We talk to Prof. Andrzej Szczerski about the latest plans of the National Museum in Krakow.
Grzegorz Słącz: At the time of the pandemic, cultural institutions are struggling for survival – yet the National Museum in Krakow is announcing plans for the coming years which can only be described as unprecedented. How is this possible?
Andrzej Szczerski: This is the outcome of our conscious policymaking, according to which in the coming year we will limit our ongoing activities such as temporary exhibitions while turning our attention to investing in the future. The time will come when all museums are able to reopen, and they will be desperate to attract as many visitors as possible. We are focusing on activities which will generate traffic and present the latest aspects of the museum. We started working on the concepts and raising funds last year. We decided to focus our activities on new permanent exhibitions as a way of surviving the pandemic.
Let’s start with the new exhibition of ancient art at the Arsenal: what should we look for?
Most of all, the innovative setting, such as the colour palette which is very different to traditional ways of presenting ancient art. We have chosen turquoise contrasted with different shades of white and marble. This play on the colours of the Mediterranean poles apart from the imperial red used in previous arrangements. The display cases are almost sculptures themselves, providing a geometric contrast with the exhibits and the gallery space. What stands out in ancient art is its stunning proportions, and the new display cases use this to best effect. The spatial arrangement encourages visitors to pick their own route around the exhibits, displaying ancient Egyptian art, Roman sculptures and early Christian sarcophagi.
Let’s jump forward in time: the opening of the Stanisław Wyspiański Museum at the hitherto Europeum building, planned for November, has been the talk of the town!
We will be presenting Wyspiański in a very different format than at the fairly recent monumental exhibition at the Main Building. We aim to provide a fresh way of interacting with his artworks by presenting them as intimate encounters with the artist. We will go as far as limiting the number of visitors to maintain the right atmosphere and allow guests to experience the artworks individually or in small groups. The basement presents Wyspiański’s prints and library, and we are also planning on installing a multimedia kiosk featuring the full catalogue of the artist’s works in our collection. The next room will showcase a collage of his theatre works, including Wyspiański’s influences on cinematography.
Portraits of the artist’s family and friends go on display on the ground floor alongside landscapes, including the famous series of depictions of the Kościuszko Mound. The ground floor will also hold a repository of Wyspiański’s sketches and studies, accessible to scholars or specialist groups by prior arrangement. The main section of the exhibition on the first floor will be divided into three themes. “Nature” and its relationship with religion features the main designs from the Franciscan Church in Kraków, including polychromes and the stained-glass window God the Father. “History” mainly focuses on Wawel Castle and the depictions of Polonia and King Boleslaus the Generous. The third section is dedicated to “The Antiquity” and presents Apollo (Copernicus System) and other designs for the Medical Society in Kraków.
How will all this fit in the relatively small space?
Let’s remember that Wyspiański mainly worked with pastels and paper. They are beautiful, but fragile and difficult to protect. This means that the number of exhibits needs to be limited and frequently rotated, and the former Europeum provides the perfect space for this. We will put some of the precious artworks in store and replace them with others every year during a closure between Epiphany and February. You’ll just have to keep coming back to see the latest display!
Let’s take a peek into the Main Building for the next major opening.
In September, the entire second floor will be taken over by the Gallery of Polish Art of the 20th and 21st Centuries, featuring works by artists from the Young Poland movement until today. The National Museum in Krakow boasts one of Poland’s greatest collections of artworks from this period. The exhibition will present works created at the turn of the 20th century, via avantgarde with a focus on the First Kraków Group, to an extensive exhibition of myriad aspects of post-war art. I am particularly proud of the brand-new room we have named “Transformation”. It will be dedicated to art made since 1989, shown from the perspective of the transformations which have occurred in the period, from artists coming to terms with the heritage of the communist regime to Poland’s opening to the rest of the world. We will see works by artists previously not shown at the museum, including Monika Sosnowska, Mirosław Bałka, Jakub Ziółkowski, Olaf Brzeski, Piotr Uklański, Wilhelm Sasnal and Marcin Maciejowski, as well as Janusz Kapusta’s installation based on the K-dron polyhedron he discovered in the 1980s.
While we wait for the opening of the brand-new design centre at the former Hotel Cracovia, the National Museum is preparing a special surprise…
This is our latest development at the Szołayski House where we will be opening two galleries. The Museum of Architecture and Design will be located in a prime spot, right next to the Main Market Square. The first floor hosts exhibitions of design, the second is dedicated to architecture, and the ground floor will become a space for presentations of artistic projects, educational meetings and conferences. While the design section will start with works by Wyspiański, the main focus will be on the second half of the 20th century and the present day. There will also be areas designated to fashion and posters, and an exhibition of design linked with the former Hotel Cracovia. We have worked closely with Polish designers acclaimed on the global scale, including many Cracovian artists.
The exhibition on the second floor explores some of the most interesting challenges of 20th and 21st century architecture, urbanism and materials, ties with nature, housing issues and finance. The exhibition is being prepared with the National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning in Warsaw which is providing models and mock-ups; we will also include photos, films, plans and original architectural drawings.
Design is also explored through another exhibition planned for this year, focusing on Poland’s national styles.
The opening is planned for July, since we are hopeful that by then tourists will start returning to Kraków. Its educational content will also make it perfect for school trips, so it will remain open until January 2022. It marks the beginning of a cycle of four temporary exhibitions dedicated to modernity in art, design and architecture of 20th-century and contemporary Poland. They will focus on issues which have previously been seen in narrow categories, seeking to define the contemporary world through Polish culture. The first exhibition reveals how new things can be created by returning to sources. In terms of national styles, the source is frequently folk culture. The exhibition includes the period between 1890 and 1918 while Poland was still under partitions, and at the time any such allusions had a significant political meaning and served as a portent of a national revival. The Young Poland period brought many outstanding examples of fine art as well as fashion, furniture and poster design. We start with the style of the Tatra Mountains, explore Hutsul inspirations and return to two Cracovian associations: the Polish Applied Art Association and Kraków Workshops, both of which which sought inspiration from folk art.
As far the Centre of Design and Architecture at Hotel Cracovia is concerned, the process will be formally launched next year. For the time being we are preparing for the competition for the architectural design, and the project is due to be finalised in 2026. We will focus on the project in the coming years, after this year’s new beginnings!
Prof. Andrzej Szczerski is an art historian, critic, curator and lecturer. He is the author and editor of numerous publications on 20th-century and contemporary art. A born-and-bred Cracovian, he has served as director of the National Museum in Krakow since 2020.
The text published in the 1/2021 issue of the “Kraków Culture” quarterly.
