WARSAW.- The medium of sculpture is quick to react to the ever-changing reality—and the new show at MSN takes a broad and closer look at those reactions. More than fifty works by international artists are going on display in all parts of the Museum, from the outdoor walkways to the second-floor galleries; some are being specially produced for the occasion. The exhibition Sculpture Beyond the Solid opens on October 16.

Not stable anymore

A towering piece, almost three meters high, in patinated bronze. This is Alina Szapocznikow’s Friendship (Monument to Polish-Soviet Friendship), greeting visitors on the first floor at MSN since the new site of the Museum opened two years ago. A representation of two men, larger than life. Back in 1954, it was intended as a symbol—for years ahead, for decades to follow, for ages; today, it tells a different story: about the eventual fall of the colossus, about weakness and fragility hidden behind the façade, about radical change. Later, Szapocznikow dismissed the traditional notions of sculpture as stable, solid forms, adopting instead a process of continual deconstruction. She gradually replaced the classical language of sculpture with one of her own, which corresponds to what is presented at the exhibition Sculpture Beyond the Solid. So, what is sculpture supposed to be today, when stability is rare altogether?

Sculpture, nowadays, is a reaction more than anything else; a reaction to the surrounding world. In the past it was painting, and now it is sculpture that resonates most lively with the present, with today’s problems, with debates or inquiries that define the modern day, says Jagna Lewandowska, curator at MSN who’s responsible for the new exhibition together with Szymon Maliborski.

“All that is solid melts into air” these days: geopolitical crises, forced displacements, climate disasters, and breaking supply chains undermine our confidence in social order, at the same time revealing the true extent to which stability relies on uninterrupted flows of energy, resources, and information. Clearly, no physical matter is innocent as material—it always carries with it histories of extraction, shipping, utilization, and depletion.

The form in sculpture is no less significant today than it was in the past, only its understanding is no longer traditional; no longer limited to that of solidified materializations of autonomous artistic ideas. What used to be the ultimate goal in sculpture: permanence, wholeness, or perfection of the finished work—seems not quite enough right now, explains Szymon Maliborski, co-curator of the show.

The exhibition Sculpture Beyond the Solid presents the most recent directions in sculpture that derive from the growing instability of form—not seen as a metaphor for crisis, though, but rather as a source of productive friction. The featured artists approach their work with the medium as an act of balancing various forces: flows and transformations, interdependencies between the process itself and the outcome as it is taking shape. They produce structures that are not necessarily built to last, at least not unchanged: the new sculptures deform under pressure, are subject to wear or alteration, or react to changing ambient conditions.

This is not a historical study for the future, nor is it just a review of contemporary pursuits in sculpture—it is an attempt to tell a story about the medium itself, with its sheer materiality, temporality, and involvement in physical space, sums up Jagna Lewandowska.

Sculpting as piecing the world together again

Many of the works to be displayed at MSN are site-specific, which means the processes in which they emerge are no less significant than their materials—the latter being most diverse. Within the stairwell, Narges Mohammadi constructs a temporary shelter made of clay and hay, with recollections of her childhood home. In one of the galleries, Manuel Burgener builds a structure whose aluminum elements are held together by negative pressure generated by a special vacuum device. Elements of Iza Tarasewicz’s installation will tell viewers where they can go to proceed and what paths are rendered unavailable to them, and sculpted glass panes in the piece by Gizela Mickiewicz overlay the view of downtown Warsaw with glimpses of personal memories.

Sculpture Now—the season in full swing

Scheduled to open on October 16, the exhibition is another in a series of events that make up a sculpture-centered fall season together. Under the motto “Sculpture Now,” it all began with the unveiling of Sand Fountain by Dominika Olszowy—up on the second-floor terrace at MSN, looking out onto Marszałkowska street. A couple days later, a monumental piece by the celebrated Austrian artist VALIE EXPORT was inaugurated on Central Square, titled Die Doppelgängerin. And as Sculpture Beyond the Solid coincides with the show Alina Szapocznikow / Nairy Baghramian at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw becomes one of Europe’s capitals of contemporary sculpture.

Alina Szapocznikow’s centenary at Zachęta

The coverage of contemporary sculpture in Warsaw extends to include Zachęta, too. Marking the centenary of Alina Szapocznikow’s birth, the National Gallery of Art presents an extraordinary collaboration: Alina Szapocznikow / Nairy Baghramian.

At the show, the once pioneering work of Szapocznikow is being revisited, arranged in an artistic conversation with most recent works by German-Iranian sculptress Nairy Baghramian; the latter thus receives her first extensive presentation in Poland.

A towering piece, almost three meters high, in patinated bronze. This is Alina Szapocznikow’s Friendship (Monument to Polish-Soviet Friendship), greeting visitors on the first floor at MSN since the new site of the Museum opened two years ago. A representation of two men, larger than life. Back in 1954, it was intended as a symbol—for years ahead, for decades to follow, for ages; today, it tells a different story: about the eventual fall of the colossus, about weakness and fragility hidden behind the façade, about radical change. Later, Szapocznikow dismissed the traditional notions of sculpture as stable, solid forms, adopting instead a process of continual deconstruction. She gradually replaced the classical language of sculpture with one of her own, which corresponds to what is presented at the exhibition Sculpture Beyond the Solid. So, what is sculpture supposed to be today, when stability is rare altogether?

Artists: Isabelle Andriessen, Patricia Ayres, Olga Balema, Beatrice Bonino, Manuel Burgener, Giulia Cenci, Phoebe Collings-James, June Crespo, Michael Dean, Matyáš Fiala, Zuza Golińska, Alexandra Hunts, Agata Ingarden, Edith Karlson, Kaarel Kurismaa, Mónica Mays, Gizela Mickiewicz, Narges Mohammadi, Anna Myszkowiak, Jack O’Brien, B. Ingrid Olson, Dominika Olszowy, Katarzyna Przezwańska, Jessi Reaves, Ken Sortais, Teresa Solar Abboud, Iza Tarasewicz, Tatiana Trouvé, Kaari Upson, Dominique White, Nicole Wermers