Exhibition "Tadeusz Kantor – Always and Everywhere an Artist"

As part of the Poland-Romania Cultural Season 2024-2025,

The National Museum of Art of Romania (NMAR), in partnership with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute from Warsaw, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (MOCAK), Cricoteka (Center for the Documentation of Tadeusz Kantor’s Art), and the Polish Institute in Bucharest, presents the exhibition:

"Tadeusz Kantor – Always and Everywhere an Artist"

Curated by Dr. Maria Anna Potocka, Director of MOCAK

The exhibition will be open from 20 October 2024 to 9 March 2025.

The opening event will take place on Sunday, October 20, 2024, at 16:00, on the ground floor of the National Gallery of NMAR, Calea Victoriei no. 49-53, Bucharest.

Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) was one of the most important Polish artists, with a significant contribution to the revolutionizing of both Polish and global theater, as well as a remarkable avant-garde activity in the field of visual arts.

For the first time in Romania, this exhibition will highlight the versatility and complexity of this artist by showcasing the main directions he pursued as director, set designer, actor in his own plays, creator of happenings, painter and theorist.

The exhibition will feature 25 paintings, assemblages, sculptures and sculptural set designs for theater plays from the MOCAK collection along with 57 photographs taken between 1980-1990 and documenting his plays, including photographic portraits, offering an extensive perspective on this fascinating creator.

Throughout the exhibition, a rich program of related events will be presented, co-organized by NMAR and the Tadeusz Kantor Art Documentation Center – Cricoteka. On 21-25 October 2024 workshops entitled “Costume in Tadeusz Kantor’s Theatrical Toolkit” will be held, led by Bogdan Renczyński, an actor at Cricot 2 Theater. In February 2025 the exhibition halls will host the art installation “Personal Space” featuring projected slides of Kantor’s theatrical costumes. “Personal Space” will become a venue for meetings and workshops conducted over several days by Justyna Droń, a theater educator and creator of Cricoteka educational program. Participants will have the opportunity to interact individually with Tadeusz Kantor’s costumes, dye fabrics, create collages, apply symbols and print drawings.

Additionally, screenings of Kantor’s iconic plays will be organized, from ”The Dead Class” (1976) to ”Today is My Birthday” (1991). The screenings will take place at NMAR on 25 October 2024, 22 November 2024, 13 December 2024, 17 January 2025 and 21 February 2025.

The exhibition is also part of the National Theater Festival taking place in Bucharest at various venues on 18-28 October 2024. Partner: UNITER (https://fnt.ro/2024/).

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