English (UK) 
Polski 
Wrocław’s contemporary art scene has been changing and evolving in recent years, thanks in part to the emergence of new venues and initiatives – ranging from large private foundations to grassroots collectives. In this increasingly diverse ecosystem, public institutions that have existed for years and even decades are also undergoing transformation. We invite those involved in shaping their programmes to share their goals and visions for the development of their institutions, how they see their roles, and what missions they pursue. We want this meeting to be the start of many conversations about how we differ, in what way we are (too) similar, and how we can work together to support the development of contemporary art in Wrocław.
Guests: Barbara Banaś, Maciej Bujko, Agnieszka Chodysz-Foryś, Michał Duda, Mariusz Jodko, Viola Kutlubasis-Krajewska, Katarzyna Zahorska
Moderator: Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz
BIOS
Barbara Banaś – Ph.D. in art history, certified curator at the National Museum in Wrocław, head of the Department of Contemporary Ceramics and Glass, and deputy director of the National Museum in Wrocław. From 2015 to 2018, she served as the representative for the Four Domes Pavilion of the Museum of Contemporary Art, a branch of the National Museum in Wrocław. For over 20 years, she has specialised in researching the history of Polish design and arts and crafts. She has participated in many pioneering projects, including, in 2000, the preparation of the exhibition Everyday Objects: Polish Products 1899–1999 (Warsaw, Kraków). Author of the bestselling book on Polish functional ceramics of the Thaw era, Polski New Look [Polish New Look] (2011, 2019 – 2nd ed.). She has curated numerous exhibitions on Polish design and arts and crafts, including the permanent exhibition Miracle-Workers at the National Museum in Wrocław, as well as monographic exhibitions on Zbigniew Horbowy, Jerzy Słuczan-Orkusz, and Eryka and Jan Drost, Glass Biographies. Polish Women Glass Designers 1945–2020, Wielka czwórka i inni. Ceramiczna rzeźba kameralna w PRL-u [The Big Four and Others. Small-Scale Ceramic Sculpture in the Polish People’s Republic] (2023). Together with Barbara Ilkosz, she is the curator of the permanent exhibition of the Polish contemporary art collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art in the Four Domes Pavilion. She has curated exhibitions presented at this branch of the National Museum in Wrocław, including Abakanowicz. Total (together with I. D. Bigos, 2021/2022), Ewa Kuryluk. White Folds of Time (together with Z. Gebhrad, 2021). Recipient of a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage: 2013, 2021.
Maciej Bujko – director of BWA Wrocław Contemporary Art Galleries. Founder of the TIFF Collective Foundation and the creator of the TIFF Festival, which he helped organise as programme director from 2010 to 2019. He graduated from the Leon Schiller National Higher School of Film, Television, and Theater in Łódź in 2013 and from the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava in 2015. In 2019, he earned his Ph.D. from the Leon Schiller National Higher School of Film, Television, and Theater. From 2014 to 2015, he taught at the Leon Schiller National Higher School of Film, Television, and Theater in Łódź, and from 2019 to 2020, at the University of Wrocław. As a curator, he has worked on every edition of the TIFF Festival. He was also one of the leaders of the Polish Paradise initiative – a platform promoting Polish photography abroad, created by the three largest festivals: the TIFF Festival in Wrocław, Fotofestiwal in Łódź, and Kraków Photomonth. From 2019 to 2021, he also actively participated in the creation and operations of the Wrocław 70/20 Symposium Working Group.
Agnieszka Chodysz-Foryś – for 25 years, Agnieszka Chodysz-Foryś has been creating programs dedicated to the art of Lower Silesia and Wrocław, systematizing and contextualizing the activities and creative concepts of artists whose work has not yet been thoroughly analyzed in the context of the achievements of other artists from the Lower Silesian community, as well as in the context of European and world art. She began her professional career in 1999 at the WRO Media Art Foundation, where she ran the WRO01 International Media Art Festival. Since then, she has been actively involved in the field of visual arts, engaging local communities and promoting the region abroad. Since 2016, she has been the head of the Visual Arts Department at the Art and Culture Center in Wrocław, a Cultural institution of the Lower Silesian Region. She is currently working on her own Polish Performance Festival, which is presented in numerous European centers and galleries, as well as on the International Performance Festival “New Perspectives,” the first edition of which will take place in the fall of 2026 in Wrocław, and on further monographic studies of the work of Lower Silesian artists, including Anna Płotnicka, Anna Kutera, and Eugeniusz Minciel.
Michał Duda – director of the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław. An art historian, architectural researcher and critic, curator, and initiator and organiser of numerous projects and events related to the promotion of Polish architecture. He holds a degree in art history from the University of Wrocław and a degree in curatorial studies from the Jagiellonian University. He has been working at the Museum of Architecture since 2006. He is the curator and co-curator of numerous exhibitions devoted to pre-war and contemporary architecture, including Patchwork: The Architecture of Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak (also shown in New York and Portugal), Landscapes of Leisure (shown during EXPO 2020 in Dubai), Three Beginnings. 1918/1945/1989, Terra X: Archive of the Future, Heinrich Lauterbach. An Architect of Wrocław Modernism, Zvi Hecker. Pages of the Book, and Dagarama. Back to the Future.
Mariusz Jodko – philosopher, curator, photographer, creator of films, videos, multimedia works, and graphic design projects. He is the founder and initiator (together with Alicja Jodko) of Galeria Entropia – a cultural institution of the City of Wrocław – a space for the exchange and presentation of contemporary art across the broadest possible spectrum of ideas, media, and techniques. He has directed the gallery and developed its program since 1988. He has taught courses on new media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław and is a long-standing member of the Artistic Council of the Lower Silesian Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts. In 2011, he received the Award of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage for popularising Polish contemporary art and promoting young artists. In 2018, together with his wife Alicja, he received Radio Wrocław Kultura’s “Emocje” Award in the field of visual arts. In 2024, he received the Diament Wrocławia Award [Diamond of Wrocław] on behalf of the Entropia Gallery.
Violetta Kutlubasis-Krajewska – member of the WRO curatorial team, programme director and co-founder of the WRO Media Art Biennale, and director of the WRO Art Center in Wrocław; author of WRO’s programme, exhibition, and outreach guidelines, developed in accordance with the principle of free access to culture. She graduated in cultural studies from the University of Wrocław and completed postgraduate studies at the National Film School of Poland (PWSFTviT). She has produced numerous cultural programmes for Telewizja Polska, focusing on issues, figures, and events in contemporary art. She works as an expert in media culture and the information society, as a juror and curator of exhibition series, and as an author and editor of publications devoted to contemporary art. She is the recipient of the “Civitate Wratislaviensi Donatus” Award (2019), presented during celebrations marking WRO’s 30th anniversary.
Katarzyna Zahorska – a graduate in history and art history from the University of Wrocław. An exhibition curator at the Municipal Gallery in Wrocław and a lecturer at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. An art critic. She has published, among others, in the journal Rita Baum, the monthly Odra, and the art magazine Format. She is the author of numerous texts for exhibition catalogues and monographs.
Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz – chief curator at MWW, Ph.D. in art history. She served as Collection Curator at the Wrocław Contemporary Museum (2017–2019) and carries out curatorial and research projects in collaboration with organisations in Poland and abroad. She graduated in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London (MA in Global Conceptualism under the supervision of Prof. Sarah Wilson and Prof. Boris Groys, 2011; Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr Klara Kemp-Welch, 2018). Her doctoral dissertation focused on networked art of the 1970s, using Polish mail art as a case study, in relation to the democratic opposition movement and social and geopolitical transformations. She is the author of academic and popular-science texts and combines curatorial and research practice. She is a two-time recipient of a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. She completed postgraduate studies in Cultural Management at the Warsaw School of Economics (2014).