The theme of this year's edition of the WARSZAWA W BUDOWIE festival, organized by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw since 2009, is the role of the museum and the place where the MSN building stands – the very center of Warsaw 🧜‍♀️

The exhibition will last from October 25, 2024, to January 5, 2025 📆 📆

Since 2009, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw has been organizing 🏗️ WARSZAWA W BUDOWIE – an exhibition and numerous events dedicated to city design. The idea for the festival arose from the need to gain knowledge about the transformations of the capital and from the intuition that public space can be improved. This year, the theme of the festival is the history of the center of Warsaw, where the Museum building stands, and consequently – the history of the Museum itself, which is constantly intertwined with this place. After two decades of functioning in temporary locations, the MSN is moving to Plac Defilad. An important context for the works presented at the exhibition ❤️‍🩹 'Difficult Love' is the history of systemic transformation, which has influenced the changes in the entire city.

The titular 'difficult love' refers on one hand to the long process of creating the institution – the previously nomadic Museum has finally settled in the center of Warsaw – and on the other hand to the complicated relationship of the building with the place where it is located. Here, the New Center of Warsaw is in the process of advanced construction, thanks to which the capital's space is becoming more friendly and comfortable for everyone.

The works presented at the festival exhibition also relate to the present, in which museums have become creators of policy, or at least a certain mirror of it. But what power do they represent and what mechanisms are at work in addressing the difficult history of the world?, ask the artists. In the spirit of this concept, those creating the first exhibition in the new MSN building advocate that the new Museum should not turn into a 'museum-mausoleum' – a kind of monumental tomb – but should be a place of lively communication with society through art – a place for discovering and understanding the world.

Artists:

Daša Anosova, Ivan Bazak, Olya Gaidash, Violett e a; Honor Bishop, Rachel Skof; Debasish Borah; Centrala (Simone De Iacobis, Małgorzata Kuciewicz); Dzherelo / Джерело (Nikita Kadan, Alina Kleytman, Bogdana Kosmina and Vladislav Plisetskiy); Marta Ejsmont; Ian Erickson, Kaleb Swanson; Jeannelle Fernandez, Sahar Simforooshm; Elliott Friedman; R.I.P. Germain; Ewa Hevelke, Michał Januszaniec; Onyeka Igwe; Nikita Kadan; Jessica Kairé; Lizzie Kripke, Ryan Van Middlesworth; Zyta Kusztra, Ewa Porębska; Michał Laskowski; Jing Liao, Zihao Wei; National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning; OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture); Mara Oláh Omara; Christelle Oyiri; Szymon Rogiński; Meghan Rolvien; Selma Selman; Carrie Mae Weems; Rui Zhang; Artur Żmijewski.

Niels Olsen, Fredi Fischli, Natalia Sielewicz, Tomasz Fudala.

💸 Admission to the exhibition is free.

The Museum is an institution of the capital city of Warsaw
Strategic Partners of the Museum: Audi Invest Komfort
Museum and Collection Patron: EY
Museum Partner: E.On
Education Partner: EFC Foundation
Legal Partner: DZP
We thank for the support in preparing the opening: The Friends of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Kontakt, IAM, the French Institute, Raffles, Lukullus, Mullen Lowe, Warexpo, VES, the Robert Dobrzycki Foundation, and Panattoni.