MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (MOCAK) is a city cultural institution based at Lipowa 4 in Podgórze. It was established on 1 February 2010 and opened on 19 May 2011. It occupies the site of the former Schindler's Factory.

The road to opening

The land for the museum was bought by the City of Kraków in 2004, and the application for funding from the Ministry of Culture reached the ministry in May 2005. The architectural competition was decided in 2007, construction began in December 2009, and the finished building was handed over in November 2010. The construction was co-financed with European Union funds.

The building on the former factory site

The design was selected in an architectural competition in 2007, won by Claudio Nardi and Leonardo Maria Proli. The neo-modernist concept is based on the slanting lines of the roofs, simple volumes and natural lighting of the halls, with inspirations from Mies van der Rohe and Italian rationalism. The museum consists of one new building and six adapted existing buildings, and the exhibition area is about 4,000 sq m.

The total area of the complex is about 10,000 sq m. Among the six adapted buildings are former factory buildings, so modern architecture here stands next to the industrial buildings of Podgórze. Right next door is Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory.

What you can see here

The exhibition activity focuses mainly on the art of the last two decades. The permanent collection, shown on level -1, includes works by more than two hundred artists, among them Marina Abramović, Paweł Althamer, Edward Dwurnik, Katarzyna Kozyra and Artur Żmijewski.

The museum presents the art of the last two decades against the background of the post-war avant-garde and conceptualism. Temporary exhibitions are shown, among other places, in Gallery B, where projects devoted to design, sound or text sometimes appear. On the museum's website the permanent displays also include the collection The Great Contemporaries, that is the gift of Teresa and Andrzej Starmach, the collection Around MOCAK, Krystian Lupa's project on Warhol, and a work devoted to the experiences of the artist VALIE EXPORT. The museum has a conservation studio for contemporary art.

Library and education

The museum runs a specialist library with texts on art theory, exhibition catalogues and magazines on contemporary art, as well as the library collection of Prof. Mieczysław Porębski. The education programme includes meetings with artists, collectors and curators, addressed to groups from preschoolers to seniors.

On site there are also the MOCAK bookshop and a café, and the museum runs research and publishing projects. Besides visiting on your own, you can take a themed guided tour of the exhibitions. The museum has a page with information on accessibility for people with disabilities, so it is best to check the exact facilities there before you arrive.

Nearby

From Podgórze towards Kazimierz it is about a kilometre to the Old Synagogue, and on the Vistula stands the Manggha Museum.

Practical information

• Address: ul. Lipowa 4, Kraków, Podgórze.
• Website: mocak.pl. According to the museum's website it is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 11.00-19.00. Check the hours and current exhibitions before your visit.
• The site is marked as accessible to wheelchair users, confirm this on the spot.
• The permanent collection is on level -1.