Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka. Ecologies of Togetherness

During a year-long residency, Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka works with the architecture of the MOCAK building, treating the museum as a living organism that can be overwritten and supplemented with new layers of meaning. It is the museum’s first site-specific project built on an artistic residency and a collaboration extending over three seasons, in which the creative process itself is what matters most.

MOCAK on the exhibition:

During her year-long residency, Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka will be working with the architecture of the museum building. The line drawn by the artist symbolically cuts across the entire building, beginning at Lipowa Street, then passing through the patio and the Alfa Gallery, to end in the spaces on the side of Ślusarska Street.

This is the first site-specific project of its kind, based on an artistic residency and a collaboration extending over three seasons. The key here is the process itself: developing creative practice in dialogue with the environment, time and evolving working conditions.

The installation Nest will be the first edition of the residency, in which the museum building is treated as a host organism - an existing architecture that can be overwritten, renegotiated, and supplemented with additional semantic layers. Krakowiak proposes a radical shift in emphasis: from architecture conceived of as static stage design for human life to architecture as active, sensitive participation in interspecies, social and material relations.

What to expect

The residency unfolds in stages. Its first act was the installation “Nest” (7 March - 14 June 2026), hung above MOCAK’s “pergola”, until then an abandoned, empty space, behind the concrete wall with the MOCAK inscription on Lipowa Street. The artist wove it from industrial waste - cables, insulation and cords recovered through recycling - taking her cue from the colonies of African weaver birds that build shared, multi-generational nests. Students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków helped with the weaving. A line drawn by the artist cuts through the whole building - from Lipowa Street, through the patio and the Alfa Gallery, to the spaces on the Ślusarska Street side.

The exhibition brochure announces two further acts. Act two, “Orangery”, is to turn the green patio of the Alfa Gallery into a semi-open orangery for a while - a place of respite and mindful observation rooted in plant life. Act three, “Galleries (Transition Spaces)”, is to shift attention to the experience of flow, movement and mindful presence. The museum publishes no dates for these acts and does not say which one is on view in a given week, so if this project is the reason for your trip, ask at the ticket desk what can be seen. Performances devised by the artist are to accompany the installation; as of 22 September 2026 the museum had announced no dates for them.

Context

Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka (born 1980) holds a doctorate from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and a postdoctoral qualification from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. Her practice has long treated architecture as something to be heard, not only seen - she has described herself as a “gardener”, a description that captures the relational, ecological approach she brings to material and space. She has shown work at the Venice Architecture Biennale and in Barcelona and Paris, and her output has drawn recognition from institutions including St John’s College at the University of Oxford, Poland’s Ministry of Science and Higher Education, and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. “Ecologies of Togetherness” is the first project of its kind at MOCAK, a site-specific work built on the artist’s year-long residency, in which the museum building - standing in the post-industrial district of Zabłocie - becomes a partner in the process rather than merely a venue, treating architecture as a verb: a continuous act of weaving, repairing and adapting.

Tickets and time

The project takes place in the outdoor space of the MOCAK building at ul. Lipowa 4. The museum’s exhibition page does not list a separate price for the installation itself - general MOCAK admission applies: standard ticket 30 PLN, reduced 20 PLN, family (up to 5 people) 65 PLN, group (7+ people) 22 PLN per person, and a combined ticket with Schindler’s Factory for 15 PLN; holders of the Karta Krakowska, the city’s residents’ card, get a 20% discount. On Thursdays free entry covers only the permanent MOCAK Collection display; temporary shows are sold at the reduced rate that day - 20 PLN, or 15 PLN for those already entitled to a reduction. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, 11:00-19:00. Whatever part of the project is on view takes only a short while to see, but allow extra time for the rest of MOCAK, including the parallel Collection exhibition. The show suits visitors curious about processual architecture and site-specific art; it is less suited to someone looking for a single, classically finished display of objects, since the process unfolding across seasons is the point.

English on site: the museum’s free exhibition brochure is bilingual (Polish and English) and can be downloaded from its English page; guided tours in a foreign language cost 180 PLN for the first person or family. The museum does not say whether on-site texts for this project are in English.

What the press says

NN6T (30.03.2026, editorial team; Polish-language outlet, English takeaway ours): frames “Nest” as a way of reading the museum building as a living organism and a starting point for thinking about how birds adapt to urban environments by repurposing human-made materials, raising broader questions about the contemporary role and responsibility of architecture - article (in Polish).

Vogue Polska (06.03.2026, Anna Sańczuk; in Polish, English takeaway ours): an opening-day piece built on conversations with the artist and the curator, presenting “Nest” as a process rather than a finished object - the weaving, done with cable waste donated by a recycling firm, was to continue after the opening, and performances are to activate the installation acoustically - article (in Polish).

The curator, Mirosława Bałazy, told Vogue Polska that the whole idea grew out of the new format of a long-term residency, which lets the artist spend every day with the museum building and its spaces (our translation; 06.03.2026) - article (in Polish).

As of 22 September 2026 no critical review turned up in a press search; both pieces are previews.

Updates

• 2026-09-13 - added sections with artist context, ticket and visiting-hours information, and a first press mention of the exhibition. The closing date (18 October 2026) and the curator remain unchanged, reconfirmed on the MOCAK website.

• 2026-09-22 - dates rechecked on the MOCAK website: unchanged (7 March - 18 October 2026). Added the second and third acts announced in the exhibition brochure, the Thursday admission rule, a line on English on site and the Vogue Polska piece. The events section was removed: the museum’s calendar lists no dates for the performances accompanying the project.

See also

• The State of Possession. The Topography of the MOCAK Collection - Part 1 - a parallel exhibition at the same museum, in which the MOCAK team examines its own Collection across five metaphorical chapters.
• MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow - the museum’s profile page with full practical information and the exhibition programme.

Museum profile: MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow .