The Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź is opening an exhibition titled "Gifts of Friendship" on 15 May, featuring nearly 150 works donated to the museum between 2024 and 2026 by some 80 artists from dozens of countries. The exhibition, curated by Barbara Piwowarska, traces the museum's origins to the 1920s when avant-garde artists like Władysław Strzemiński and Katarzyna Kobro built the International Collection of Modern Art through artist-to-artist gifts, bypassing market logic. The current show responds to the institution's recent crisis by turning again to the artistic community for support, resulting in a wave of donations that reaffirm the museum's founding ethos.
This matters because the exhibition challenges the dominant market-driven model of art collecting and ownership, presenting the gift as a political and social act of solidarity. In an era of political tensions, economic uncertainty, and social divisions, the show demonstrates how public museums can function as living networks of exchange and trust rather than mere storage for valuable objects. It revives the avant-garde belief that art can affect reality and build community across borders, offering a utopian yet vital alternative to the commercial art world.