OFFICE OF POSSIBILITIES
Platform for discussion about the transformation of an art institute

10.06.2011 – 10.06.2014



The Office of possibilities is a three-year project in which CCA Ujazdowski Castle associates will conduct research and implement a series of art-related events concerning the status of an institute that promotes contemporary art. We intend to consider the social function such institute plays and the way it reacts to cutting-edge art phenomena. We plan to create a platform for discussion on the model a contemporary art centre should assume – a discussion on the centre's establishment, development, historical examples and prospects for growth. The project's goal is to set out the conditions under which such institutional model coalesced, define the needs and ways its functioning would change to properly recognize and react to the discontinuity and multidimensionality of the latest art practices.

The Office of Possibilities project will be a platform for discussion and knowledge building. The platform:
- is a research program, implemented with consideration and involvement of patrons;
- involves variegated knowledge distribution channels: workshops, discussion groups, artistic interventions, and presentations;
- assumes each stage serves to formulate conclusions and crystallizes spheres of discussion and interventions in future years.

The meetings will serve to analyze a multifunctional model of an art centre in the context of changes in art practices; we will consider the centre's role in the urban ecosystem. We will compare and contrast the CCA Ujazdowski Castle model with experiences of other relevant institutions around the world. We will suggest debate topics intended to diagnose contemporary art institutions in the broader context of discourse concerning transformation of economic and political systems and knowledge distribution. Along with invited artists, we will attempt to forecast and formulate hypotheses concerning possibilities for transforming the present contemporary art institution model.

The Office of Possibilities inaugural meeting:

10.06.2011, 6 pm, Gallery 1, Marble Room
An Institution for New Art: around the concept of the Art Research Centre and Centre for Art Investigation, Wrocław ‘70
Panel discussion organized as part of the Office of Possibilities with Wojciech Krukowski, Andrzej Turowski, Magdalena Ziółkowska, chaired by Paweł Polit

19.07.2011. 6.30 pm, Laboratory Building
Gregor Muir,The ICA – Past, Present & Future
lecture by the director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, chaired by Paweł Polit and Anna Ptak

January 20, 2012, 6 pm, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Zygmuntowska Hall
Open meeting on the institutions of contemporary art in Warsaw:
Hanna Wróblewska (Zachęta National Gallery of Art Gallery), Joanna Mytkowska (Museum of Modern Art), Fabio Cavallucci (Centrefor Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle)
Chaired by: Beata Chmiel

February 1, 2012, 6 pm, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Zygmuntowska Hall 
Claire Tancons Carnival, Procession, Protest – Performance, Reenactment, Protest (on Occupy Wall Street), lecture

March 20, 2012, 6 pm, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Zygmuntowska Hall
Alfredo Cramerotti I believe in starting from the middle... The relevance of contemporary art for a better or worse understanding of contemporary life., lecture

May 28, 2012, 3 pm, CCA's Laboratory building, Performance hall 
Pascal Gielen Art Institutions in a Flat World, lecture

September 27, 2012, 6 pm, Laboratory Building, Performance hall
Eva Franch i Gilabert Critical fun. 10 points towards Storefront for Art and Architecture

November 12, 2012, 6.30 pm, Laboratory Building
RoseLee Goldberg Performa: A biennial for the 21st Century

March 19, 2013 at 6 p.m.
Jean-Baptiste Joly Sisyphus in Solitude