An Artist and Curator-Led Tour of the “Crystal Palace” Exhibition
Join us for a guided tour of “The Crystal Palace” featuring artists and the exhibition’s curators. We’ll start at the SIC! BWA Wrocław gallery, then walk together to BWA Wrocław Main Station gallery, discovering two parts of the same story.
The exhibition takes its cue from the historic Crystal Palace – a monumental pavilion made of glass and cast iron built in London for the Great Exhibition of 1851. A symbol of modernity, industrial progress, and imperial ambitions, it serves as a starting point for a conversation about how we see the world, what remains visible, and what remains hidden. “The Crystal Palace” does not reconstruct the 19th-century world’s fair. Rather, it examines what remains of its ways of viewing the world – organizing it, displaying it, and observing it.
During the guided tour, the artists (Klaudia Kasperska, Krista Israel, Patrycja Cichosz, JMB, John Moran, Aleksander Baszynski, Wiktor Dyndo, Jan Baszak, Paweł Szeibel, and Tom Swoboda) will discuss their works, while the curators -Mika Drozdowska and Joanna Kobyłt – will speak about the relationships between them, the exhibition design, and the concept behind the exhibition. We will examine glass not only as a material but also as a tool for organizing the gaze: one that creates boundaries, reflections, and the illusion of transparency.
The very act of moving between the galleries will become part of the tour. By changing our location and perspective, we will explore how the same themes recur in two different spaces – a contemporary glass gallery and a gallery located in the historic Main Train Station building, which is just five years younger than London’s Crystal Palace.
(courtesy of the artist)
The event is partnered by the “Julia” Crystal Glassworks.
Co-funded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund – a state-administered special-purpose fund.