Presentation of „Collection II” as part of POL IS ART 2026, LÁ Art Museum, Hveragerði, Iceland

Presentation of „Collection II” as part of POL IS ART 2026
LÁ Art Museum, Hveragerði, Iceland
31.10–31.12.2026

Artists: Paweł Althamer, Piotr Bosacki, Hubert Czerepok, Wojtek Doroszuk, Izabella Gustowska, Diana Lelonek, Anna Molska, Artur Żmijewski
Curator: Monika Szewczyk

„Collection II” at the Arsenal Gallery in Białystok has been developed since 1990. In 1993, we acquired our first video works: 15 pieces by Józef Robakowski. This was also the first time that video works were acquired for a public art collection in Poland. Today, „Collection II ” includes 70 video works by Polish and international artists. For this presentation, we have selected 8 works. We hope this small selection is enough to convey the diversity of „Collection II” and the ways in which it responds to contemporary issues. The works engage with a range of complex subjects, including the consequences of political and social transformation; the mentality of Polish society (Althamer); the self-reflexive nature of art (Molska, Doroszuk); the threats posed by the fragility of democracy and the growing prevalence of xenophobic attitudes (Czerepok); and climate change (Lelonek). Together with other works in „Collection II”, these videos create narratives that remain relevant today. Their selection is also connected to the gallery’s exhibition programme.

„Collection II” owned by the Arsenal Gallery in Białystok is by no means uniform, in reflection of the non-uniformity of art of the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. Presenting leading phenomena in Polish art, it reflects on traces of post-system transformation changes to culture. Concurrently, for reasons rooted within the Gallery’s programme as such, it depicts fundamental tendencies and changes in Belarussian, Ukrainian, Czech, and Armenian art.

The Arsenal Gallery’s „Collection II” is relatively young – Arsenal made its first Collection-dedicated purchases in 1992. Ever since, „Collection II” has comprised post-1989 works by Polish and foreign artists (with special attention paid to Central and Eastern Europe). Today, it includes 331 items: paintings, objects, installations, videos, photographs, drawings, and ephemeral works – ideas.

Artworks forming part of the collection have been shown at numerous exhibitions organised in Poland and abroad.