Masterpieces from the Lanckoroński Collection

The exhibition sets contemporary display structures into the historic interiors of a royal castle, using geometry, proportions and material references drawn from antiquity. Five rooms share one language but change in colour and texture as visitors move through.

In the entrance hall, two sweeping walls hide much of the existing architecture and guide visitors towards the first gallery. Clay plaster, stone and metal tie the new work to the materials of ancient building and of the objects on show. At the centre, a blurred circle of light spreads across the edges of the walls, its two halves joining only from certain positions, so that sunlight becomes an optical device and perception becomes a theme.

In the first room, glazed birch plywood rises continuously from the floor and turns into a translucent veneer higher up, lit from behind. The curved joints between floor and wall make the room feel fluid and partly dematerialised, recalling the inclined surfaces of Claude Parent and Paul Virilio. Figurative sculptures sit on timber bases that project from the walls, and a large photograph recalls the fresco hall of the collection’s former museum, where art and architecture were conceived together.

In the next room, a textured floor bends up to cover two facing walls, hiding windows and doors and forming a continuous backdrop for plaster casts on marble pedestals of varying heights, set so the tops of the sculptures align. A warm brown room centres on a perforated plywood wall, its circular openings at eye level holding photographs of objects that could not travel, alongside niches for four small pieces, like a contemporary stereoscope.

The last room has a single curved wall covered, like the floor, in burgundy carpet, its colour answering the old stone staircase and its pile keeping faint handprints. A circular case holds five small, precious objects within concentric brass frames, and a brass pedestal rests on an irregular stone base. Throughout, organic forms, subdued colour and discreet light give the collection a setting without competing with it.