Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka. Ecologies of Togetherness

During a year-long residency, Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka works with the architecture of the MOCAK building, treating the museum as a living organism that can be overwritten and supplemented with new layers of meaning. It is the museum’s first site-specific project built on an artistic residency and a collaboration extending over three seasons, in which the creative process itself is what matters most.

MOCAK on the exhibition:

During her year-long residency, Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka will be working with the architecture of the museum building. The line drawn by the artist symbolically cuts across the entire building, beginning at Lipowa Street, then passing through the patio and the Alfa Gallery, to end in the spaces on the side of Ślusarska Street.

This is the first site-specific project of its kind, based on an artistic residency and a collaboration extending over three seasons. The key here is the process itself: developing creative practice in dialogue with the environment, time and evolving working conditions.

The installation Nest will be the first edition of the residency, in which the museum building is treated as a host organism - an existing architecture that can be overwritten, renegotiated, and supplemented with additional semantic layers. Krakowiak proposes a radical shift in emphasis: from architecture conceived of as static stage design for human life to architecture as active, sensitive participation in interspecies, social and material relations.

What to expect

The residency unfolds in stages across the season. Its first edition is the installation “Nest”, inspired by the colonies of African birds that build shared, multi-generational structures. A line drawn by the artist cuts through the whole building - from Lipowa Street, through the patio and the Alfa Gallery, to the spaces on the Ślusarska Street side - inviting visitors to think of the museum building as a participant in relationships rather than merely their backdrop.

Tickets, opening hours, and current details are on the MOCAK website.

Museum profile: MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow.