The collection of Galeria Mospan, collected by Tomasz Sikorski, who was leading this place, gathers precious pieces of Warsaw neo-avant-garde art from the 1970s. Due to the nature of this art, most photos and a small number of other documents remain, such as press articles. Meanwhile, for almost three years of the existence of Galeria Mospan, an important group of Polish and outside creators has passed through it.
The Mospan Gallery functioned formally at the Mospan Club operating under the auspices of the Socialist Union of Polish Students at the Warsaw University of Technology in the Ochota Club Center, at the Student House "Babylon" in Warsaw at ul. Kopińska 12/16. Officially, it was a student gallery, but de facto its activity had little to do with creative searches of young engineers from the Polytechnic. Such an institutional form can be seen as a protective umbrella or a buffer between the neo-avant-garde and serious centers of power. In practice, the Mospan Gallery was overlooked not only by political or academic authorities but also by critics disrespecting such a niche initiative. The SZSP umbrella gave the gallery first of all premises for which otherwise there would be no chance, as well as very modest financial support.
The origins of the gallery date back to 1975, when Paweł Freisler, an artist associated with the neo-avant-garde environment of the Warsaw University Cultural Center - Sigma, the creator of "Gallery" - experimental exhibition space alongside Sigma - known for "art of intrigue" and polemics with the older avant-garde from the Foksal Gallery, proposed Tomasz Sikorski, then a student at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, running a gallery at the Mospan club, located in the dormitory of the Warsaw University of Technology "Babylon" in Ochota. Sikorski agreed without hesitation to such a unique proposition; the gallery was officially inaugurated in January 1976.
During the first period, Sikorski based on his previous contacts with the neo-avant-garde movement, inviting to the Mospan Gallery those artists whose works he knew and appreciated. Already in May 1976, the concept of "house of art" appeared, a place that is going beyond the exposition, in which artists could get settled, learn freely and experiment with innovative projects, and not just exhibiting their work. In line with this attitude, Sikorski departed from the formula of the vernissage, calling events in his gallery "meetings." Experimenting with the media and techniques went hand in hand with a sense of community and interpersonal relationships as values in themselves. Important was integration as well as joint creation which supposed to lead to events, without no strict formula.
At the end of 1976, Sikorski invited Tomasz Konart, a student at the Lodz Film School, connected with the neo-avant-garde communities there, and with the Film Form Workshop at the forefront. Together, they ran the Mospan Gallery until December 1978, when the club's management, under the pretext of renovation, decided to liquidate it; the reasons for this decision are unknown. Sikorski and Konart continued their activities for almost a year, under the name of Galeria P.O. Box 17, without a fixed address.
In the Mospan Gallery, were hosted artists such as Zofia Kulik and Przemysław Kwiek (KwieKulik), Paweł Freisler, Edward Dwurnik, Jiří Kovanda, Pawel Tuč, Jacek Malicki, Andrzej Paruzel, Andrzej Partum, Zbigniew Warpechowski, Todosijević Raša, Albert van der Weide, Janusz Bałdyga, Jerzy Onuch and Łukasz Szajna, as well as the leading gallery Sikorski and Konart. Many events took the form of innovative lectures, performances, shows or displays. The documentation of the Gallery's activities was presented twice. One of the most important events was the Form and Sound exhibition presenting the works of students of Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz's from Sculpture Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts, inspired by the avant-garde musician and composer Andrzej Bieżan in March 1978. Despite the short period of its existence, Galeria Mospan was an important point on the map of neo-avant-garde Warsaw, and its creators were developing concepts which had begun in Ochota at students' house in later years.
Sources:
Tomasz Sikorski, Galeria Mospan, "Student" nr 19, IX-X 1977.
Tomasz Sikorski, Galeria Mospan i Galeria P.O. Box 17 – opis i kalendarium, http://galeriamospan.blogspot.com/2014/11/galeria-mospan-i-galeria-pobox-17-opis.html;
Tomasz Sikorski, Free Energy, Mazowieckie Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej Elektrownia, Radom 2017.
