Briefly pausing while passing by, attracted yet still keeping one’s distance. Every pane of glass a new picture, and every window a separate creation.
Display windows have always been places of exposition. Filled with items, products or information they catch the hasty gaze of the passer-by and demand attention. The objects seem close enough to grasp and yet remain out of reach. Display windows are places of longing, of projection and of desire. Glass partitions create an inside and an outside and at the same time allow the product area to become a quasi-imaginative space.
For the exhibition WYSTAWA at the Museum of Modern Art Warsaw the showcase rooms of the former furniture shop will revert to their original function. Each of its display windows will become the site of a new artistic work—each artist will create a multi-levelled room that can only be viewed through the windows. The fleeting reflection of the passer-by indicates the glassy division line and, at the same time, becomes a hidden element of the artistic composition. The work is always visible to everyone, no threshold needs to be crossed, and no admission is charged. The interior space belongs exclusively to the passer-by as much as it becomes a floating element of the passage. The museum itself will remain closed. Ten display windows (Wystawa) turn into one exhibition (Wystawa).
Curated by Susanne Pfeffer, Curator of KW Institute for Contemporary Art
An exhibition presented by KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin
WYSTAWA is part of the project “The Promised City”, a cultural initiative between Berlin and Warsaw with performances in Mumbai and Bucharest: Artists, curators and academics from Germany, Poland, India, and Romania develop various new creative productions. All of which are interdisciplinary and evolve around subjects of dreams, illusions, and promises of modern metropolises.
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