MUSEUM AND THE ART MARKET. Discussion around the newly released publication „Skontrum w Muzeum Rzeźby”
Guest: Prof. Maria Poprzęcka, Michał Suchora, Joanna Turowicz
Chair: Agnieszka Tarasiuk
A FEATURE OF THE MEETING IS THE FIRST AND SO FAR ONLY DISPLAY OF A SCULPTURE BY KATARZYNA KOBRO (DATED TO 1933-35) THAT UNTIL RECENTLY HAS BEEN CONSIDERED MISSING.
“Skontrum”, our exhibition organised in 2011, marked a subversive move to confront the history and character of the immense sculpture collections of the National Museum in Warsaw. Cramped tightly together in the interiors of the Królikarnia Palace, the works made it impossible to experience individual objects directly, intensifying the multiplied vision of artistic forms and tendencies, often set on a collision course. The apparent distraction, inattention and chaos – the qualities that highlighted the immense size of the collection – provided a pretext to revise the traditional art institution model that museums represent. The dense thicket of sculptures transformed into a sculptural meta-environment, a setting that compelled the viewers to perform their own investigations and formulate their own interpretations while discerning correlations and analogies amidst contrasts. This kind of curatorial framing of the sculptures on display enriched and diversified the image of the institutional sculpture collection.
The publication “Skontrum w Muzeum rzeźby” [Inventory in the Museum of Sculpture] is a fruit of more than a year of research and exhibition activity within a project that involved viewers, art critics and contemporary artists. The essays develop various perspectives concerning the models of developing an institutional art collection. The texts are varied – from a lively debate, to a record of reflection, to academic analyses – and comprise a text about art as a common good, a critical essay that discusses art as documentation and a catalyst of social change on the example of Piotr Wysocki's intervention “Zikr”, and scholarly texts that concern the collections of works at the Museum of Sculpture, among other essays. The book is abundantly illustrated with photographs by Bartosz Górka.
The discussion “Museum and the Art Market” offers a platform for an open debate concerning the contemporary model of the museum and the development directions for the museum collection. Profiting from the insight of our guests, we will talk about the threats inherent in the institutionalisation of art, and its social, ideological and political consequences. Another important topic is the co-existence of private and public collections as well as the kind of relations that we would like to see between the two.
During the meeting, the publication “Skontrum w Muzeum Rzeźby” will be available with a special discount.
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Prof. Dr hab. Maria Poprzęcka – art historian, affiliated with the Institute of Art History of the University of Warsaw. Head of the Postgraduate Museum Studies. Interested mainly in 19th century painting and contemporary art analysed in a broad critical and theoretical context. Poprzęcka is also an essayist and publicist.
Michał Suchora – studied art history and sociology at the University of Warsaw. As a member of the curators' collective BWA Warszawa, Suchora curated “Whithered” (Kisterem Gallery, Budapest, 2013), “Warsaw. The Day After...” (Vartai Gallery, Vilnius, 2013), “Alphaville” (Griffin Artspace, Warsaw, 2012), “New Order” (Art Stations Foundation, Poznań, 2012), among other shows. Curator of the educational cycle “Art in Practice” at the Art Stations Foundation in Poznań. Awarded in the 7th curatorial show competition at the Bielska Galeria BWA in Bielsko-Biała in 2012.
Joanna Turowicz – art historian and critic, documentary filmmaker, curator of “Collection of Shameful Gestures” at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art (2004), among other shows. Graduate in art history from the University of Warsaw. Author of many publications about art and visual culture as well as interviews with artists. Since 2005, Turowicz has collaborated with TVP Kultura as a filmmaker and author of reportages and broadcasts. Alongside Anna Zakrzewska, Turowicz directed films about Alina Szapocznikow (2009) and the artistic duo KwieKulik (2011). The latter was awarded an honourable mention at the 51st Krakow Film Festival as “a valuable reminder of the tradition of the Polish avant-garde.”
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MUSEUM AND THE ART MARKET. Discussion around the newly released publication...
Guest: Prof. Maria Poprzęcka, Michał Suchora, Joanna Turowicz Chair: Agnieszka Tarasiuk A FEATURE OF THE MEETING IS THE FIRST AND SO FAR ONLY DISPLAY OF A SCULPTURE BY...