On the road

Although being extensive, yet still limited to a certain extent, the collection of art built up for twenty years since the establishment of the ING Polish Art Foundation, which was created in the last three decades, perfectly represents the manner in which Polish art is diversified. However, the jubilee exhibition of selected works from the collection is aimed at freeing them, at least for a little while, from the accession numbers assigned to them in the collections. Through them, it makes an attempt to conduct dialogues about the sensitive relation between man and nature, which is one of the most important topics today. It literally observes it in the maze of echoes, variations and oppositions of possible answers. When developing the dialogue of these works of art, we have freely drawn on both the reflections on nature by F. W. J. Schelling, a German philosopher, and the novel by Jan Potocki entitled “The Manuscript Found in Saragossa”.

Being thinking creatures, if only this simplification is permissible here, people take difficult roads in their quest to save the entire world. In the very process, they may lose the way, but maybe not all hope is thus lost. Can one, while on this road, still see nature every now and then? Can one recognise nature in oneself? Or will one not only destroy it, but also destroy oneself, as one of its manifestations? It is owing to the collection of the Polish Art Foundation being exhibited at the museum – the most civilised of all places – that the evocation of the spirit of nature has been made possible. And it is you – the visitors – that enter this area of adventure, which – for the most part – you create yourselves. Beware of stacked echoes. Do not despair should you lose your way. You will most certainly find your own path. The map you will find at the exhibition is merely a minor suggestion for your own endless journey no curator is capable of either making sense of or setting an ultimate goal for.

– Marek Pokorný

ING Polish Art Foundation, established in 2000, collects works of contemporary Polish artists. The Foundation presents and interprets the phenomena occurring in Polish art from the beginning of the 1990s. The collection includes paintings, photos, drawings, videos, sculptures and installations. Apart from the works of renowned artists, the collection also includes works of younger generation artists born in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. All ING companies in Poland are the founders of the collection. The Foundation’s collection remains one of the few corporate collections in Poland. It is exhibited on an everyday basis in the buildings of ING headquarters and lent to external exhibitions. The Foundation is also the initiator or partner of exhibitions, artistic and educational projects, and publisher of books on art – “Sztuka w naszym wieku” (2016) and children’s book “Bałwan w lodówce” (2017).

23.11.2019 – 3.05.2020

opening: 22.11.2019, godz. 18.00 / Muzeum Śląskie, Katowice, T. Dobrowolskiego 1 St. / level -2

exhibition: Muzeum Śląskie, Katowice, T. Dobrowolskiego 1 St. / level -4

Curator: Marek Pokorný

Cooperation: Łukasz Adamski, Kamila Bondar, dr Seweryn Kuter

Visual Identification: Daniela Dostálková, Linda Dostálková

Exhibition Architecture Design: Michał Budny

Implementation of the Architectural Project: Wiesław Szeląg

Technical Coordination: Aleksandra Grabowska, Dominika Lorek