Venue: Gdańsk Centre for Contemporary Art, Jaskółcza 1
Opening: 25 July 2026 | Jaskółcza 1 | 12:00
Duration: 25 July – 13 December 2026
Curators: Izabela Wieczorek, Aneta Lehmann
Curatorial collaboration: Marta Kołacz
Spatial design: BudCud
Visual identity: Renia Maj
Director of the Gdańsk Centre for Contemporary Art: Marta Kołacz
Coordination and production: Daniel Burdalski, Piotr Grdeń, Beata Filipowicz, Patrycja Hałka, Dominika Jastrzębska, Katarzyna Serkowska, Zbigniew Wymysłowski
Production collaboration: Wojciech Ruminski
Exhibition contractor: Superforma
Accessibility: Anna Manthey
Education: Katarzyna Dobrońska, Mikołaj Robert Jurkowski, Nikodem Krysztofowicz, Katarzyna Lewandowska
Communication and promotion: Katarzyna Klimek, Sara Rokicka, Julia Salińska, Natalia Gorzelańczyk
Editing: Beata Duszyńska
Translation: Helena Marzec-Gołąb
Substantive collaboration: Marcin Boryczko, Patrycja Brudzińska, Joanna Doroszuk
from the Institute of Pedagogy, University of Gdańsk
Accounting: Grażyna Konieczna, Alicja Krzemińska, Dorota Sadowska
Space maintenance: Beata Bellon
Space security: Małgorzata Rutkowska
Partners: Profikultura, IKEA, Dekoma
Media partners: TVP ABC, Fundacja Nowej Wspólnoty, Fathers, Czas Dzieci, Bliżej Przedszkola, Notes Na 6 Tygodni, Magazyn Pismo, PLNDesign.pl Magazine, HUS Magazine, Prestiż Magazine, F5 Magazine, Magazif Magazine, Good Idea, Rodzice w Edukacji, Trójmiasto.pl, 10 Minut Spokoju by Justyna Kozłowska, Sztuka Dla Dzieci by Joanna Markisz, Supertata.tv
Copyright:
Palle Nielsen, VEGAP, Barcelona | Courtesy of MACBA Consortium
If it was up to you, what would your district look like?
In the exhibition room of the Gdańsk Centre for Contemporary Art, a small prototype city sprung up, with a square, a stoop, the falowiec climbpartment. The BudCud architecture duo created their own interpretation of the legendary action by Palle Nielsen, who introduced children’s freedom into the walls of Stockholm’s Moderna Museet in 1968. He organized a space without orders, prohibitions or norms. Thanks to play, children earned agency.
The Gdańsk take at the Nielsenian rules invites the audience to shape their environment and the relationships with others by their own rules. It’s not a typical exhibition, but a public place that children can build according to their needs. And what is public is also shared.
Today, evoking the radical gesture from the 1960s poses new questions on the role of art institutions and on the quality of public spaces. Do we treat children as full-fledged, wanted users of the places we share? How should we shape the cities to foster the autonomy of the youngest ones without concerns for their safety? How to make the city square a square for happenings we take part in together?
The Models of Community will test this. Whether paths will be created, and where they will lead, will depend on the children: whether they will create in groups, or on their own.Whether they will lie around or run around. The exhibition is an invitation to co-be and to learn the mutual responsibility, as even in the play space, freedom has its limits. It happens that you need to let someone else have a go or ask for support.
The exhibition is supported by the City of Gdańsk as part of the “ProfiKultura – Gdańsk Digital Addiction Prevention Programme”, funded through the Municipal Programme for the Prevention and Resolution of Alcohol-Related Problems and Counteracting Drug Addiction for the Municipality of the City of Gdańsk.
