PRIVATE MUSEUMS – WERNER JERKE AND KRZYSZTOF MASIEWICZ TALK TO CONTEMPORARY LYNX AS PART OF WARSAW GALLERY WEEKEND | Contemporary Lynx - print and online magazine on art & visual culture

The hall of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście 5

Contemporary Lynx, as the media partner of the Warsaw Gallery Weekend, has the pleasure to invite you to a discussion about private museums established by private collectors. This topic is particularly interesting and relevant as more and more such projects move from the realm of pure idea through a realistic vision and into actual reality.

Currently, numerous discussions concerning programs of many public institutions are taking place. These discussions focus on setting up public collections, their aims and future directions. For a few years now, public debate about art has been fuelled by a series of contests for architectural design or appointments of public museums’ directors.

Somewhat overshadowed by these big political discussions and removed from the official, bureaucratic process of procurement, private collectors are building up exquisite collections, which, very often, match the quality of public collections. Works from private collections are rarely displayed and even then they are usually individual pieces shown as part of bigger exhibitions. The possibility to appreciate the vision and identity of private collections is virtually non-existent. Private art museums are practically unheard of in Poland while abroad such projects are a well-established way to present private collections and share the collector’s passion for art with a wider audience.

Our distinguished speakers, Werner Jerke and Krzysztof Masiewicz, will share their appreciation of art and their unique experiences of planning and establishing museums for their private collections, in Germany and Poland respectively. We will discuss challenges our guests faced so far and what lies ahead. How does one even start a private museum? What are the risks, difficulties and, more importantly, what are the possibilities such endeavours create? We will ask about our speakers’ aims, structure and programmes of their museums. Open discussion will give the audience an opportunity to participate actively in the meeting and ask questions directly.

Visualisation of Werner Jerke’s Art Museum, Recklinghausen, Germany, courtesy of Werner Jerke, 2014

Werner Jerke – collector of Polish contemporary art and promoter of Polish culture in Germany. His latest, hugely ambitious project is the establishment of the Museum of Polish Art in Recklinghausen in the Ruhr district. Works from his collection feature in exhibitions around the world, e.g. works by Alina Szapocznikow were exhibited at a blockbuster retrospective in New York’s MoMA, as well as in Brussels, Los Angeles and Columbus in Ohio. In late 2012, works by Samuel Szczekacz were presented in Atlas Sztuki. In spring 2014, an exhibition of abstract works from his collection took place in Düsseldorf. For many years, Werner Jerke has been a sponsor of the meetings of Polish geometry artists, which currently take place in Radziejowice and previously were held at the Polish Sculpture Centre in Orońsk.

Krzysztof Masiewicz – co-author of “New Art Collector’s Guide” (Przewodnik kolekcjonera sztuki najnowszej) – the first Polish book about collecting contemporary art. He translates his passion for tracing artworks, meeting people, as well as visiting places and institutions connected with art into texts. He is a co-author of the first Polish blog devoted to contemporary art – Art Bazaar: www.artbazaar.blogspot.com. He is an avid collector of Polish Art. His collection is based on four main focal points: the oeuvres of Andrzej Wróblewski’s, Gruppa, Grupa Ładnie and Penerstwo. Moreover, Masiewicz collects comic books, artbooks, vinyls, lamps and furniture.

Contemporary Lynx is a media partner of the most interesting events in the country. This year, the organisation is Warsaw Gallery Weekend’s partner for the second time.

The event is organised in cooperation with Galeria Salon Akademii.

After the discussion we would like to invite you to the exhibition of Robert Kuśmirowski – Träumgutstraße in Galeria Salon Akademii.

The title of this exhibition refers to Traugutt street, where Czapski-Rabczyński Palace is situated. The palace constitutes the premises of the Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts. During the war, the building was demolished, but was rebuilt afterwards in the 50s of the 20^th century. Therefore, it is a phantom or a reconstruction, architectural deceit, which pretends to be a place which, in fact, does not exist anymore. Photographs and archived designs which present the building from before the war seem to depict empty pictures.

Kuśmirowski reconstructs the ruins of this building and demolished aristocratic drawing room. His work has every attribute which cannot be offered by black-and-white photographs: weight, mass, colour, real dimensions. This sensual form makes incomprehensible past become more familiar. The history of this place comes alive again and seems to occupy physical space. The representation of ruins fills up the emptiness, replaces a real artefact, a body taken away after death.

Exhibition curator: Katarzyna Urbańska

Media partner: Zwierciadło Foundation