"I dream of a painting I could completely immerse myself in" - Leon Tarasewicz once said, and in 2005, in the Gallery of 20th-Century Polish Art of the National Museum in Krakow mounted a spatial installation, creating an illusion of immersion in the painting. On the 10th anniversary of the gallery, the square in front of the Main Building, which serves as the Museum Forum, presents Tarasewicz's colossal construction, which covers an area of 200 square metres and contains an unusual maze.

The installation consists of several rows of columns with colourful stripes, reflected in mirrors. Entering the maze is like entering a painting. One gets the impression that the painting continues ad infinitum, affecting all our senses with its colours.

Leon Tarasewicz created this work in September 2011 in Kielce's Artists' Square. So far, it has been the largest public space project by this artist. The idea of the installation was initiated by Tomasz Tworek – an art collector and the CEO of Dorbud S.A. - who covered the entire cost of its production. He presents his collection in the renovated BRISTOL **** Art & SPA Sanatorium, where art is meant to enhance healing.

Up until now, Tarasewicz's projects in public space could be seen e.g. in the Plaza Real in Barcelona (2002), on the facade of the Teatr Wielki [Grand Theatre] in Poznań (2003), on the walls of a multi-storey car park in Milan (2005) or at the Golden Gate in Kiev (2010). In 2001, as a representative of Poland at the 49th International Biennale in Venice, he covered the entire floor of the Polish pavilion with painting, while in 2003 he turned the interiors of Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw into a painting, and in 2006 he filled with painting the interiors of the Kunsthalle St. Annen, located in the former 15th-century church in Lübeck.

Leon Tarasiewicz was born in 1957. He studied at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts under the supervision of Tadeusz Dominik. Since 1994, he has run a Visiting Painting Studio in this institution and currently works as a professor at the Painting Space Studio at the Faculty of Media Arts. He made his debut in the 1980s, when Polish art was dominated by expression. However, Tarasewicz went his own way and remained in Waliły. He lives and works in a wooden school building erected in 1934, which was adapted as a studio. He breeds ornamental chicken, pheasants and pigeons, though painting remains the axis of his life. He treats it as one of the elements, a ritual, experiment, fun. The painting installation is inspired by the place of his childhood – a landscape of the Ruda swamp in the Białystok region.

Tarasiewicz "continually and perhaps most willingly carries out his projects outdoors, usually in public space, as though his painting was finally meant to return to landscape" – Jola Gola writes in the catalogue to his painting project in Kielce in 2011.


Museum Forum curator: Katarzyna Bik
Coordinator: Robert Flur

Museum Forum is a project launched in 2009, whose aim is to distinctly mark the presence of the National Museum in Krakow in public space, and to create a special “forum”, namely a meeting place of artists and spectators, residents of the city and visitors. The forum is located in the square in front of the Main Building of the Museum at al. 3 Maja 1.

Museum Forum's partner in 2015 is BRISTOL **** Art & SPA Sanatorium, a place where the healing power of art, combined with treatments based on the natural wealth of Busko – sulphide water – helps to regain health and form.