The Closing Event of the Exhibition Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More

All discussions are held in Polish.

The closing event of the exhibition  Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More by Konrad Smoleński will be another opportunity to interact with the artist’s monumental sound installation. Not only the invited artists, but also all participants will be able to make their impact on the sound space created – and thus help shape one of the last shows of this work.

This is a living work that remains open to a variety of interpretations. We will explore it both in action and in conversation, broadening our understanding of the installation with essential contexts. In addition, we will invite you to the premiere screenings of documentation of the performances that took place in the exhibition space and in relation to the installation itself during the last edition of the Sacrum Profanum festival in November 2025.

Below, a detailed programme of the closing event, prepared in collaboration with Krzysztof Pietraszewski and the Sacrum Profanum festival.

The Closing Event of the Exhibition Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More

Performative Activities

By simply being present in the installation space, the audience becomes part of its resonance. At the same time, the members of the audience themselves can become an active source of sound, recorded by microphones, that accompanies the mechanics of the bells’ movement.

On Saturday 24 January, at 12 noon and 2 pm, we invite you to participate in performative activities – active participation in the multisensory process of creating and experiencing sound.

Small instruments and other elements will be prepared for participants to enable them to participate in the process of creating sound for the installation to collect for the duration of four minutes. This will be followed by a 17-minute presentation of the processed and amplified recording. During this time, participants will be invited to transform the sound and accompanying vibrations into drawings or words on large sheets of paper.

Those interested in participating are asked to gather at Konrad Smoleński’s installation 15 minutes before 12 noon, or before 2 pm.

Participation in the event is included in the price of the exhibition ticket.

On Creating Experiences

Panel discussion on the installation by Konrad Smoleński

24 January 2026, 4 pm

On Saturday 24 January at 4 pm we invite you to take part in a panel disccusion about the installation Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More by Konrad Smoleński, presented presented as part of the collaboration between MOCAK, the Sacrum Profanum festival, and the National Centre for Culture. The event will be attended by Antoni Michnik, Maria Olbrychtowicz, Krzysztof Pietraszewski and Marek Pospieszalski.

Returning more than a decade after its premiere, the installation is open to various interpretations, resonating not only with the space, but also with discourses present in contemporary humanistic thought. The presented arrangement has changed from the original one, moving with the times to tell its own story and comment on reality. Is it really the case that we are getting no more than ‘what you see is what you get’? We will talk about this with the guests of the event – soon!

Event timetable:

4 pm – communal experience of Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More by Konrad Smoleński in the exhibition hall

4.30 pm – discussion in the audiovisual hall

Tickets at 5 PLN can be bought online >>  or in the museum ticket office.

Antoni Michnik – a graduate of the Institute of Art History at the University of Warsaw, cultural historian, sound studies researcher, performer. He obtained his doctorate at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). Founding member of the research and performance group ETC. He has published in “Konteksty“, “Kultura Popularna“, “Kultura Współczesna“, “Kwartalnik Filmowy“, “Dialog“, “Rocznik Historii Sztuki“ and “Zeszyty Literackie“. He is co-editor of the books Fluxus w trzech aktach. Narracje – estetyki – geografie Grupy ETC (Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, 2014) and Poza Rejestrem. Rozmowy o muzyce i prawie autorskim (Fundacja Nowoczesna Polska, 2015). He has performed solo and with the ETC Group at numerous festivals and contemporary art and music presentations, interpreting neo-avant-garde musical compositions.

Maria Olbrychtowicz – an intermedia artist from Kraków who focuses on painting and sound art in her work. In 2016, she graduated with honours from the Intermedia Department of the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, and currently works as an assistant in the sound studio at the same university. Her interests focus on the spatial aspect of composing sound structures and acoustics, with particular emphasis on architecture as sound sculpture. In 2019, she began her doctoral studies, taking up the topic of the relationship between architecture and sound, and an important aspect of her work is the introduction of the term ‘site-specific sound’ into academic discourse. She is the winner of numerous awards and distinctions. She has submitted her doctoral dissertation Site-Specific Sound. She collaborates with the magazine “Glissando”.

Krzysztof Pietraszewski – curator, cultural manager, executive producer, music journalist, graduate of law at the Jagiellonian University, winner of the Creative Scholarship of the City of Kraków. Silesian by origin, a krakovian by choice. Since 2016, he has been the artistic director of the Sacrum Profanum new music festival and has built a new identity for the festival while bearing in mind its history. Nominated for the Onet and City of Kraków Cultural Award – O!Lśnienia in the classical music and jazz category for creating a new dimension of listening to and presenting music online. He was nominated for the Coryphaeus of Polish Music 2020 in the event of the year category for the strong voice of women and the networking of the Sacrum Profanum festival, and for the online edition of the Sacrum Profanum festival. In collaboration with, among others, Bôłt and Bocian Records, he was the executive producer of albums from the series the Sacrum Profanum Archives. In 2019, he prepared a report on the development of contemporary music in Kraków. At Radio Kraków Kultura, he programs the slot RKK Live and hosts his own music show, Muzykoteka, and also appears on Poranek RKK.

Marek Pospieszalski – saxophonist, composer, improviser, and sound artist, one of the most distinctive figures on the Polish experimental music scene. His work covers a wide spectrum of aesthetics: from free jazz, through contemporary music to electroacoustic hybrid forms. Pospieszalski is known for projects such as Polish Composers of the 20^th Century, in which he combines musical erudition with uncompromising expression and the physicality of sound. Working with open form, improvised structure, and analogue technology plays an important role in his practice.

NOISE SENSITIVITY WARNING

The installation Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More by Konrad Smoleński periodically generates very loud sounds and vibrations that may cause discomfort to some visitors. Please exercise caution, especially if you are sensory sensitive. It is not recommended that children under the age of seven enter the installation. The use of hearing protection is recommended. The museum reception desk provides noise-cancelling headphones and earplugs on request.

Screening of documentation of the concert series.InstaImprovisations in collaboration with the Sacrum Profanum festival

25 January 2026, 1 pm, 3 pm, 5 pm

On Sunday, 25 January, please come to a screening of documentary footage of concerts and performances interacting with Konrad Smoleński’s installation Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More, which took place at MOCAK as part of the last edition of the Sacrum Profanum festival.

InstaImprovisations was the main concert series of last year’s edition, which interacted with Smoleński’s installation in the form of improvisation. From among the performers and composers present at the festival, a pair of artists who had not worked together before was selected for each day. The musicians were invited to improvise inside the installation and interfact with Smoleński’s sound work.

We will return to the documentation of the following performances: 1 pm – screening of the documentation of the performance by Polish saxophonist Marek Pospieszalski with French guitarist Guilhem Lacroux

3 pm – screening of documentation of a performance by French artist Jérôme Noetinger, who plays reel-to-reel tape recorders, with Danish cellist Jakob Kullberg

5 pm – screening of documentation of the performance by Norwegian singer and composer Mai Ratkje and French hurdy-gurdy player Yann Gourdon

The screenings will take place in the MOCAK Audiovisual Hall. Admission is included in the exhibition ticket price.

Guided tour in Polish of  Konrad Smoleński’s exhibition Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More

25 January 2026, 12 noon

On Sunday 25 January, at 12 noon, please come to the final guided tour of Konrad Smoleński’s exhibition Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More. Your guide will be Katarzyna Grudniewska, artist and educator.

Admission is included in the exhibition ticket price. Please meet at the MOCAK reception.

Guide: Katarzyna Grudniewska, PhD – educator and visual artist. She collaborates with Kraków cultural institutions, children’s universities, and schools in the field of arts education. She teaches a visual arts course at a high school offering the International Baccalaureate. She organizes exhibitions and writes articles on culture.