Bunkier Sztuki Collection.
Case Variation
Audiovision
Works of art entering a collection become part of a network of institutional procedures—restrictive systems of classification, measurement, preservation and display standards.
Their immobilization in museum storerooms encourages the settling of dust, as well as fading and erosion of meanings and emotions that accompanied the creative process. While the underlying force of art is continuous movement and the search for new ways of storytelling, a collection is what remains after the act of creation.
In the six-month-long project Bunkier Collection: Case Variation, individuals affiliated with the Doctoral School of the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków undertake an experimental research program to interpret the Bunkier Sztuki Collection. The tools they employ to read selected works from the Collection stem from diverse creative strategies—ranging from conservation-oriented practices to drawing, as well as conceptual and performative actions.
The act of narrating objects, initiated by the doctoral students, reveals new contexts for the Bunkier Sztuki Collection, presenting it as a body of works that demands to be reinterpreted. In the process of activating selected pieces, the past perfect tense inscribed in them transforms into an invigorating subjunctive mood. The dormant potential of works retrieved from the silence of storerooms enters the phase of retesting.
Viewing the Bunkier Sztuki Collection as a starting point is linked to the Gallery’s jubilee celebrations. The year 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Gallery—then functioning as the Municipal Exhibition Pavilion—and the 30th anniversary of the renaming of our institution as the Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art. On this occasion we would like to present our collection of 450 works by more than 170 artists from 20 countries in a special way. The core of the Collection consists of works acquired after exhibitions and artistic actions held at the Bunkier Sztuki Gallery.
Bunkier Sztuki Collection. Case Variation: Under the Surface Bunkier Sztuki Collection. Case Variation: Soft speculation archivesBunkier Sztuki Collection. Case Variation
Audiovision
13.03–6.04.2025
Concept Author: Katarzyna Smożewska
Artwork: Karolina Kowalska, Medium Window, 2004, object, 52 × 128 × 20 cm, Bunkier Sztuki Collection
Through Karolina Kowalska’s Medium Window, we gaze into an exotic world filled with sunlight. The fresh greenery soothes, while the summer atmosphere radiates positive energy. This view serves as the starting point for the spatial arrangement –
a fragment of a utopian reality seen through the windowpane.
Regardless of where we are and what we look at, we always carry our rich inner world within us. A constant flow of emotions and feelings creates a stream of impressions that shape both ourselves and our perception of reality. The gallery space is filled with a composition of filtered light, based on the principles of the colour wheel, alluding to the human psychological kaleidoscope.
While the meanings associated with colours vary across cultures, the palette of internal experiences remains universal.
The sunlight in Medium Window is interpreted by Katarzyna Smożewska as energy in the physical, metaphysical, mathematical, and sensory sense. Karolina Kowalska’s work and its visual interpretation are fused with an ambient soundscape composed by Krystian Gajewski. The use of new media, colour theory, and sound composition creates a synesthetic space for contemplation – evoking individual associations, inviting viewers to pause, and guiding them inward in search of acceptance and, ultimately, an uplifted mood.
Bunkier Sztuki Collection. Case Variation
Bunkier Sztuki & Doctoral School of The Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow
coorganizer
Content-related Supervisor: dr Marta Lisok
Curatorial Assistant (Bunkier Sztuki Gallery): Agnieszka Sachar
Research Team: Józef Gałązka, Maria Kisiel-Jarek, Aleksandra Knychalska,
Anna Litwin, Magdalena Skrolecka, Katarzyna Smożewska, Ewa Szlachetka-Depak
13.03.2025 – 06.04.2025
EXHIBITION ARCHIVE
