Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków MOCAK

ul. Lipowa 4
30-702 Kraków

phone 12 263 40 00
page museum

How to get there :

on foot

by car

Public Transport

Opening hours

Monday

closed

Tuesday — Sunday

11.00 — 19.00

Ticket Prices

normal 14 PLN discount 7 PLN family ticket for groups of up to 5 ( including children under 6) 30 PLN normal group 10 PLN reduced group 5 PLN Thursday — free admission to permanent exhibitions

Daniel Spoerri, “The Seville Series No. 16”

Immortalisation of a supper through mounting crockery, cutlery and preserved leftovers of the food. The resultant composition is supposed to be exhibited vertically. To present a table at such an angle introduces a gravitational disturbance.

Group AES+F, “Défilé #1”

The AES+F group shows dead bodies dressed in ballroom finery. The dramatic content is emphasised by using f life-size photographs, made all the more realistic by being displayed in lightboxes. The human fear of passing away is hidden behind obsessive adornment of the body. Death is presented in its “luxury” version which, despite all efforts, only serves to emphasize the deadness of the corpse. The series Défilé consists of 7 photographs in lightboxes. Film with the photographic prints has been glued to Plexi and placed in aluminium boxes, lit from behind.

Jadwiga Sawicka, “NATIONAL / exclusive”

From the mass of thickly laid off paint, there emerge words taken out of context and deliberately crooked. The clash between the background and the semantic content enhances the impact.

Jarosław Kozłowski, “Counting-Out Rhyme”

Fifteen bowls of dried-up paint each have a matching cloth on which someone has wiped their dirty hands. Each such “soiling/cleaning“ set is ascribed to a site of genocide. Washing hands is a symbolic act of removing oneself from these events and thereby from any responsibility. However, the material testimony remains.

Teresa Murak, “Third Crop”

The work visualises the process of growth, maturing and decay. Simultaneously, it carries a natural association with the traditional Polish Easter custom of growing from seed water cress, which thus becomes a symbol of new life. The work is also permeated with the longing to be at one with nature, also present in the artist’s other works.

Ai Weiwei, “Oil spills”

This is a ceramic work – a technique that is inseparable from Chinese culture. The porcelain objects were fired in Jingdezhen, a city famous for its ceramics. The six elements in the MOCAK Collection, which simulate crude oil stains, are part of a 25-part installation. The work is a commentary on contemporary economic conditioning. Oil – a resource that impacts on international politics – symbolically “stains“ the world.

Jadwiga Sawicka, “HONOURABLE / disloyal”

From the mass of thickly laid off paint, there emerge words taken out of context and deliberately crooked. The clash between the background and the semantic content enhances the impact. The choice of words has been thought of carefully. They are all related to current ideological and patriotic discussions. Gender play is an additional device to manipulate meanings. The same adjective has different connotations depending on whether it is feminine or masculine.

Jadwiga Sawicka, “IMPIOUS / infamous”

From the mass of thickly laid off paint, there emerge words taken out of context and deliberately crooked. The clash between the background and the semantic content enhances the impact.

Muntean/Rosenblum, untitled [“They realized that their capacity…”]

[They realized that their capacity for not feeling lonely carried very real price, which was the threat of feeling nothing at all.] Four young people appear to be taking drugs in a forest. This suspicion is at odds with the ambiance of the attractive forest and sunlight filtered through the trees. An integral part of the painting is a poetic declaration which implies a risky experiment. It entails a statement of the absence of loneliness. However, the painted protagonists appear to be entirely lonely; they do not even notice their own presence. If so, they only have themselves to thank for their lack of loneliness.

Mirosław Bałka, “7+1”

The sculpture 7+1 consists of salt cylinders sitting in concrete containers. The last of those turns independently. The cylinders were made of salt from the Kłodawa salt mine, noted for its brownish impurities, which give each cylinder its individual appearance.

Stanisław Dróżdż, “In-Between”

The installation consists of a free-standing, enclosed space measuring 3 x 4.5 m entered through an opening on the left in one of its walls. All the walls as well as the floor and the ceiling are white and covered in black letters, which contrast sharply with the background, lit by fluorescent light. The letters have been placed in horizontal and vertical rows so as to result in a regular grid. Many letters have been turned by 90 ̊ in relation to the vertical or horizontal axis. At first glance, the selection of letters may seem random; however, on closer scrutiny, only those letters have been included that are part of the word ”between” in Polish.

Jadwiga Sawicka, “MADE IN POLAND / foreign”

From the mass of thickly laid off paint, there emerge words taken out of context and deliberately crooked. The clash between the background and the semantic content enhances the impact. The choice of words has been thought of carefully. They are all related to current ideological and patriotic discussions.

Jadwiga Sawicka, “Ojczysty / Macierzysta”

From the mass of thickly laid off paint, there emerge words taken out of context and deliberately crooked. The clash between the background and the semantic content enhances the impact.

Jerzy Bereś, “Rag”

The offered hand invites a handshake. However, its extension is a dirty flag with the inscription Rag. We must decide whether we shall respond in kind to the seemingly friendly gesture, or whether we shall openly reject it. The work is a commentary on the epoch of the People's Republic of Poland.

Paweł Althamer, “Daniel”

One of some one hundred figures made during Althamer’s project Almech at the Deutsche Guggenheim. From his father’s plastics-manufacturing company, the artist transferred some machines to the gallery. The exhibition space was turned into a sculptor’s studio, where factory machines and molten plastic poured over a metal frame replaced chisel and marble.

Pola Dwurnik, “Mercy!”

Twenty four colour self-portraits stand out from the crowd sketched in the background; each face plays out the spectacle of a different personality.

Dan Perjovschi, “MOCAK Kraków Notebook”

Minimalism of style and verbal content, linked by an ingenious concept. The drawings allude to social, economic and artistic issues. The stance is critical: witty but also marked by bitterness.

Marcin Maciejowski, “Krzysztof Rutkowski Tracks Villains”

The artist plays the image off against the text. He juxtaposes images of people with information about their job and the situational context. By these means he creates multidimensional portraits of well-known media individuals.

Sarah Lucas, “Sucky Thing 2011”

The work is one of a series of sculptures made from tights filled with down. The material used and the soft shapes achieved connote the female. Simultaneously, however the biological shape placed on a lavatory, reminiscent of faeces, triggers revulsion.

Jadwiga Sawicka, “ETHNICALLY PURE / national”

From the mass of thickly laid off paint, there emerge words taken out of context and deliberately crooked. The clash between the background and the semantic content enhances the impact. The choice of words has been thought of carefully. They are all related to current ideological and patriotic discussions.

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