Publication date: 01.12.2020

Zachęta under construction is a series of photos by Anna Mierzejewska, in which the artist uses her work Cement Mixer from 2005. Fifteen years after it was created, the cement mixer makes its way out of the gallery and goes on a walk. It observes the surroundings that it knows only by looking through the window of the education department, where it normally hangs. After having an extensive look around the gallery and its surrounding, the cement mixer returns to "its" wall. Finally, the entire education department can once again feast its eyes on the painting.

160/160:

160/160 is a programme of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts (TZPS) and the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, carried out on the occasion of the Society’s 160th anniversary. As part of the anniversary celebrations, the artists whose works are in the Zachęta collection have been invited to creatively engage with the collection, the gallery building, the past and the future, and to talk about the context of creating their own work, thus enriching our common history. 

The idea to commemorate the Society’s 160th anniversary in this way arose in April 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, in response to the current situation of the visual arts community. The project was launched in June 2020.

Over the course of several years of the programme, together with the TZSP, we hope to support 160 artists with a one-time amount of PLN 5,000 and to retell the 160-year-old story dedicated TO THE ARTS – ARTIBUS – as the inscription on the façade of the Zachęta building suggests.

committee: Helena Czernecka, Zofia Dubowska-Grynberg, Joanna Kordjak, Maria Świerżewska