Sculpture Parks Across Poland
During summer, we especially appreciate the advantages of park spaces as we look for shade, shelter from the heat and contact with nature. It is worth remembering that there are quite a few parks in Poland that, apart from offering these, also bring us artistic experiences.
The first city park in Poland came into being in 1798 in Kalisz. The decision to create it was made by the Prussian authorities, who allocated meadows and pastures located southeast of the medieval city centre as a green area. In the following years, the park was expanded, modernized and adapted to changing fashions and rules governing such areas. It is worth adding that the idea of a city park began to be popularized in Europe only in the 19th century, so the investment in Kalisz was pioneering and unique, not only in social, urban and natural but also in artistic terms.
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Park Miejski in Kalisz, photo: Piotr Zdrowicki / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
In the 19th century, the green areas of the park in Kalisz began to be supplemented with pavilions in various architectural styles, as well as sculptures, which were an integral part of the program to enrich this area with works of art. Until the outbreak of World War I, a dozen or so of them were located in the park; unfortunately, Kalisz suffered greatly as a result of the war in August 1914, and many of the park sculptures were also destroyed. However, the tradition has survived, and to this day the City Park in Kalisz is being supplemented with new works, including those of contemporary artists. One of the important stages in the expansion of the sculpture collection in the Kalisz park was the Ogólnopolski Plener Rzeźby (National Sculpture Open-Air Exhibit), which took place in the city in the mid-1970s, as a result of which three objects were permanently placed here. And so today, among the historic trees, you can find the figure of Flora – it is the only sculpture that survived the wars – copies of historical works of art, as well as objects from the 1970s and the newest one, placed in the park in the fall of 2023 on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the Jan Tarasin Gallery of Art in Kalisz – namely, Gaja by Paweł Althamer and Artur Żmijewski.
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‘Żyrafa’, Silesian Park, Chorzów, photo: Sojomail / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Another not entirely typical sculpture park is the Silesian Park in Chorzów. This huge, multi-functional recreational, entertainment and relaxation area, founded at the site of mining damage, contains not only greenery but also exhibition pavilions, a cable railway, an amusement park, a planetarium, a zoo and many, many other attractions. Wandering among them, you can encounter numerous compositions that make up the open-air Gallery of Silesian Sculpture. The one opening the main entrance avenue to the park is widely recognizable. The 16-metre-high, minimalist figure of Żyrafa (The Giraffe) was cast in 1959 at the Gliwickie Zakłady Urządzeń Technicznych (Gliwice Technical Equipment Plant); Leopold Pędziałek and Leszek Dutka were responsible for its artistic concept, and the structure was designed by Jerzy Tombiński. In 2011, the sculpture was entered into the register of monuments. Galeria Rzeźby Śląskiej (Silesian Sculpture Gallery), today consisting of approximately 30 objects, is primarily a remnant of open-air sculpture workshops organized in the park by Teresa Michałowska-Rauszer, Jerzy Egon Kwiatkowski and Tadeusz Ślimakowski.
In most Polish parks, especially historic ones, you can find works of sculpture, individual figures or compositions that decorate paths and green areas. However, sculpture parks are a completely different category, designed from the beginning as spaces for outdoor exhibitions of works of art. Thus, they combine the features of an open-air gallery with a green area suitable both for the contemplation of art and for relaxation.
One of the most famous sculpture parks is the one surrounding Królikarnia Palace in Warsaw’s Mokotów district.
‘Fatum. Dusza odrywająca się od ciała’ by Xawery Dunikowski, Paris, 1918, limestone, gift of Antoine Cierplikowski, 1966, Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture in Królikarnia, photo: National Museum in Warsaw The museum was opened in 1965 in a building rebuilt after being damaged in the war. Just a year later, Antoine Cierplikowski donated a sculpture to the facility, which he commissioned from Xawery Dunikowski in 1918. A composition carved in limestone titled sometime later, Fatum. Dusza odrywająca się od ciała (Fate: The Soul Breaking away From the Body) was placed in the park surrounding Królikarnia as its first work of art. It was immediately clear that the picturesquely located park on the Vistula escarpment should be turned into an open-air art gallery, but the vision was realized only in 2001, when the Xawery Dunikowski Sculpture Museum was established in Królikarnia. Today, there are over a dozen works in this Sculpture Park, but the exhibition is not permanent; the works are changed out, and sometimes they are accompanied by outdoor temporary exhibitions.
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The Centre of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko, photo: Piotr Polak / PAP
A sculpture park is a consistently created exhibition space which is distinguished from a gallery or museum primarily by the lack of a roof and walls. However, the functioning of such a space usually has its own curators, regulations, program and purpose – just as in the case of Centrum Rzeźby Polskiej (Centre of Polish Sculpture) in Orońsko. In the 1960s, Ośrodek Pracy Twórczej Rzeźbiarzy (Sculptors’ Creative Work Centre) was established in the palace of Józef Brandt’s family, taken over by the state treasury; in the 1980s, the entire area, buildings and park were renovated, and in the next decade Muzeum Rzeźby Współczesnej (the Museum of Contemporary Sculpture) began to operate here. Much of it is located around the buildings, in the palace gardens and park. In addition to the permanent collection, which has been available to be admired here for years, the park also regularly hosts temporary exhibitions; the works of such iconic figures of Polish and world sculpture as Xawery Dunikowski, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Henry Moore and Tony Cragg can be seen here.
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‘Krata’ by Monika Sosnowska, 2009, photo: Bartosz Stawiarski / courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
Bródnowski Sculpture Park, opened in 2009, has a similar status. On the initiative of the artist Paweł Althamer, the Targówek District Office and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the first works of art appeared in Bródnowski Park, which was designed in 1976–78 by Stefania Traczyńska. Today there are over a dozen of them, and every year artistic events and meetings are organized around them. As the originators of this project write:
The Sculpture Park serves as an evolving exhibition of contemporary art, presented outdoors and available to viewers 24 hours a day. The works in the park are part of the constantly growing collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.
By the water & between blocks of flats
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European Sculpture Park, Pabianice, photo: archives of the A&A European Sculpture Park in Pabianice
Parks where greenery and art coexist may be born from various ideas. Art patrons Anna and Arkadiusz Majsterek, inspired by similar projects from around the world, decided to fund such a place in their hometown, Pabianice. In May 2011, the first open-air sculpture exhibit took place, inaugurating the existence of the European Sculpture Park in Pabianice. Even then, you could see works by artists from Moldova, Sweden, Mexico, Italy and Poland. Although only one open-air event took place, each year the park is enriched with new works by artists from various corners of the world. Interestingly, the park coexists with... a golf course and is adjacent to a hotel and a shopping and entertainment centre. It is open 24 hours a day and available to everyone.
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Poznań Visual Park is a space developed in a way that provokes conscious, attentive, cognitive and critical observation of reality. The facilities installed there are also part of an educational program, which is an integral part of the project.
This is what the creators of the ABC Gallery in Poznań write about their outdoor project, which has been functioning since 2012. Visual Park exists by the public beach on Strzeszyńskie Lake; there are currently a dozen or so sculptures in the park, and there will eventually be about thirty. Each of the presented works is accompanied by a board with questions provoking the viewer to independently interpret the possible meanings of individual works. The works of, among others, Sławomir Brzoska, Maurycy Gomulicki, Jarosław Fliciński, Robert Kuśmirowski, Bartosz Kokosiński and Sławomir Sobczak can be seen in the Visual Park.
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Juan Soriano’s Sculpture Garden, Owczarnia, photo: Kuba Atys / AW
Even less typical is Juan Soriano’s Sculpture Garden in Owczarnia near Warsaw. It was founded by Marek Keller, an art dealer and the life partner of the famous Mexican sculptor Juan Soriano, who died in 2006. Today, this unusual museum-garden is run by Marek Keller in close cooperation with the Mexican Embassy in Warsaw. Miniatures of sculptures found in other places around the world are presented in the building of a former stable in a historic park, while original works by the Mexican artist appear in the open air, between trees or by the pond. In addition, Owczarnia also organizes temporary shows of works by contemporary Mexican artists.
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Warsaw, Płk. Zdzisława Kuźmirskiego-Pacaka Square, sculptures from Kasprzaka Street, photo: Kuba Atys / AW
Sometimes green areas not originally designed for this purpose become interesting sculpture parks. This is what happened in Warsaw, where sculptures were moved from rebuilt Kasprzaka Street to Płk. Zdzisława Kuźmirskiego-Pacaka Square, the fruit of the Metal Sculpture Biennale organized in the capital in 1968. The squares, lawns and streets of Elbląg are filled with modern works of art, created as a result of several editions of the Biennal Form Przestrzennych (Biennial of Spatial Forms) in Elbląg. Public spaces in cities can also be successfully transformed into an ‘urbanized sculpture park’. And so it was in Częstochowa. Here, Stary Rynek (Old Market Square), which was renovated and modernized a few years ago, in addition to gaining a useful pavilion, new surface and lighting, was also enriched with a large collection of impressive works by Jerzy Kędziora, a sculptor from Częstochowa. The artist gained fame as the author of balancing sculptures, ones that seem to defy the laws of physics – such works can be seen at Old Market Square in Częstochowa.
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Sculptures by Jerzy Kędziora, Stary Rynek, Częstochowa, photo: Grzegorz Skowronek / AW
It is said that music soothes our mores. And does not the presence of sculptural works in parks and cities also have a soothing effect on residents and tourists?
Written in Polish by Anna Cymer, 13 June 2024
Translated by Michał Abel Pelczar
