October 9 at 7:00 PM /
Petrović Palace / Perjanički Dom
🎨🖌️🖼️

The exhibition “1978/2026/Otwock+” offers a retrospective look at nearly five decades of work by Mirosław Bałka, one of Europe’s most prominent contemporary artists.

Early figurative works are presented alongside sculptures, drawings and installations from different periods, in situ works created in Podgorica, and a selection of video works.

The starting point of the exhibition is Otwock, a town near Warsaw where Bałka grew up and continues to work today, in the family home that later became his studio. Otwock is more than a place of origin — it is where personal memory and family history intersect with the traumatic experience of Europe’s past.

Bałka’s restrained sculptures, objects and installations explore memory and forgetting, historical and contemporary violence. The materials from which they are made carry traces of time, labour and human absence. In an era of wars, migration and displacement, the exhibition raises questions of home, belonging and community.

“1978/2026/Otwock+” does not construct a linear history, but rather a constellation of works, times and experiences. From the scent of soap to the weight of steel, earth, warmth and worn surfaces, Bałka’s sculpture does not appeal only to the eye — it calls for the visitor’s body and presence.

Curator: Teodora Nikčević

The exhibition is presented in collaboration with Mirosław Bałka Studio and Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan.