Toruń's latest landmark

On June 14, Toruń, a city with a beautiful 12th century Gothic center, will gaze toward the future and celebrate the opening of a brand new Contemporary Art Center. It will be Poland's first new contemporary art museum built from the ground up since 1939. Its 4,000 sqm of display space will constitute one of the country's largest gallery spaces.

After the requisite planning, consultations and permits, the cornerstone was laid in October 2006 and the building completed in December 2007 at a cost of zł.46.7 million - on time and on budget.

Though built in record time, the center faces a number of challenges, not the least of which is convincing a skeptical public of the need for such a center in this provincial capital. "Many would have preferred to see the money used for a parking lot, because this city has a chronic parking shortage," said Kasia Bittner, the center's spokesperson.

Curator Joanna Zielińska aims to deal with this issue by reaching out to the local community to "educate the public on the language employed by contemporary art." Her opening "Flowers of Our Lives" exhibition focuses on people's passion to collect, systematize and display objects. It is a fitting way to explain the museum's raison d'étre.

"Flowers" includes visually powerful pieces by well-known Polish artist Robert Kuśmirowski and classic erotic films by Walerian "Boro" Borowczyk. A fascinating component is a set of scrupulous memoirs of daily life, chores, meals - the minutiae of life as painstakingly recorded by Janina Turek on each day between 1940 and 2000.

The museum's new building, idealistic young staff and interesting collection bode well for its future. The institution is also indicative of the changes taking place in Poland as the populace and public administration move beyond fulfilling fundamental or consumer-based needs. The results remain to be seen - will residents reject the new museum as a trophy for the well-to-do or accept it - and the art within it - as their own?

Jerzy Kamecki