Couple of weeks ago my friends and I went to see the opening of our new Museum of Contemporary Arts in Kraków - MOCAK. In fact I work right next to it, which is very exciting. The whole district, called Podgórze, is an old industrial part of town and it looked just like one when I started working in the graphic studio few years ago. Not there's a whole new movement to it, the aforementioned museum and another pretty famous one just next door to it - the Schindler's Factory. Yes, THE one from the movie. It was transformed into a very modern museum lately, presenting history of Kraków under the nazi occupation. Apart from that there are old lofts transformed to new apartments etc. I can say our office is in a rather trendy neighbourhood these days then.
Coming back to MOCAK, the opening took place for political reasons. Yes, you heard it right. We had elections for the mayor of the city and the current mayor wanted to open something big before the election day, get in the spotlight and promote his work for the city. Therefore he decided to open the museum before it can actually be open. He promoted it as opening of the building itself. The actual exhibitions will not take place until spring. As ridiculous as it sounds, the event turned out OK mostly because the building, designed by an Italian architect Claudio Nardi, is very impressive. It explores the shapes of original roofs of the Schindler's factory (it's part of the old factory's complex). You can see that on the bottom right photo, the triangular walls. Oh, and it worked - he got reelected.
My favourite part of the tour was the little cafeteria because it had ...furniture. Show me good furniture and I'm there. I am such a simple girl to please. They had really nice lamps and chairs. You can see me sitting and contemplating in the top left photo (in case you wondered what I looked like). Check out more photos of the building after the break (from Claudio Nardi Architects).
