A new space for contemporary art will open in the former shipyard area. The building was made available to the National Museum in Gdańsk by the Municipality of Gdańsk in 2015. City Hall also funded the comprehensive upgrade of the post-industrial architecture to accommodate a modern museum with exhibition and education rooms, a cinema/conference room, a café, a reading room and study rooms for research and art residencies. NOMUS is located in the Young City, a new district that is growing dynamically in the post-shipyard area.

The building which houses NOMUS was built during World War II as a vocational school for future shipyard workers. In 1940, the shipyard was taken over by the Third Reich for the Kriegsmarine to use mainly to make submarines. After World War II, the building continued as a vocational school and workshop at Gdańsk Shipyard—until the 1990s. After the shipyard had been privatised, the building stood empty for several years, to become the Wyspa Art Institute in 2004–2014. In 2015, as a result of a joint initiative of the Mayor of Gdańsk and the museum organisers, the Marshal of the Pomorskie Voivodship and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, a decision was taken to establish NOMUS as a department of the National Museum in Gdańsk

The NOMUS opening weekend will feature two exhibitions and multiple pieces of performance art; you can take part in tours, a workshop, a debate and a rock concert by the Gdańsk-based band Trupa Trupa. The main exhibition entitled Collection in Action will present the work of over 40 artists, who largely come from Gdańsk, and will tell the story of the various ways in which art takes action: how it relates to social and political life. Performance art is a special case of such action, with documentation of it available for your viewing at the exhibition. Most of the pieces come from the Gdańsk Contemporary Art Collection, which has been accumulated by the Municipality of Gdańsk in collaboration with the National Museum in Gdańsk since 2017 and which is gradually handed over to the Museum’s care as a deposit. The collection mainly includes art by distinguished Polish artists, many of them from the Tri-City Area of Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot.

There will also be an exhibition of the contemporary art of Iraqi Kurds entitled Let a Flame Precede You. The leading themes of the exhibition will revolve around commemorating the emotional transformation related to the experience of traumatic history, alongside the behavioural and social change after the Second Persian Gulf War.

The NOMUS opening weekend is a taster of the department’s character  profile: here the vital modern-day challenges, reflected in art, will meet Gdańsk’s locality marked with a social, economic and political context.

Opening Weekend Programme Curator: Aneta Szyłak

Welcome to the Opening Weekend!

 When: 22–24 Oct 2021
 Where: NOMUS / New Art Museum (ul. Jaracza 14) and the Green Gate (ul. Długi Targ 24)

Exhibition opening hours during the Opening Weekend:

Collection in Action
NOMUS / New Art Museum, ul. Jaracza 14
Friday, 22 Oct 2021, 18.30–22:00
Saturday, 23 Oct 2021, 12:00–22:00
Sunday, 24 Oct 2021, 10:00–18:00

Let a Flame Precede You
Green Gate Department, ul. Długi Targ 24
Friday, 22 Oct 2021, 18.30–22:00
Saturday, 23 Oct 2021, 12:00–22:00
Sunday, 24 Oct 2021, 10:00–18:00

Practical information:
The events will take place in two locations: NOMUS in ul. Jaracza 14 and the Green Gate in ul. Długi Targ 24.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions registration is required for some of the events.
Register by e-mail: zapisynomus@mng.gda.pl or call +48 58 301 70 61 ext. 216 from Monday to Friday between 8:00–16:00.

Register until 22 Oct 2021.

NOMUS / New Art Museum Opening Weekend Programme

22 October, Friday

NOMUS / New Art Museum

The NOMUS opening events will be streamed live at facebook.com/nomus.gd  from 18:00 to 21:00

— 18:00 –NOMUS / New Art Museum, Branch of the National Museum in Gdańsk and the Collection in Action exhibition opening ceremony

— 19:00 – Ania Nowak, To the Aching Parts! (Manifesto), performance
Place: ground floor, main lobby

— 19.30 – Kate Groobey, Power (from the Assholes of Ambition series), performance
Place: 2nd floor, education room

— 19.50 – Kate Groobey, Never Had an Enemy Before (from the Assholes of Ambition series), performance
Place: 2nd floor, education room

— 20:00 – Grzegorz Klaman, Reverse Archaeology #2 2004–2021, performance
Place: 1st floor, Gallery D

— 20.30 – Ruben Montini, Altarpieces (Poland), performance
this event takes place throughout the opening weekend:
Friday, 22 Oct 2021, 20.30–22:00
Saturday, 23 Oct 2021, 12:00–22:00
Sunday, 24 Oct 2021, 10:00–18:00
Place: 2nd floor, education room

— 21:00 – Florian Tuercke, Project Longboardharp, live in concert
Place: ground floor, auditorium

— 22:00 – Trupa Trupa, live in concert
Place: ground floor, auditorium

Saturday, 23 October

NOMUS / New Art Museum

— 9:00 – Neighbourhood Breakfast
Host: Honorata Martin, Gosia Bujak
Place: ground floor, main lobby

— 12:00–22:00 – Ruben Montini, Altarpieces (Poland), performance
Place: 2nd floor, education room

— 13:00 – What do we need museums of contemporary art for today? – debate
Debate participants: Bogna Burska, Anda Rottenberg, Piotr Stasiowski, Jarosław Suchan, Bogna Świątkowska (moderator)
Place: ground floor, auditorium

— 14:00 – Tour of the Collection in Action exhibition with PJM sign language translation
Host: Małgorzata Paszylka-Glaza
Registration required

— 15:00–18:00 – Runner 2.0, performance workshop
Host: Piotr Wyrzykowski
Place: ground floor, reading room
No more than 10 people may stay in the room at the same time.
Persons who take part in the workshop consent to the recording of their image and its further use by Piotr Wyrzykowski in his artistic endeavours.

— 16:00 – Tour of the Collection in Action exhibition. Path: Performance – Artists and Audience in Action
Host: Karolina Pluta
Registration required

— 18:00 – Tour of the Collection in Action exhibition. Path: New Life – Designing a Modern Community
Host: Maria Stelmaszczyk
Registration required

— 20:00 – Evening tour of the Collection in Action exhibition
Host: Mariola Balińska
Registration required

GREEN GATE

— 17:00 – Let a Flame Precede You exhibition preview
Place: floor III

— 18:00 – Khabat Abas and Hardi Kurda, Illegal Performance, performance
Place: floor III

— 19:00 – Curator’s tour of the Let a Flame Precede You exhibition
Host: Aneta Szyłak

Sunday, 24 October

NOMUS / New Art Museum

— 10:00–18:00 – Ruben Montini, Altarpieces (Poland), performance
Place: 2nd floor, education room

— 10:00–17:00 – The Maids of Wilko – DJ set
Place: ground floor, main lobby

— 10:00 – Bright Place. Neon sign-making workshop (for children with their minders)
Host: Eugenia Tynna
For children up to 6 years old and their minders.
Place: ground floor, reading room
Registration required

— 11:00 – Curator’s tour of the Collection in Action exhibition
Host: Aneta Szyłak
Registration required

— 12:00 – Embodied Place. Workshop on naturalising a place through movement and the body
Hosts: Wioletta Fiuk, Patryk Gacki
Place: exhibition space
Registration required

— 14:00 – Tour of the Collection in Action exhibition. Path: Performance – Artists and Audience in Action
Host: Karolina Pluta
Registration required

— 15:00 – Tour of the Collection in Action exhibition. Path: New Life – Designing a Modern Community
Host: Maria Stelmaszczyk
Registration required
 
— 16.15–18:00 – Nomos in NOMUS – the Power of the Idea of Community. Art collection use workshop
Host: Maria Stelmaszczyk
Adults only.
Registration required

GREEN GATE

— 11:00 – Tour of the Let a Flame Precede You exhibition
Host: Małgorzata Ruszkowska
Registration required

— 13:00–14.30 – Hiwa K and Anna Steller, Embodied Research, performance with audience participation
Place: floor II
Registration required

— 16:00 – Curator’s tour of the Curator’s tour of the Let a Flame Precede You exhibition
Host: Aneta Szyłak
Registration required


The creation of NOMUS as a branch of the National Museum in Gdańsk is a joint initiative of the Mayor of the City of Gdańsk and the museum organisers: the Marshal of the Pomorskie Voivodship and the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport.

Performance programme and debate: Agata Abramowicz, Aleksandra Grzonkowska, Małgorzata Ludwisiak, Aneta Szyłak

Educational programme concept by Tomasz Sosnowski

Produced and co-ordinated by Gabriela Brdej, Franciszek Skibiński

NOMUS lobby sponsors:
Main sponsor: mesmetric
Strategic sponsor: Comforty
Partners: Vitra, Bagomar, Kamena Decor, Interstone
National Museum in Gdańsk media auspices: pomorskie.eu, gdansk.pl, trojmiasto.pl, Gazeta Wyborcza
NOMUS opening weekend media partners: VOGUE Polska, Label Magazine, Magazyn SZUM, K MAG, NN6T, Contemporary Lynx, Poptown.eu, Noizz.pl

NOMUS
Branch of the National Museum in Gdańsk
ul. Stefana Jaracza 14
Facebook: facebook.com/nomus.gd, Instagram: @nomusgdansk