FROM DUSK TILL DAWN. INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION. Polish Contemporary Art

The Cluj-Napoca Art Museum, a public institution of county interest operating under the authority of the Cluj County Council, organizes, in partnership with Arboretum Bolestraszyce — the Botanical Garden in Bolestraszyce, Poland — the international painting exhibition From Dusk Till Dawn, between 27 May and 14 June 2026.

On the occasion of the official opening, which will take place on Wednesday, 27 May 2026, at 6:00 p.m., speeches will be given by Prof. Dr. Lucian Nastasă-Kovács, manager of the Cluj-Napoca Art Museum; Narcyz Piórecki, director of Arboretum Bolestraszyce and professor at the University of Rzeszów; Dorota Sak, member of the Artistic Council of the “U Piotra Michałowskiego” Gallery at Arboretum Bolestraszyce; Marek Sak, Prof. Dr. habil. at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, director of the Scientific Council of Arboretum Bolestraszyce and director of the Department of Physiography in Bolestraszyce; Łukasz Stańkowski, coordinator of Romanian-Polish cooperation and member of Arboretum Bolestraszyce; Paulina Dzieduszycka-Martusewicz, curator of the exhibition; and Dr. Dan Breaz, as exhibition commissioner.

The meanings of the exhibition From Dusk Till Dawn emerge from the perspective of the presentations made by the Polish initiators of this compelling artistic project:

“The current exhibition is the result of an artistic collaboration between Polish and Romanian artists, which began in September 2025 with an exhibition of Romanian artists at Arboretum Bolestraszyce and continued between 2025 and 2026 at the Biuro Wystaw Artystycznych (BWA) in Miechów. At present, Polish artists are presenting their works at the Cluj-Napoca Art Museum, sustaining an international dialogue based on shared artistic and cultural values. Historical and natural connections also represent an important bridge for this collaboration. Arboretum Bolestraszyce and the ‘Vasile Fati’ Botanical Garden in Jibou connect the common roots of the Carpathian region and the heritage of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and former Galicia. Both Romanian and Polish artists are inspired by nature, creating art whose origins lie in landscape, tradition, and a special sensitivity toward nature.”
Narcyz Piórecki

“The time of intimacy, the time of conscience, the time of sincerity and, ultimately, the time of encounter among friends. It is a distinct segment of the day — suspended between silence and light, between what remains unspoken and what asks to be voiced. Swift, fleeting, impossible to complete and never fully fulfilled — like our dialogue in art and the inspiring moments spent in the Arboretum, where ideas, images and creative gestures are born.

It is precisely from these experiences that the presented collection emerges. It brings together the works of 23 artists — diverse in form, language and sensibility, like the moments lived in the garden: the changing light, the rhythm of the day, the passing of the seasons. Each work constitutes a distinct story, an individual record of experience and, at the same time, part of a broader whole — the shared landscape of encounters and inspirations. In this diversity, what is essential is revealed: the polyphony of art, which does not seek a single answer, but creates a space for dialogue.

The exhibition presented here is a new encounter between the artists connected to the Arboretum and audiences beyond Poland’s borders. Each time, it takes on a different form — the selection of works, the context of the space and the mode of reception all change. The choice of works remains an individual decision of the artists, which gives the exhibition an open and dynamic character, while also ensuring its authenticity and the richness of its perspectives.

An important element of these encounters is also the inclusion, within the exhibition, of works by artists from the country in which the presentation takes place. This gesture not only expands the context of the exhibition, but also builds bridges between artistic communities, strengthening relationships and encouraging the exchange of experience. Thus, the exhibition becomes not only a presentation of works, but also a space of encounter — a place where art transcends geographical and cultural borders.”
Marek Sak

“When, last year, we began preparations for this exhibition, I went to Cluj-Napoca to see the gallery spaces of the Art Museum in the Bánffy Palace. I walked through the rooms several times, from one end to the other, measured the distances in steps, looked at the white walls, and my imagination was already projecting the new exhibition.

On the way back from Romania, I kept asking myself what imperative, what guiding idea would, this time, accompany the artists — myself included — in order to come out into the light once again, to fill the studio with their own presence and to entrust, for a few weeks, a painting to an exhibition. And someone will enter the exhibition, see it, reflect on it, encounter our thought and carry it beyond these walls, beyond this time.

What constitutes the imperative and what unites this group of artists is, at the same time, close and distant. Close, because there is an essential reason why we will say ‘yes’ without hesitation to a new exhibition. We carry it within us. Distant, because this reason, beyond the artistic work itself, is also a place far away, which unites us and to which we return, if not physically, then with our hearts, our thoughts and our memory.

This place is the Arboretum in Bolestraszyce, to which, more than twenty years ago, many of us gave a new dimension and a new dynamic: artistic life, creative camps, meetings, exhibitions and seminars dedicated to art, all directly connected to nature, subject to its laws, to change and to the natural passage of time. Walking along the paths of the Arboretum — this magical garden — we project images, abandon ourselves to the flow of time and yield to the charm of omnipresent nature, which inevitably influences creation and constitutes, for many of us, a source of inspiration.

In the Arboretum, we co-create a space dedicated to art and to other artists. We do not remain in one place; our exhibitions can be seen both within the country and beyond its borders. Today, it is Romania’s turn. We share art that cannot be confined, ignored or silenced. We exhibit highly current works, created for the present, for the moment of now.

The exhibition to which we have been invited as part of an international cultural and artistic collaboration features 23 artists: Andrzej Banachowicz, Anna Baranek du Chateau, Barbara Ciesielska, Piotr Ciesielski, Paulina Dzieduszycka, Stanisław Dziubak, Iwona Gandor, Anna Gonera, Zbigniew Gorlak, Lilla Kulka, Paweł Olchawa, Narcyz Piórecki, Aneta Pliszka, Marta Pohrebny-Szwiec, Dorota Sak, Marek Sak, Radu Șerban, Stanisław Stach, Piotr Szwiec, Serge Vasilendiuc, Joanna Warchoł, Witold Warzywoda and Jan Ziarnowski.

Ultimately, time matters only when it passes. Only the present exists. Each of us has our own time, yet through images we manage to extend the present — sometimes by a moment, sometimes by two, and sometimes even from dusk till dawn.”
Paulina Dzieduszycka

The exhibition From Dusk Till Dawn will remain open to the public until 14 June 2026, from Wednesday to Sunday inclusive, between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

Translation generated with ChatGPT