Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków MOCAK

ul. Lipowa 4
30-702 Kraków

phone 12 263 40 00
page museum

How to get there :

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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 Tuesdays — admission free

Zofia Kulik, “All the Missiles Are One Missile”

Photomontage using combination print. The composition is made through repeated imprinting of one or more negatives on an appropriately masked paper. Zofia Kulik’s collages are complex visual texts. Each carries a message that has been carefully devised and executed.

Volker Hildebrandt, series “Popes”: “Pope: comes”, “Pope: goes”, “Popes”

A Volker Hildebrandt series of works titled Popes came into being as a result of transforming a picture that already existed in the visual sphere. In this case, it was three parts of a documentary film: the appointment of Karol Wojtyła as Pope, the administration of Holy Communion by John Paul II to Joseph Ratzinger, and the Pope bestowing a blessing from a window of the Papal Apartments towards the end of his life. The artist breaks the shots down into their constituent parts, showing a given event frame by frame.

Tomasz Ciecierski, “Painter’s Palette”

A witty and ironic treatment of the colour-cum-symbol means available to painting. The artist plays with the shapes of splashes of colour, approaching colour in a free-flowing style. Sometimes, such splashes mean no more than the colour itself; at other times, they stand for an art trend or an object. Through such a ”naive” colour game, one discovers the rich and diverse idiom of painting.

Tomasz Bajer, “Minimalism of Guantanamo”

The work is an accurate replica of Yasser Talal al Zahrani’s prison cell at the American detention camp for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Saudi prisoner died in 2006. The official cause of death was given as suicide. However, an examination by an independent pathologist showed traces of repeated beating, which could be indicative of torture. The work can be interpreted as a commentary on the abuse of human rights by imperialist powers, and the individual’s helplessness in the face of such behavior.

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.

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.

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.

Robert Kuśmirowski, “Reception”

This work was first presented at the office of “Gazeta Wyborcza” in Lublin, and a disused reception office was used for this purpose. Apart from paraphernalia typical of the time of the People’s Republic, the interior also contains some props that look like personal belongings of the staff working on the reception desk.

Rafał Bujnowski, “Stained Glass”

The window has lost its utilitarian character to serve as artistic material. A random pattern of cracks on a window pane, due to a blow, has been elevated to the rank of a decorative ornament. The art of destruction has simultaneously become an act of creation. Lead moulds preserve the effect of the impact of cumulative energy. The abstract pattern of the stained glass is a memento of sudden, uncontrollable expression.

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.

Piotr Lutyński, “Due to Usucaption”

One of Lutyński’s works using the motif of a nest and an egg – a symbol of birth, of new life, a beginning and a sense of security. A witty attempt to combine usucaption and brooding.

Paweł Susid, untitled [“Ladies and you girls, in bathroom and the lavatory you touch places that are dear to us”]

Template texts contrast with simple, geometric forms. Apparently banal statements, with ironically erotic undertones, are an invitation to attempt their in-depth analysis so as to expose the social and cultural contexts.

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.

Ogawa Shinji, “View of Delft (“Behind You” series)”

Ogawa using the classic medium reproduces the work of the Dutch master Jan Vermeer's View of Delft. Realistic, 17th-century image shows a fragment of the city along the waterfront of the river Schie.

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.

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.

Marcin Maciejowski, “Elżbieta Jaworowicz Trouble-Shooting”

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.

Laura Pawela, “we.jpg 17%”

The convention of computer commands and terms transferred to an existential area. A clash of computer language with real-world problems. An amusing, but at the same time unpleasant, discrepancy between the two worlds.

KwieKulik, “Actions with a Tube”

The series of photographs is a record of one of numerous actions that the two artists carried out in their own flat. It took place in August 1975, with the participation of Przemysław Kwiek’s sister Zofia Kulik and the artists’ son – Maksymilian Dobromierz. A cardboard tube was the centre of the action. It had been made to order as an advertising prop; after the action it went to the client.

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