The exhibition Art Is Freedom is the first-ever presentation in Ukraine of works from the MOCAK Collection. The selection includes a few dozen works by Polish and international artists.

Art has always been the driver for social change. Artists ceaselessly test the reality around them, at the same time putting to the test the areas of freedom in society. Artists’ protest against the rigid status quo has an impact on ideological transformations. Contact with art and also the creative process itself enhance the sense of freedom both for the individual and society. The present situation in Ukraine, with the majority of society leaning towards western Europe, demonstrates the individual’s natural drive for freedom. On this occasion, contemporary art may prove to be an important critical and cognitive tool.

The MOCAK Collection has been assembled since 2010. Presently, the Museum has almost 4 000 works by 160 Polish and international artists. The Collection aims to compile and exhibit Polish art of the last five decades against the backdrop of world art. Equally important is the popularisation of the achievements of key artists amongst diverse social groups and aiming to alter the perception of the most recent art as enigmatic or downright incomprehensible.

In his introduction to the catalogue accompanying the exhibition, the director of the Lviv Palace of Art Yuri Hnatkovsky writes: ‘Now that Ukraine has chosen the path to EU integration, it is important for us to learn more about contemporary European art. In the 20^th century, this area of art went beyond the confines of aesthetic activity and moved to a pivotal position helping it to define its own role in the modern world, its cognitive and ethical merits and the role it plays in the critique of society. Contemporary art has become one of the drivers of modern art and modernisation.’