At the Four Domes Pavilion in Wrocław, light turns into thought and concrete into emotion. This is the home of contemporary Polish art. But the first thing you notice as you arrive is the neighboring Centennial Hall.
The iconic Wrocław structure immediately grabs our attention with its monumental concrete dome — said to be the largest in the world. In front of the hall we discover an elegant spire. Originally part of the exhibition composition, today it stands like a symbol of architecture, engineering, and artistic perception. That contrast between the massive hall and the slender spire creates a spatial dynamic that almost made us miss our meeting — we were about to interview Iwona Bigos, Director of the Gallery of contemporary art.
Where light touches concrete
“The Four Domes Pavilion in Wrocław is like a temple of light and silence. The monumental building by Hans Poelzig, built in 1912 in a mere eight months,” smiles Iwona Bigos. “Today it would take at least three years.”
We sit in the café inside the huge glass-atrium that unites the museum’s wings into a single courtyard. She smiles, and I realise that although we’re inside a museum, the atmosphere is surprisingly alive. Light glides across the exposed concrete walls and the silence has a strange resonance—as though the architecture itself is breathing.
Mobile home for the homeless
Right there in the atrium, on the left, Iwona points out an experimental prototype home for the homeless. The meaning only becomes clear when we see photos of the first installation, directly under the Trump Centre in New York.
A collection that breathes its era
“Our pavilion is part of the National Museum in Wrocław,” explains Iwona. “But here we focus exclusively on contemporary art. We have a permanent exhibition of post-war Polish creation — a time when art survived totalitarianism, censorship and doubt.”
She stops at one of the monumental sculptures. “The works of Magdalena Abakanowicz are about human fragility, about what remains when a human becomes shape.”
“We have over 22,000 works,” she adds. “More than half are photographs. Not because we collected them programmatically — but because after the war photography became a new language of reality.”
Art as provocation, not decoration
“Every exhibition is an experiment for us,” continues Iwona Bigos. “Right now we’re showing a retrospective of Waldemar Cwenarski — Czułość. Powroty i poszukiwania (Tenderness: Returns & Explorations).”
“We also have a major piece by Marcin Maciejowski called Bucza, which crosses Picasso’s Guernica with Malevich’s Black Square. And there is a work by Joanna Rajkowska, depicting the current situation in Gaza. These are shows that hurt. But that’s the point.”
“People sometimes leave moved,” she says. “But art is not meant to comfort. Art is meant to provoke.”
Wrocław as a laboratory of creativity
“Wrocław is a city of artists,” she goes on. “We have an Academy of Fine Arts, small galleries, experimental spaces. Many are run by our former students—it’s an ecosystem where people know each other, discuss, react.”
That’s why the Four Domes Pavilion is not just a gallery. Every week there are workshops, discussions, film screenings. “We don’t want to be a top-down institution,” explains Iwona. “We want to be a meeting place. Because if art doesn’t live among people, it remains just an object behind glass.”
Fantasy like oxygen
Our conversation turns to a subject that’s quiet but important. “People seem to be forgetting how to imagine,” I offer.
“Yes, yes,” she nods. “Without it we stop feeling. And without feeling—there’s no art. No life.”
As I leave, the sun touches the domes and turns the walls gold. Iwona smiles: “Walk through the exhibitions. Every show is different, but the goal is the same—to awaken.”
Curatorial highlights you mustn’t miss
The permanent exhibition at the Four Domes Pavilion is like a journey through Polish modern art. It begins with the inter-war pioneers—Chwistek, Witkiewicz, Strzemiński—who with their experiments and theories shaped the aesthetics of following generations. Right away you sense the energy with which they played with colour, form and space.
Then we move into post-war art: the first modern art exhibition in Poland, 1948, where young abstract and surrealist artists experimented with new currents and Western inspirations. You notice the contrasts—colourists who “built the picture with colour” and more radical creators rejecting every convention.
The museum also includes works that reflect the cruelty of war and the Holocaust—for example Cwenarski, Szapocznikow, Wróblewski. There is a strange atmosphere: art makes you stop, think and feel. Later comes abstraction, lyrical gestures, experiments with matter—from Lenica to Gierowski—each piece with its own personality.
Contemporary Polish Art
Some works surprise with their play on structure, like Stażewski’s reliefs, or Tadeusz Kantor’s ready-made objects.
Hasior’s assemblages from everyday objects entertained us—why toss old things away? We remembered a royal family portrait by Joan Miró in Barcelona.
Gradually the exhibition moves into conceptual art and contemporary times: Tarasewicz, Twardowski, Ziółkowski and others blend gestural painting with literary or surreal motifs—a lot to take in. Even better, the museum is full of young people.
The permanent show overwhelmed us with variety, colours, forms, reflection of the times—and above all with that colossal space. Walking the gallery is like a dialogue with past and present, and although you could speak about each piece for a long time, the real experience comes only when you get up from your hotel bed and visit the museum.
If you lose yourself amidst the light and space (which happens often here), let these points guide you:
- Magdalena Abakanowicz – monumental textile bodies that talk about human existence in another way.
- Bucza – a quiet testimony of war that hits you hard.
- Joanna Rajkowska’s Gaza – an installation you cannot just look at. You have to feel it.
- The architecture of Hans Poelzig – sit in the middle of the halls and observe how the light shifts during the day.
How to get to the Four Domes Pavilion
- The Four Domes Pavilion (Pawilon Czterech Kopul) is located near the Exhibition Grounds of Centennial Hall in Wrocław.
- From the city centre take tram numbers 1, 2, 4 or 10 to the stop Hala Stulecia / ZOO. Open: Tuesday–Sunday; tickets available online or at the box office.
- A combined ticket also works for the National Museum in Wrocław.
- Be sure to combine your visit to the gallery with a stroll through the Japanese gardens.
Bonus: The poetry of Japanese gardens
They are located in close proximity to Pavilion 4 Domes.
“When you leave the Four Domes Pavilion, a different world awaits you,” says Iwona Bigos. “It’s not just architecture or an exhibition—it’s a walk through time and tranquility.” Just a few steps away from the modernist concrete and light-filled halls lies a Japanese garden, which Hans Poelzig designed at the same time as the Pavilion: “Here you can stop, take a breath, and watch the play of water and shadows,” she adds.
