Eyes Looking For a Head to Inhabit at Museum of Art Łódź

The Museum of Art in Łódź hosted the exhibition 'Eyes Looking For a Head to Inhabit' from 30 September to 11 December 2011, celebrating the 80th anniversary of the International Collection of Modern Art. This collection was initiated by the Polish constructivist avant-garde group 'a.r.'—comprising Katarzyna Kobro, Władysław Strzemiński, Jan Brzękowski, and Henryk Stażewski—in 1931 through artist donations and exchanges, making it one of the earliest modern art museums worldwide. The exhibition, organized by Aleksandra Jach, Joanna Sokołowska, Katarzyna Słoboda, and Magdalena Ziółkowska, features a three-part narrative detailing the collection's journey from the Municipal Museum of History and Art to the Poznański Palace and its current location on Ogrodowa Street (2005). It showcases works that engage with themes of migration, utopia, and technology, including Josef Dabernig's 'Jogging' (2000) and Ruth Oppenheim's 'Three Suitcase Stories' (2006), alongside installations like Jadwiga Sawicka's 'ms²', referencing Kobro's 1937 manifesto, and reconstructions of the 1913 Futurist opera 'Victory over the Sun'. The exhibition reflects on the isolation faced by the Łódź avant-garde and the conflict between modernist ideals and totalitarianism, concluding with references to John Cage's concepts and Adrian Piper's 'Funk Lessons'.