The halls around the Neoplastic Room are flanked with works that look to elements of Władysław Strzemiński's design and explore their relevance today. Artists in the show include Grupa Twożywo and Jarosław Fliciński as well as Daniel Buren, Magdalena Fernandez, Igor Krenz, Grzegorz Sztwiertnia, Elżbieta Jabłońska, and Julita Wojcik. The Neoplastic Room is once again a place of exhibition of works by Katarzyna Kobro, Henryk Berlewi and Theo van Doesburg.
In 1946, the Muzeum Sztuki (Museum of Art), initially located in a few dozen rooms of the former City Hall, was moved to the 19th century palace formerly owned by the Łódź industrialist Maurycy Poznański within the renovated Manufaktura complex. The Director of the Museum at the time, Marian Minich, invited Władysław Strzemiński to cooperate in arranging the new exhibition rooms. The artist was entrusted with the task of designing the space that would contain a collection of European works of the Avantgarde, gathered through his initiative in the 1930s. Two years later, The museum was opened and the Neoplastic Room proved to be the main attraction.
Unfortunately, it was not so for very long. In 1950, the Room's polychromatic tones, which referred to the Constructivist-Neoplastic aesthetics, were painted over, while works in the room which were deemed inappropriate as far as the official style of social Realism was concerned, were put into storage. In 1960, it was reconstructed by Strzemiński's student: Bolesław Utkin, in accordance with the original plans and since then, for almost half a century, it was the focal point of the permanent exhibition of the Museum in Łódź. The situation changed in 2008 when the collection was moved from its former place to its new location within the ms2.
After a lengthy debate it was decided that the Room will not be moved along with the collection. It remained in its original location, although in the process it lost its status as the collection's focal point. It then became a catalyst and a point of reference for the activities of other artists who create their works in dialogue with the work of the Strzemiński in the contemporary context. It is also the goal of this exhibition space to draw attention to aspects of works that have previously been concealed.
Signs of the coming change in the status of the Neoplastic Room were already apparent in the modifications that the room underwent as a part of the 2006-2008 series of three exhibition-sketches for the future permanent exhibition (presented at ms2), and in the activities conducted by artists during such projects as Museum as a Luminous Object of Desire (the Director of the Museum being dressed by Julita Wójcik in a sweater mirroring the aesthetics of the Room), Delusive Orders (a video by Igor Krenz commenting on the Room's obsessive geometry) and I Repeat Them to Reach Them (the transformation of Strzemiński's work into an autonomous museum exhibit and, simultaneously, into an accessible set of "DIY for Everyone", created by Elżbieta Jabłońska). Placing Daniel Buren's installation "Cabane éclatée avec tissu blanc et noir" in the vicinity of the Room was also an important undertaking in this respect. The French artist's installation does not directly refer to the aesthetics of Strzemiński's work but it enters into a more profound relation with the "economy of a gift" on which it was based, just like the Neoplastic Room is a place "given" by the artist to the works of another artist (paintings by Henryk Stażewski from the Museum's collection).
These activities constitute the beginning of a process resulting in re-contextualizing other spaces surrounding the Neoplastic Room, extending its significance into the present.
Artists: Władysław Strzemiński, Daniel Buren, Magdalena Fernandez, Jarosław Fliciński, Grupa Twożywo, Igor Krenz, Grzegorz Sztwiertnia, Elżbieta Jabłońska, Julita Wójcik.
Curator: Jarosław Suchan
This ongoing exhibition was inaugurated on July 6, 2010.
Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź
ul. Więckowskiego 36, 90-734 Łódź
director: Jarosław Suchan
tel. (+48 42) 633 97 90, 633 82 73
fax (+48 42) 632 99 41
link*www.msl.org.pl*http://www.msl.org.pl** **Source: www.msl.org.pl