The newly-opened BWA Warsaw Gallery brings back its inaugural exhibition in celebration of Museum Night
The latest addition to the capital's cultural scene continues to the substantial legacy of the BWA tradition. The current exhibition features an impressive roster of artists: Adam Adach, Jarosław Fliciński, Nicolas Grospierre, Agnieszka Kalinowska, Angelika Markul and Małgorzata Szymankiewicz. They have created a story about an abolished modernism - a project which was once beautiful and promising, and has now turned to ashes... Jarosław Fliciński, Nicolas Grospierre, Agnieszka Kalinowska, Angelika Markul and Małgorzata Szymankiewicz created a story about an abolished modernism - a project which was once beautiful and promising, and has now turned to ashes.
The exhibition is set in the historic setting of a 1928 modernist villa in Saska Kępa in Warsaw. The mansion was designed by Czesław Przybylski, the author of such projects as the House with No Corners" / "Dom bez Kantów or the no longer existing Warsaw Main Railway Station, for sculptor Mieczysław Lubelski. The house is currently being renovated by architect Wojciech Popławski (OP Architekten) and is soon to be transformed into the Functional House - a new independent cultural center.
The slogan "Plundering the Ruins of Reality" appeared a few years ago on a sticker made by the Twożywo Group. Today it seems to perfectly describe the attitude and ambition of many Polish artistic groups, for which the modernist traditions in painting, photography and architecture have become a basic reference point. Although "high modernism" from the beginning of the twentieth century and its local continuations, including socialist modernism are a distant memory, they are a vital inspiration for contemporary young Polish artists.
BWA Warsaw is a collaborate initiative by Justyna Kowalska (previously curator of the Le Guern Gallery), Michał Suchora (formerly co-founder of the lokal_30 gallery) and Tomasz Plat (editor, author of many books, lecturer at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw). It is a private gallery, which will also carry out non-profit projects and activate various urban spaces. In addition to exhibitions, the BWA Warsaw Gallery will organise lectures as well as theatrical and performative events.
The gallery's name refers to the socialist realism idea of filling the entire state with a chain of offices of the Bureau of Art Exhibitions (Biuro Wystaw Artystycznych- BWA). Yet it is a contrary evocation of terms, stemming from the time when art was to be part of a utopian socialist plan. The creators of this project do not want to maintain this utopia, but make it the subject of reflection.
The BWA Warsaw Gallery opened on May 7 as a preview show, reopening on Museum Night, May 14, 2011 at 19:00.
BWA Warsaw Gallery
ul. Jakubowska 16/3
03-902 Warsaw
Source: press release