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 return to Kraków for two weeks, this time hosted by MOCAK. The programme will open on 16 October 2026 at 18:00, and according to the museum’s page the exhibition in Galeria Beta will run 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 will not be a conventional exhibition of objects but a two-week programme in four parts: archive, cinema, performance and publishing. The Fort’s archive material will be spread across several of the museum’s spaces, and its arrangement will keep changing throughout the run; the programme schedules the last rearrangement for 31 October. People involved in the project are to be present every day in Galeria Beta, in the main building’s hall, so they are the ones to ask about the Fort’s history.

From 20 October the audiovisual room will host 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 come workshops for young performers, then their own master performances on 29 October, and on 30 October a day-long show by the workshop participants in MOCAK’s galleries.

For the opening the museum announces 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 and MOCAK’s “coming soon” page give the run as 18-31 October and the opening as 16 October at 18:00. The same page, however, describes the whole Fort as a programme running from 16 to 31 October, and its schedule already lists the archive exhibition on Saturday 17 October. The opening and every day the museum is open from 18 October, that is, except Mondays 19 and 26 October, are therefore certain.

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 both Mondays of the run, 19 and 26 October.

The exhibition page gives no separate price and points to the museum’s general ticket shop, and the price list has no line of its own for this show. According to the price list a standard ticket costs 30 PLN, a reduced ticket 20 PLN and a family ticket (2+3 or 1+4 people) 65 PLN; Kraków’s Karta Krakowska gives 20% off. The museum gives no admission price for the opening on 16 October, the screenings or the panel. The price list does have a separate 5 PLN ticket for non-exhibition events, but it does not say whether that applies to the Fort’s evenings, so ask at reception.

The free Thursday does not cover this show. Free entry applies only to the MOCAK Collection displays on level -1; on Thursdays temporary exhibitions are sold at the reduced rate, 20 PLN instead of 30 PLN, or 15 PLN for those entitled to a concession.

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. The schedule places both of the Fort’s Wednesday screenings, on 21 and 28 October at 18:00, in the audiovisual room.

English on site: the exhibition page and its schedule are in Polish only, and the museum’s English website has no page for this show. The museum does not say whether the screenings, talks or panel 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, or the panel, 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. Between 16 and 18 October you can combine the opening and the archive with two other MOCAK shows that close on 18 October. The non-stop cinema and the evening screenings only start on 20 October.

Events

• 16 Oct 2026, 18:00 - inauguration of Fort Sztuki 3026: exhibition opening and launch of the “Fort Sztuki” publication - schedule
• 17 Oct 2026, 11:00-19:00 - first day of the archive exhibition in Galeria Beta; the schedule lists it on every day the museum is open until 31 October, skipping Mondays 19 and 26 October - schedule
• 18 Oct 2026, 16:00 - closing of the exhibition “State of Possession”: Kamil Kuitkowski leads a tour of it in the context of the Fort Sztuki 3026 programme - schedule
• 21 Oct 2026, 18:00 - audiovisual room: archive footage of the first Fort Sztuki editions (1993, 1994, 1995), introduced by participants in and authors of those events - schedule
• 23 Oct 2026, 18:00-20:00 - audiovisual room: panel “Sztafeta” (Relay), on how community-run cultural institutions work, from past to future, with the Fort Sztuki Association, Galeria Szaber and Grupa Gruz, moderated by Kamil Kuitkowski - schedule
• 24 Oct 2026, 18:00 - audiovisual room: Barbara Maroń’s film “Pokazać słowo - utwory ulotne” (Showing the Word - Fleeting Works) and a discussion with Alicja Jodko, Mariusz Jodko (Galeria Entropia, Wrocław), Barbara Maroń, Artur Tajber and Kamil Kuitkowski - schedule
• 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 - schedule
• 29 Oct 2026, 18:00 - master performances by John Court and Sandra Johnson - schedule
• 30 Oct 2026, 11:00-19:00 - “instalakcja”: a day-long show of performances by the workshop participants in MOCAK’s exhibition spaces - schedule
• 30 Oct 2026, 19:00 - closing party of Fort Sztuki 3026 at the bistro Amant - schedule

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 was found before the opening.

See also

• The State of Possession. The Topography of the MOCAK Collection - Part 1 - the Collection exhibition by the same curator, closing on 18 October with a final tour that is part of the Fort’s programme.
• Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka. Ecologies of Togetherness - a site-specific project at MOCAK, also open until 18 October, so both can be combined with the Fort’s opening.
• 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 .