Zachęta – National Gallery of Art

artists (works from the Zachęta collection): Magda Bielesz, Agata Bogacka, Tomasz Ciecierski, Stanisław Dróżdż, Paweł Jarodzki, Włodzimierz Pawlak, Wilhelm Sasnal, Jacek Sempoliński, Jan Tarasin
curators: Maria Świerżewska-Franczak, Anna Zdzieborska
authors of musical pieces: students of Gimnazjum Przymierza Rodzin nr 2 im. ks. Jana Twardowskiego in Warsaw, led by Dagna Sadkowska
exhibition design and mural: Jacek Świdziński

A presentation at the Zachęta workshop room recapitulates project Musical Images in which students of one of Warsaw’s secondary schools participated throughout the school year as part of an individually. The meetings at Zachęta provided an opportunity to become familiar with new instrumental techniques, contemporary composers and musical literaturę in confrontation with art history and contemporary art works. Paintings from the Zachęta collection served as examples for discussing concepts such as rhythm, texture, word, time or interpretation, and for analysing their significance in the context of the visual arts and music. Every meeting culminated in the participants’ recording their own pieces; collected in an audio catalogue, they constitute a gallery of musical interpretations of works from the Zachęta collection.

At the exhibition, these works have been juxtaposed with their musical interpretations created by the project participants. This integration of the visual and audio spheres is complemented with the design by the cartoon and mural artist Jacek Świdziński. The title Endless Register refers to a featured work by Jan Tarasin that during one of the meetings became a pretext for a discussion about rhythmic composition in the visual arts and music. The reference suggests also a continuation of the Musical Images project and it open form – there can be as many musical interpretations of a given visual work as there are viewers.