Contemporary art is having its moment in Poland these days. Museums get built, and new public as well as private institutions emerge. Artists’ names become common knowledge, their practice—previously ignored or misinterpreted—is widely understood and accepted today. It speaks for itself that the most central tract of land in the Polish capital will soon see the construction of the Museum of Modern Art.
The exhibition Early Years, part of the project The Promised City and taking place at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, wanders through the field of institutional self-reflection. It searches for terms fit to describe the emergence of a museum of art in the present, actual artistic, political, and social discourses. The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw requested for this exhibition the collaboration from artists, with whom it had worked so far, in its pioneering days. The Museum shared its anxieties with the group, and they reciprocated with their share of expectations towards the new institution.
Early Years is curated by Sebastian Cichocki, Ana Janevski, Katarzyna Karwa?ska and Joanna Mytkowska and presented by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Participating artists are Wojciech B?kowski, Yael Bartana, Tania Bruguera, Oskar Dawicki, Sharon Hayes, Sanja Ivekovi?, Daniel Knorr, KwieKulik, Zbigniew Libera, Anna Molska, Paulina O?owska, Agnieszka Polska, Joanna Rajkowska, Ahlam Shibli, Jan Smaga, Anna Zaradny, and Artur ?mijewski
KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Auguststrasse 69
10117 Berlin
Opening: Saturday, 27.02.2010, 17–22h
28.02. – 02.05.2010
