ad that recalls the first temporary location of the museum in one of the ’60s residential blocks so typical for Warsaw, Anna Molska’s video work The Mourners from 2010 depicts women of a rural singing group performing mourning songs in the exhibition space of the Center for Polish Sculpture. Molska, who was awarded a residency in the Villa Romana in Florence during the 2009 Views Prize competition for young Polish art, lets two worlds collide that hardly seem at all compatible – local folklore and institutionalized art world. The current winner of the Views Prize 2009 is also present in the Kunstwerke exhibition: Wojciech Bakowski presents a new episode of his Spoken Film, which combines references to traditional Polish animated film with the aesthetic of contemporary street art.
Early Years
Kunstwerke, Berlin
Februar 28 – May 2, 2010
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