Art in Our Age is an exhibition of works from the collections of the ING Polish Art Foundation and Zachęta — National Gallery of Art. The exhibition confronts the activities of contemporary artists with the fundamental questions that those visiting their exhibitions ask themselves: has today’s art totally divorced itself from reality? Who are contemporary artists and why do we call the effects of their activities works of art? What does the abstract explorations of the artistic avant-garde have in common with the lives of ordinary people?

The exhibition concentrates only on the problem of the world of animals, exploring artists' diverse takes on this problem and the range of ways of visualizing it in art. The point of entry for the exhibition is the desire to overcome the dogmatic anthropocentrism that places the human in the centre of the world as a privileged species of the highest ontological status. This viewpoint continues to dominate in contemporary science, and as a consequence we witness the exclusion of other species/phenomena of life on earth from the sphere of scientific knowledge in terms of their subjectivity or rights.          

This exhibition has been organised within the frame of the 4th edition of the biennial competition Views 2009 — The Deutsche Bank Foundation Award for the most interesting figures on the young Polish art scene. The exhibition is a presentation of the seven artists nominated for the award: artists whose work over the course of the past two years has earned the particular attention of critics and curators.