BERN.- Between 3 June and 10 September 2023, the Zentrum Paul Klee is devoting a solo exhibition to the Polish sculptor and artist Monika Sosnowska (b.1972 in Ryki). This is the first comprehensive exhibition to focus not only on the display of representative works but also on the artist’s working pro- cess. For the first time, the accompanying publication documents the mod- els for completed and uncompleted works, filling a gap in the documenta- tion of the artist’s oeuvre.

Sculptural alienation and poetic distortions




Monika Sosnowska is one of the best-known artists working today, and one of the most important living artists from Eastern Europe. Since the early 2000s she has developed a characteristic body of sculptural work. Her sculptures and architectural installations made of steel, concrete or other building ma- terials – often filling the entire space – engage with the built environment.

That setting alienates and distorts the works in startling ways

Sosnowska’s interest in architecture, construction and design is closely con- nected with the Polish capital, Warsaw, where she lives and works. The city was almost entirely destroyed in the Second World War. Its reconstruction as a planned socialist city and the transformations of Poland after 1989 led to the present-day cityscape of Warsaw. It is characterised by spatial and histor- ical gaps, as well as by the coexistence of contradictory architectural styles. Monika Sosnowska engages with the legacy of modern art and its promises of social progress – and what is left of them.

Featuring 18 sculptures, the exhibition in the Zentrum Paul Klee shows a rep- resentative selection of Monika Sosnowska’s sculptural work. The artist is designing the architecture for the exhibition herself, and even making a site- specific piece for it. The exhibition also allows visitors a new look at her work. 50 models of completed and uncompleted works are being presented to the public. The exhibition uses these to focus on the artist’s working method. The process by which the sculptures are made is also captured in photographs by Juliusz Sokołowski. A selection of photographs by Monika Sosnowska illus- trates her engagement with the urban space and the changes it is undergo- ing, with a focus on the city of Warsaw. The publication accompanying the ex- hibition systematically documents Sosnowska’s models and working process. With this reappraisal of her methods the publication fills a gap in the docu- mentation of the artist’s work.