Gifts of Friendship
Gifts of Friendship presents nearly 150 works donated to the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź collection in 2024–26 by eighty artists from dozens of countries. Their gesture allows us to reflect on the significance of artist solidarity in the modern world and the relations between the art scene and the public museum. It emphasizes the role of trust, friendship, and community based on long-term collaboration as forces shaping the institutional collection.
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The “gift economy” builds human relationships, but is also an obligation. It is giving, receiving, and reciprocating. These three categories are inextricably linked. The Gifts of Friendship creates a multidimensional portrait of the museum, conceived not as a neutral repository of objects, but as a living network of art exchange.
Ever since its creation, the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź has developed its collection through close cooperation with artists. Its foundation was the International Collection of Modern Art, made up of donations and initiated by Władysław Strzemiński, Katarzyna Kobro, and the other members of the “a.r.” group, first exhibited in 1931. The main aim of the historical avant-garde was to bring together art, life, and social change, with the “gift economy” being among its tools.
Today, in a world of geopolitical instability and uncertainty, it is the utopian formula of the gift that lets us cross national, political, and linguistic boundaries. Gifts of Friendship pays tribute to a new generation of artists working in the spirit of shared responsibility for the public role of art. This long-term project reanalyses and updates the historical model, showing how acts of solidarity and donations still shape the museum’s identity.
This exhibition presents work by artists tied to the Muzeum Sztuki for many decades, including Liam Gillick, K.ari.n Schneider, and R.H. Quaytman, as well as those whose work strikes up a dialog with the program of recent years, such as Jasmina Cibic, Veronika Hapchenko, Agata Ingarden, Nikita Kadan, wendelien van oldenborgh, Paulina Ołowska, Agnieszka Polska, Mykola Ridnyi, Julita Wójcik, and Anton Vidokle. Among those presenting their works at the museum for the first time are: Yane Calovski, Andrea Fraser, Josiah McElheny, and Jeff Preiss.
Covering both of our headquarters, ms¹ and ms², Gifts of Friendship is an exercise in institutional imagination. This exhibition examines the gift as a relational practice, exploring connections between artists, the museum, and the public. It consists of three poetic and political parts. The exhibition at ms¹ is focused on interpreting the avant-garde legacy with respect to the Neoplastic Room (on the 3rd floor); as well as collecting and reciprocity as holders of memory and identity, in response to the once-palatial museum interiors (6th floor). The works gathered in ms² (ground floor) display visions of the present and future with regard to the museum’s permanent collection: the Ways of Seeing exhibition.
Artists:
ms¹: selected works from The Richard Demarco Archive, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Isabel Cornaro, Jakub Czyszczoń, Anchan / Anna Daučiková, Cian Dayrit, Cecile Dupaquier, Veronika Hapchenko, Morgan Fisher, Andrea Fraser, Barbara Hammer, Liam Gillick, João Maria Gusmão, Agata Ingarden, Zuzanna Janin, Eduardo Kac, Nikita Kadan, Tomasz Kowalski, Jiri Kovanda, Kamil Kuskowski, Katalin Ladik, Diana Lelonek, Zbigniew Libera, Jumana Manna, Tomasz Machciński, Marcin Maciejowski, Dora Maurer, Yarema Malashchuk & Roman Khimei, Josiah McElheny, Verena Melgarejo Weinandt, John Miller, Haroon Mirza, Deimantas Narkevičius, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Paulina Ołowska, Angelo Plessas, Agnieszka Polska, Cezary Poniatowski, Jeff Preiss, Florian Pumhösl, Willem de Rooij, Wilhelm Sasnal, K.ari.n Schneider, Janek Simon, Suzanne Treister, R.H. Quaytman, James Welling, Julita Wójcik, Fernando Varela, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor, Anton Vidokle, Tobias Zielony, Heimo Zobernig
ms²: Agata Bogacka, Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Yane Calovski, Lou Cantor, Jasmina Cibic, Gelatin, Liam Gillick, Thomas Hirschhorn, Hassan Kahn, Nikolai Karabinovych, Kitty Kraus, Ghislane Leung, Mykola Ridnyi, John Smith, Hito Steyerl, Gabriele Stötzer, Michael Stevenson, Iza Tarasewicz, Franz Erhard Walther
Honorary patronage
The exhibition Ways of Seeing. Collection of Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź is under the honorary patronage of Marta Cienkowska , the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and Joanna Skrzydlewska, the Marshal of the Łódź Voivodeship.
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