The Impermanent Exhibition. 4 × Collection

Über die Veranstaltung

Over 150 works will fill all 4 galleries of the Museum. Come and see "The Impermanent Exhibition. 4 x Collection" – the largest presentation of the MSN collection to date. 🎟️ Tickets will be available from February 17 (online, on the eBilet and Kicket platforms, as well as online and at the Museum's ticket offices). The exhibition consists of over 150 works presented within four sections. These sections represent four – out of many possible – perspectives for interpreting and viewing our collection. We invite you to freely construct your own paths of exploration and seek individual perspectives for discovering the works in the Museum's collection. The works presented in the exhibition come from the same historical period: between the 1950s and the present day. Among the Museum's collection, visitors will find significant works from other institutions' collections as well as private collections. The first part of the exhibition, titled "Banner: Engagement, Realism, and Political Art," gathers works related to political engagement and the belief in the transformative power of art. The works come from various countries, decades, and ideological orders. The figure of the human triumphs, along with journalistic content and the conviction of the universality of the language of art. Part of this history also includes propaganda: art in action, for better or worse, tied to current politics. The second part of the exhibition is titled "Plastics: Bodies, Commodities, Fetishes from the Cold War to the Present." Here, you will find works expressing consumer desires, fascination with pop culture, advertising, and mass media – not only in societies that experienced an economic boom and increased consumerism after World War II but also among residents of "poor peripheries," including Eastern Europe and the Global South. The main metaphor here is the "plastic body" – a body consuming under a totalitarian regime images from behind the Iron Curtain. Plastic (and petroleum), the achievements of post-industrial capitalism, made a splash in the second half of the 20th century in both affluent societies and socialist economies. The third chapter of the exhibition is titled "Inside-Out World: Art, Spirituality, and Future Coexistence." The works gathered here draw from uncompromising imagination and non-modern traditions: folk art, non-professional, indigenous, and unique artistic practices. The presented objects and artistic attitudes share an effort to "see through" the established reality, reach its depths, and extract its dark, spiritual, and existential potential. The juxtaposition of artists from often very distant geographical and political contexts shows the possibility of a future community. The final part of the MSN collection exhibition is titled "Real Abstractions: The Autonomy of Art in the Face of Modernity's Catastrophes." It revisits the question of the boundaries of art, its independence, and the possibility of maintaining autonomy in relation to other systems of knowledge and experiencing reality. The works gathered in this chapter of the exhibition often use the language of abstraction, one of the fundamental categories of modern art. This time, we view them through the lens of discussions about the crisis of modernity as a dream of progress and unlimited development. Can modernity face the catastrophes it accelerated or even caused? 📅 The Impermanent Exhibition. 4 × Collection. February 21, 2025 - October 5, 2025 💰 Tickets: Regular 30 PLN, Reduced 20 PLN, Group 20 PLN, Family 60 PLN Please note that the Museum space contains works that may be unsuitable for minors and highly sensitive individuals. To facilitate informed exploration, information about the location of such works will be available at the reception and on the Museum's website. You can also familiarize yourself with detailed descriptions of these works to decide how you wish to visit the exhibition. Thank you for supporting our partners: - The Museum is an institution run by the City of Warsaw and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage - Strategic Partners: Audi Polska and Invest Komfort - Patron of the Museum and Collection: EY - Museum Partner: Friends of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Raffles Europejski - Cinema Partner: E.ON Polska - Education Partner: Roman Czernecki Educational Foundation - Legal Partner: DZP Law Firm - Exhibition Partners: Adam Mickiewicz Institute, MullenLowe, PKP Intercity - Media Partners: TVN, Onet, Polish Radio, Tygodnik Powszechny, Architectural Digest, Vogue, Zwierciadło, Pismo, Mint, Gazeta Wyborcza, TOK FM.