Dominika Olszowy. Sand Fountain

One sculpture rather than a gallery show: a jet of water frozen mid-air and turned into wet sand studded with shells. It stands on the MSN terrace facing Marszałkowska Street until 10 September 2027, and on 19-20 September the terrace is free for everyone.

Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw on the exhibition:

The Sand Fountain is the latest sculpture intervention from Dominika Olszowy, commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and addressing the rapid transformation of downtown Warsaw, including the radical changes taking place on Central Square, where MSN is located.

Olszowy was drawn to the eponymous fountain as a cultural construct and symbol of vitality, rather than as a technological structure. A standard feature of any elegant public space, in times of climate change and increasingly frequent heat waves the fountain becomes more than mere decoration. In cities, fountains offer cooling and relief, but they also remind us that water - its constant availability - is not to be taken for granted. Consequently, the form associated with abundance of water comes to symbolize its scarcity. From this paradox, the artist’s concept emerged.

The sculpture takes the unmistakable shape of a stream of water rising up in the air, only arrested here as it’s reaching its climax: thickened, rigidified, and transformed surreally into sand. The dynamic flow of water translates to a static composition. The artist’s idiom speaks through the piece - Olszowy is known for her oxymoronic combinations of artistic mediums and has a deep affection for such materials and items that are mostly overlooked or ignored. In this project she used sand mixed with shells, among other things. As a result, monumental scale meets fineness of sculpted detail.

Erecting a monument to the fountain, the artist does not intend it as a tribute in the traditional sense. Rather, she reflects on the function that fountains serve in the real world, where both water and sand - the latter seemingly available everywhere - are resources subject to intensive use. Increased rates of sand mining affect ecosystems and shorelines, causing entire beaches and islands to disappear. Combining water and earth, Olszowy does not simply embark on an experiment in materials; she actually invents a symbolic language through which to speak about the world, about how fragile it is, how impermanent and beautiful in ways not quite expected. Her sculpture hints at child’s play of building castles out of wet sand, and at concrete, too - the material that made cities what they are today, one whose production relies on mineral resources. The artist said: “I wanted to combine the two, water and sand, into one sculpted form: a fountain made from wet sand. The resulting sculpture appears brittle, precarious, ephemeral, and precisely that makes the piece so relevant. I want it to be a structure that resembles a fountain, not exactly spraying water but rather displaying a memory of it. A fountain made of the material that built our world and is now slowly disappearing from it.” What is typically modest, or intimate, acquires a monumental dimension. In this way the artist subverts the official narratives in sculpture for public space. Instead of firmness, solemnity, and heroism she proposes fragility of form. Instead of commemoration of a distinguished individual or an exceptional historic event - a monument to a natural phenomenon, to a material, to an element. Instead of imposing a landmark, a new symbol for this particular part of town, she listens to the rhythm of changes it undergoes, to then play along.

Olszowy’s monument to the fountain celebrates impermanence while attempting to capture that fleeting state and freeze it in time. A fountain made of sand pays homage to depleted ecological assets as it embodies the tensions at work between nature, urbanization, and passing or fading. It is in fact a monument to that which keeps changing - and which, for that very reason, calls for particular attention today.

Temporarily erected on the terrace, or the observation deck, MSN’s formally fluid and frivolous “fountain” contrasts with the monumental, right-angled architecture of the Museum. Stretching beyond, towards the city, it transcends that building’s and institution’s infrastructural framing. When looked at from its pedestal - that is, the seat of the Museum itself - it points to the Polish capital’s dynamic growth using up water and sand resources to progress. The fountain makes an appearance in this space by surprise, bursting from the floor inexplicably and so referencing the ubiquitous entropy, tongue in cheek.

Dominika Olszowy’s Sand Fountain follows an invited competition organized by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw in order to spark discussion around the representation of art in the very center of Warsaw - in a symbolic space where most diverse viewpoints come together and collide, belonging to the capital’s citizens as well as visitors. The selected entry was found to engage with those considerations especially well. In it, a strong artistic concept combined with a deep understanding of the location and its character. The project is both communicative and open to interpretation: witty and appealing at once, the form is direct in the way it addresses viewers, thus able to make a point even when there’s no prior expert knowledge of the subject involved; at the same time, the sculpture intentionally deals with how urbanization, permanence, and decay are entangled, which provokes a multifaceted reflection on modern times. In the competition, what set the Sand Fountain apart was its coherence as well as informed use of conditions on site without compromising the work’s universality. Hence the idea to choose the space of Central Square, with its pool, as the final location for the piece. It will be there, surrounded by water (or by the possible lack of it), that the sculpture by Dominika Olszowy will physically become part of the city’s life going forward.

What to expect

This is a single work, made for the museum’s terrace on the second floor (two storeys above street level). MSN calls it Dominika Olszowy’s first work in public space, and according to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), it is her largest sculpture to date. It launches a series of art projects on a terrace that had never been used for exhibitions before.

You can see the sculpture from Marszałkowska Street without a ticket, but only from a distance. The detail is small: PAP describes coloured pebbles, oversized snail shells and tiny pearls in the sand; the artist wants people to look closely. Look out over the city from the terrace too, because the work responds directly to the rebuilding of Central Square (Plac Centralny) around the museum.

The terrace is a temporary home. The sculpture is meant to move to the pool on Central Square eventually; the museum has not announced when.

Context

Dominika Olszowy is a Warsaw-based artist from Gorzów Wielkopolski in western Poland. She started out in her teens with the local Teatr Kreatury theatre group, studied intermedia at the University of the Arts in Poznań, and co-founded the feminist artist-run gallery Sandra and the rap group Cipedrapskuad. Today she moves between installation, performance and stage design; in 2019 she won the Spojrzenia (Views) award at the Zachęta gallery with her installation “Stypa” (The Wake).

This is not her first fountain. In 2019 she made the small “Fontanna obfitości” (Fountain of Abundance), water spouting out of fake leather handbags, described by her gallery, Raster, as an “amulet of financial liquidity”. That piece joked about dreams of luxury; this one is about shrinking supplies of water and sand.

The work won a closed competition MSN ran a year before the unveiling with the PKO Bank Polski Foundation and the YPO Poland & YPO Gold Poland association. According to the museum, the aim was to bring art into public space and to support women artists.

Tickets and time

• Ticket: the terrace needs an MSN exhibition ticket: 40 PLN regular, 30 PLN reduced, 80 PLN family (four people, at most two adults). After 18:00 (Tuesday to Saturday): 25 PLN regular, 15 PLN reduced.
• 1 PLN tickets: among others for anyone aged 8-26 and children aged 7 and under, sold at the museum’s reception desk.
• Free: on 19-20 September 2026 the terrace is free for all visitors.
• Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 11:00-19:00, Friday 11:00-20:00, Saturday 11:00-19:00, Sunday 11:00-18:00, closed Mondays. Last entry 30 minutes before closing.
• Closed: 15 October, 1 and 11 November, 24-25 December 2026; 31 December shorter hours, 11:00-17:00.
• How long: the museum does not say. Allow 15-20 minutes for the sculpture itself.
• Getting there: ul. Marszałkowska 103 in central Warsaw, on Central Square next to the Palace of Culture and Science, a short walk from Warszawa Centralna station.
• English on site: the museum publishes the full description in English on its website. It does not say whether there is an English label on the terrace, and its audio guide has no track for this work.

Who it is for: anyone already visiting MSN, since the exhibition ticket covers the terrace. The easy call is the free weekend of 19-20 September. One sculpture alone is not worth 40 PLN; if you do go, come in the evening after 18:00 (Tuesday to Saturday) for 25 PLN, or see it on the same ticket as the exhibition “In the Very Bowels of Changes: Surrealism and Antifascism”.

Events

• 19-20.09.2026, during opening hours - free admission to the terrace with the sculpture for all visitors: exhibition page

What the press says

No English-language coverage found so far. Two Polish reports on the unveiling, both favourable; no critical review found.

• PAP Life, on Well.pl (10.09.2026): an interview with the artist at the unveiling; PAP reports it is her largest sculpture, and the artist explains pairing water and sand to point at two resources the planet is running short of - article, in Polish
• Label Magazine (15.09.2026, MG): a preview of the autumn “Season of Sculpture” at MSN and Zachęta, with “Sand Fountain” as the first item on the programme - article, in Polish

Dominika Olszowy at the unveiling (quoted by PAP, our translation): “It seemed important to me to put up a monument to disappearing resources in the city centre.”

See also

• “Sculpture After Stability” - the big sculpture show by the same curators at MSN from 16 October 2026; Olszowy is among the artists.
• “Warsaw Under Construction 18. Sovereign and Fed” - MSN’s city festival around the museum, until 27 September 2026; Olszowy took part in its 2019 edition on monuments, “Pomnikomania”.
• “Adam Kozicki. War of Everyone Against Everyone” - paintings in the free ground-floor Gallery A, easy to add on your way up to the terrace.
• “VALIE EXPORT. Die Doppelgängerin” - a bronze sculpture by VALIE EXPORT on Central Square from 18 September 2026, free to see, part of the same MSN sculpture season.

Museum profile: Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.