Wystawa

Briefly pausing while passing by, attracted yet still keeping one’s distance. Every pane of glass a new picture, and every window a separate creation. Display windows have always been places of exposition. Filled with items, products or information they catch the hasty gaze of the passer-by and demand his attention. The objects seem close enough to grasp and yet remain out of reach. Display windows are places of longing, of projection and of desire. The glass partition creates an inside and an outside and at the same time allows the product area to become a quasi-imaginative space. For the exhibition Wystawa held at the temporary space of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the showcase rooms of the former furniture shop will revert to their original function. Each of its display windows will become the site of an artistic work – each artist will create a multi-levelled room that can only be viewed through the windows. The fleeting reflection of the passers-by indicates the glazen line of division and, at the same time, becomes a hidden element of the artistic composition. The work is always visible to everyone, no threshold needs to be crossed, and no admission is charged. The interior space belongs exclusively to the passer-by as much as it becomes a floating element of the passage. The museum itself will remain closed. Ten display windows (wystawy) turn into one exhibition (Wystawa). The exhibition can be viewed 24/7

Wystawa is part of the project “The Promised City”, a cultural initiative between Berlin and Warsaw with performances in Mumbai and Bucharest: artists, curators and academics from Germany, Poland, India, and Romania develop various new creative productions. All of which are interdisciplinary and evolve around subjects of dreams, illusions, and promises of modern metropolises.

“The Promised City” is a joint project between the Polish Institute Berlin and the Goethe-Institut in cooperation with the city of Warsaw. Partners in Berlin include: KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Hebbel am Ufer, raumlabor-berlin, Club Transmediale, Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie, TUSCH Theater und Schule Berlin; Partners in Warsaw: Foundation Bęc Zmiana, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Nowy Teatr, TISZ Theater Institute, Gazeta Wyborcza, Krytyka Polityczna, Planete Doc Review; in Bucharest: E-cart.ro.

Further assistance is provided by EU Culture Programme 2007-2013, Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin, Adam-Mickiewicz-Institute, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation, Romanian Cultural Institute, Embassy of India in Poland.

www.promised-city.org

Wystawa
präsentiert von Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
Kurator: Susanne Pfeffer

Künstler: Adel Abdessemed, Ulla von Brandenburg,  FORT  (Anna Jandt, Jenny Kropp, Alberta Niemann), Cyprien Gaillard, Alicja Kwade, Sarah Ortmeyer, Paola Pivi, Albrecht Schäfer, Markus Schinwald, Thomas Zipp