Fort Sztuki 3026

From 1993 Fort Sztuki (Art Fort) organised art festivals, performance above all, in Kraków and abroad; after a 20-year break its archive, films and performances returned to Kraków for two weeks, this time to MOCAK. The programme opened on 16 October 2026, and according to the museum’s page the exhibition in Galeria Beta is open from 18 to 31 October.

MOCAK on the exhibition: (our translation of the museum’s Polish text; the museum’s English website has no page for this show)

Fort Sztuki 3026 marks the return of one of Kraków’s important independent art initiatives, active since the 1990s, which created a space for current art, performance, the exchange of ideas and international cooperation.

Fort Sztuki 3026 is tied to the 30th anniversary of the registration of the Fort Sztuki Association (SFS) and the 20th anniversary of the decision to suspend its activity. Now, after 20 years, the Fort returns - not only to recall its history, but also to examine which of its ideas remain relevant today and how they fit within the context of contemporary cultural institutions.

What to expect

This is not a conventional exhibition of objects but a two-week programme in four parts: archive, cinema, performance and publishing. The Fort’s archive material is spread across several of the museum’s spaces, and its arrangement keeps changing throughout the run; the programme schedules the last rearrangement for 31 October. People involved in the project are present every day in Galeria Beta, in the main building’s hall, so they are the ones to ask about the Fort’s history.

Since 20 October the audiovisual room has been running a “non-stop cinema” of recordings from the Fort’s past festivals, with screenings and introductory talks on selected evenings. The performance strand is led by John Court and Sandra Johnson. First came workshops for young performers; their own master performances follow on 29 October, and on 30 October a day-long show by the workshop participants in MOCAK’s galleries.

For the opening the museum launched a publication that collects every archive issue of the magazine “Fort Sztuki” from the turn of the 1990s and 2000s, plus a new issue of contemporary texts. It is edited by Łukasz Guzek. The page gives no price for the publication. The whole project is curated by Artur Tajber of the Fort Sztuki Association and Kamil Kuitkowski of MOCAK, with Barbara Maroń in charge of the film section and Arti Grabowski of the performance section.

The header of the exhibition page gives the run as 18-31 October, while the programme of events and the museum’s news item on the change of displays list the archive exhibition from 17 October. Until the end of the run the archive is open every day except Monday 26 October.

MOCAK’s twenty-minute film “Otwarcie wystawy Fort Sztuki 3026” (The opening of Fort Sztuki 3026), published on the opening day, 16 October, records the inaugural evening, with speeches in front of the exhibition panels.

Context

Artur Tajber, born in Katowice in 1953, has worked in performance art since the mid-1970s. In 1984, with Marian Figiel, Władysław Kaźmierczak and Marcin Krzyżanowski, and in collaboration with Barbara Maroń, he co-founded the performance group Formuła Konger. According to Wikipedia he was a founding member of the Fort Sztuki Association and its president from 1996 to 2006, and he co-created the intermedia programme at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków.

The exhibition schedule shows how far the old Fort reached: the first editions of 1993-1995, television footage of a 24-hour festival at Fort św. Benedykta in 1997, and recordings from festivals in Bergen (1999), Dublin (2001) and Quebec (2005). According to Wikipedia, Fort św. Benedykta is a fort of the Kraków Fortress built in 1853-1856 on Lasota Hill in Podgórze, the same district as MOCAK.

Tickets and time

MOCAK is open Tuesday to Sunday, 11:00-19:00, closed on Mondays; the ticket desk sells tickets until 18:30. The Fort’s schedule skips Monday 26 October.

From 19 October to 4 December the museum is changing its displays and for that period has cut ticket prices for all visitors: standard 20 PLN, reduced 15 PLN. That price therefore applies until the Fort closes. A family ticket (2+3 or 1+4 people) costs 65 PLN according to the price list .

According to the programme , the non-stop cinema and the day-long instalakcja are included in the exhibition ticket. The screenings with a talk and the master performances cost 5 PLN, with tickets sold at the museum’s desk and online.

The free Thursday does not cover this show. Free entry applies only to the MOCAK Collection displays on level -1, and on Thursdays temporary exhibitions are sold at the reduced rate. During the change of displays that means the same 20 PLN and 15 PLN as on other days.

On Wednesdays from 16:00 to 19:00 the museum runs quiet hours: no tours, workshops or other events in the exhibition spaces, and works that emit loud sound or bright light are turned down or off. On Wednesday 28 October the non-stop cinema ends at 17:30, and the evening screening at 18:00 takes place in the audiovisual room.

English on site: the exhibition page and its programme are in Polish only, and the museum’s English website has no page for this show. The museum does not say whether the screenings or talks will have English. Guided tours in a foreign language can be booked for 180 PLN for the first person or family, according to the museum’s price list.

About 45 minutes is enough for the archive and a quarter of an hour of the non-stop cinema; an evening screening with a talk adds another two hours. The show is for visitors interested in performance art and Kraków’s independent scene of the 1990s; if you are after a striking display of artworks, pick another exhibition. The museum’s news item on the change of displays lists five MOCAK Collection exhibitions open alongside the Fort, including VALIE EXPORT and “Live Factory 2: Warhol by Lupa”. Allow an extra hour for them on the same visit.

Events

• 25-31 Oct 2026, 11:00-19:00 - audiovisual room: non-stop cinema of recordings from the Fort’s festivals (Bergen, Dublin, Dresden, Quebec, musical improvisations from 2000), every day except Monday 26 October, on 28 October until 17:30; included in the exhibition ticket - programme
• 28 Oct 2026, 18:00 - audiovisual room: archive footage from TVP 2 (“Fort Sztuki 1997 - 24 godziny, Fort św. Benedykta”) and TVP Kraków (“Terytoria nomadów”), introduced by participants in the Fort’s events; admission 5 PLN, tickets at the desk and online - programme
• 29 Oct 2026, 18:00 - master performances by John Court and Sandra Johnson; admission 5 PLN, tickets at the desk and online - programme
• 30 Oct 2026, 11:00-19:00 - “instalakcja”: a day-long show of performances by the workshop participants in MOCAK’s exhibition spaces; included in the exhibition ticket - programme
• 30 Oct 2026, 19:00 - closing party of Fort Sztuki 3026 at the bistro Amant - programme
• 31 Oct 2026, 11:00-19:00 - Galeria Beta: the last rearrangement of the archive exhibition - programme

What the press says

• Magazyn Szum (31 Aug 2026, editorial team): in its round-up of the autumn’s most interesting exhibitions, the art magazine lists Fort Sztuki 3026 alongside the Eleanor Antin retrospective as one of MOCAK’s two autumn shows; this is a preview, not a review - link (Polish-language source)

No review had been found by 24 October.

Updates

• 2026-10-19 - MOCAK cut ticket prices for the change of displays, from 19 October to 4 December: standard 20 PLN, reduced 15 PLN (source: the museum’s news item )

See also

• I Was Tadeusz Kantor’s Assistant. Andrzej Wajda - at Cricoteka, open until 10 January 2027: documents and recordings from the filming of “The Dead Class”, for anyone curious after the Fort about how Kraków’s theatre avant-garde was documented.
• Andrzej Pawłowski. Kineforms - a small Cricoteka exhibition on Sienna Street with no announced closing date: the projector, film and documents of the moving light images from the Cricot 2 stage.
• Kinga Nowak. A tropikal fiva uv regrejt - an exhibition at Bunkier Sztuki, open until 3 January 2027, for those who want to see contemporary Kraków art in the city centre after the Fort.

Museum profile: MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow .