Previously shown in the Polish Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition in Venice, the sound sculpture Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More is based primarily on the manipulation of the tolling of a bell – an ancient instrument which has for centuries set the rhythm of our earthly and ‘eternal’ lives.

Polish Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia
Konrad Smoleński Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More

This project is a continuation of the previous explorations of this artist, who, being active for over a decade in the domain of visual arts, focusses his interest on sound.

Can young artists afford artistic hooliganism? Is the fascination with real or potential destruction in art a way to revolutionary changes or just an artistic strategy? What is the purpose of artistic pranks and mischief?

No, No, I Hardly Ever Miss a Show is a project about the public, for public, that is also co-created by the public. Zachęta’s exhibition halls became a space for an exchange of ideas and thoughts, both in a ‘traditional’ way (art pieces, lectures, discussions), as well as in an interactive manner (workshops, art interventions). The exhibition reveals the mechanisms through which the gallery operates, and demonstrates the processes involved in the preparation and running of an exhibition.

The Views – Deutsche Bank Foundation Award biannual competition (the first edition took place in 2003) is the most important project today supporting the development and promotion of young Polish art, and the very participation in it has become a major distinction. The initiative facilitates promoting, in Poland and abroad, the best young-generation artists and rewarding the most interesting artistic positions and strategies.

The Summer of Youth, or in Polish Letni nieletni, is an exhibition about young people. About this particular time in a person's life, when the personality is undergoing an intensive process of formation, when feelings and passions are being awoken; when the reality which surrounds us stops being simple, and begins to glisten with a multiplicity of colours, phenomena and thoughts... Youth is a time of strong conflicts, when the need for freedom is just as strong as the need for support, and when from great adventures it is just a small step to big problems. Avoiding simplistic labels and dividing lines, the exhibition The Summer of Youth presents a diverse picture of young people in contemporary Polish art.