The State of Possession. The Topography of the MOCAK Collection - Part 1

The first part of a cycle presenting the MOCAK Collection is not a conventional survey of the holdings but an exhibition built on the experience of absence - of time, stability and resources. The museum’s whole team turns crisis into a tool of self-analysis, organising the show into five metaphorical chapters: Ruins, Nooks and Crannies, Mudlands, Closets and Cabinets, and Springtimes.

MOCAK on the exhibition:

‘Dust thou art, so get up and dust yourself off,’ Rafał Wojaczek pronounces in Lech Majewski’s film, subverting the universally recognised encapsulation of the inevitable human fate. You won’t see the film at the exhibition State of Possession, just as you won’t see many other things. This exhibition is built upon the experience of absence: a lack of time and stability, and above all, a lack of financial resources - a lack resulting from the implosion of the institution’s budget and the depletion of the resources necessary to have carried out the planned activities. We, however - much like Wojaczek in his defiant assertion - are trying to harness this depletion, understood as a crisis, and find new, different models for working on an exhibition that engages with the MOCAK Collection.

What to expect

The exhibition is divided into five metaphorical chapters - Ruins, Nooks and Crannies, Mudlands, Closets and Cabinets, and Springtimes - through which it tells the story of the Collection and of the institution itself at a moment of upheaval. It is a self-reflective portrait of the museum, prepared by its entire team, coinciding with the fifteenth anniversary of the first exhibition opened to the public at its current premises. The show is curated by Kamil Kuitkowski and occupies Level 0 of the museum building at ul. Lipowa 4, presenting more than one hundred works from the MOCAK Collection by 83 artists, some of them never shown to the public before.

Łukasz Gazur, reviewing the show for XYZ.pl, singles out these works:

• Teresa Murak - her piece opens the exhibition in an almost empty room filled with birdsong and the sounds of nature.
• Justyna Smoleń - a clay totem sculpture in the Mudlands chapter, a nod to Zabłocie, the museum’s district, whose name comes from the Polish word for mud (błoto).
• Agata Siwek, “Original Souvenirs Auschwitz-Birkenau” (2002) - a kiosk stocked with Auschwitz souvenirs: striped T-shirts, bags, key rings, sculptures. It asks how the Holocaust gets turned into merchandise - a question that carries extra weight on the grounds of Schindler’s former factory.
• Katarzyna Kozyra, “The Rite of Spring” - the closing work, in which the artist restages Vaslav Nijinsky’s choreography for Igor Stravinsky’s ballet with elderly performers.

Tickets, opening hours, and current details are on the MOCAK website .

Context

MOCAK opened in 2011 in the former Oskar Schindler factory in Kraków’s Zabłocie district and has focused from the start on art made after 1989, although the Collection also holds earlier work - this show includes Janina Turek’s diaries, kept from 1943 to 2000. In recent years the institution has gone through a deep organisational and financial crisis, with two changes of director within eighteen months, widely covered by the cultural press. “State of Possession” is the first part of a cycle in which the museum openly confronts that crisis, making it the subject of the exhibition rather than hiding it.

Tickets and time

The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, 11:00-19:00, closed on Mondays; the ticket desk sells tickets until 18:30. A standard ticket costs 30 PLN, a reduced ticket 20 PLN (15 PLN during exhibition changeovers), a family ticket (2+3 or 1+4 people) 65 PLN, and children under 7 accompanied by a ticket holder enter free of charge. Holders of Kraków’s Karta Krakowska get 20% off. If you have been to Schindler’s Factory next door, show that ticket at the MOCAK desk and pay 15 PLN.

The free Thursday does not cover this show. Free entry on Thursdays applies only to the MOCAK Collection displays on level -1; temporary exhibitions are sold that day at the reduced rate, 20 PLN instead of 30 PLN (15 PLN for those entitled to a concession).

On Wednesdays from 16:00 to 19:00 the museum runs quiet hours: no tours or workshops, and works that emit loud sound or bright light are turned down or off - the best slot if you are sensitive to noise and light. The museum also publishes the curatorial text and the five chapter introductions in easy-to-read Polish and Polish Sign Language on a separate page .

English on site: the museum’s English website carries the full curatorial text, and guided tours in English (also French and Ukrainian) can be booked for 180 PLN for the first person or family, at least one week ahead through the reception (recepcja@mocak.pl , +48 12 263 40 01). The museum says nothing about English wall labels or an audio guide for this show, so keep the English page open on your phone as you go round.

Allow at least an hour to see all five chapters; the show suits visitors interested in conceptual art and the condition of museums as institutions, and is a less obvious pick for those after a light, crowd-pleasing family exhibition.

Events

• 17 Oct 2026, 12:00 - “Open Your Ears, Open Your Eyes!”: a workshop with musicians from the Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble, testing how the exhibition space sounds and which works could serve as a musical score; for teenagers, adults and seniors, about 90 minutes, free passes to download from the ensemble’s website - details
• 9 Oct 2026, 17:00 - a walk through the show with contemporary-art conservator Zofia Kerneder on works made of unusual materials and where conservation ends and intervention begins; about 90 minutes, included in the museum ticket, no booking, meet at reception - details
• 1 Oct 2026, 11:15 - “Spacerówka”: a tour for carers of babies and toddlers, pushchairs welcome, with a rest and play corner in the galleries and a changing table; about 60 minutes, included in the museum ticket, no booking - details
• 25 Sep 2026, 17:30 - “Creative Studio. Mindful Viewing”: a workshop for adults and teenagers in the galleries with sketchbooks and air-dry clay, led by Katarzyna Homoncik; 90-120 minutes, 35 PLN (the ticket also covers the exhibition), tickets at the desk and online - details

What the press says

• LoveKraków.pl (22 Sep 2026, Filip Zapał): a piece on the museum’s way out of its financial crisis, in which acting director Grzegorz Kuźma presents the exhibition as a project worked out jointly by the staff rather than imposed by a director - link (Polish-language source)
• Magazyn Szum (17 Aug 2026): the art magazine’s listings section runs the museum’s own curatorial text with installation photographs by Rafał Sosin; this is the institution’s material, not a review - link (Polish-language source)
• XYZ.pl (1 Aug 2026, Łukasz Gazur): a review that sees the show’s main strength in its rootedness in the site - the chapters read both as metaphors and as a map of Zabłocie and Schindler’s former factory - and credits the museum for making its crisis the subject instead of hiding it - link (Polish-language source)
• LoveKraków.pl (23 Jul 2026, Filip Zapał): a preview published the day before the opening, placing the show against the dismissal of two directors and the museum’s money problems and describing it as an attempt to treat crisis as a starting point for change - link (Polish-language source)

So far there is one review (XYZ.pl), and it is favourable; the other pieces are a preview, the museum’s own text and a report on the institution. No English-language coverage has appeared.

Updates

• 22 Sep 2026 - dates (24 July - 18 October 2026) confirmed on the MOCAK website. Added the event dates up to 17 October 2026, the works named in the XYZ.pl review, the Thursday admission rule (the free Thursday does not cover this show) and the Wednesday quiet hours. Corrected the description of two earlier press items: the Magazyn Szum piece is the museum’s own curatorial text, and the LoveKraków.pl article of 23 July 2026 is a preview, not a review.
• 13 Sep 2026 - added the curator (Kamil Kuitkowski), practical ticket and opening-hours information, and a press round-up, based on the MOCAK website and two reviews. The exhibition dates (24 July - 18 October 2026) are unchanged - no source confirmed an extension.

See also

• Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka. Ecologies of Togetherness - a parallel exhibition at MOCAK, a site-specific project treating the museum building as a living organism, a fitting companion to the self-reflective tone of “State of Possession”.
• MOCAK Collection displays on level -1 - the museum’s standing presentation of its holdings, free on Thursdays; on a Thursday you see both for the price of a reduced ticket to this show.

Museum profile: MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow .