CCA Warsaw beyond ruins.

For the past 16 years, the non-profit Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) in Warsaw, Poland has been forging a unique niche among the world's arts spaces through the exhibition and creation of contemporary art forms. Housed in the re-purposed Ujazdowski castle, the CCA is one of the largest spaces of its kind in Eastern Europe, featuring a variety of programs in numerous disciplines from visual media to sound art, including galleries, educational workshops, a film archive and artist residencies.

The castle, located near downtown Warsaw, was built and rebuilt countless times since its original construction in the seventeenth century. Like many buildings in the city, the castle was seriously damaged during World War II and later recreated from plans and photographs. Originally reconstructed with the aim to house government offices, the castle was ultimately dedicated to artistic purposes in 1989 as the Centre for Contemporary Art.

Focused on covering the range of contemporary Polish arts practice in its permanent collection, the center also hosts an engaging variety of temporary exhibitions from Eastern Europe and around the world. One of the most notable exhibitions of contemporary art in the region, the permanent collection occupies most of the second floor of the castle. This evolving exhibition curated by CCA director Wojciech Krukowski involves room after room of work organized by theme and time period, from painting to photography, video installation, computer-based art and video documentation of performance art. The collection features work by internationally famous Polish artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Kataryna Kozyra, Jozef Robakowski and Krzysztof Wodiczko as well as a range of work by international artists such as Christian Boltanski, Barbara Kruger and Tony Oursler.

The temporary exhibits on view in May 2005 demonstrated an incredible variety of content and approaches as well. Flor Garduno's "Testigos de Tiempo" (Witnesses of Time, 1983-91) a series of documentary black and white silver gelatin prints was displayed formally on the thick walls of one underground gallery. On the entrance level, Albanian artist Anri Sala's self-titled exhibit (2005) incorporated video, sound and still photographic elements. The gallery floors were modified to a slope plunging downward into the dark video projection areas.

The castle grounds are not wasted as opportunity for art space. The walkway leading to the main space displays Jenny Holzer's project "The Benches" (1999), with each stone object inscribed with text from her series "Truisms" (1993) in Polish and English. Another outdoor artwork in the developing sculpture garden, Polish artist Teresa Murak's "Icon of Earth--Sage" (2004) is an ongoing "earth art" piece that stems from a sowing of flower and grain seeds in the park in front of the castle. Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata unearthed a section of nineteenth-century cellars located in the square in front of the castle for "Reconstruction" (2001). The scene of the excavation becomes a work in itself, revealing the water reservoir of one of the original buildings.

In addition to more traditional exhibitions, the center hosts performances, contemporary music and screenings of experimental films and video art. Educational opportunities include workshops for school-age youth on themes from "Art and its Inspirations" to "Graffiti--Vandalism or Art?" as well as lessons based on the current exhibitions at the CCA. The juxtaposition of these programs creates the opportunity for a synergy of arts activities and interdisciplinary events. This variety is essential to the center's structure, stressing collaborative work within diverse approaches.

Consistent with its history, the CCA is involved in a continuous re-construction process. Hindered by a historic preservation clause prohibiting new buildings, the center is in the process of creating a replica of the original castle's horse stable from the foundation ruins. The "stable" will house apartments for a growing artists-in-residency program as well as the expanding film archive. "Trying to find and recreate, like this building, is part of our culture, history and identity," said Lukasz Ronduda, curator of the center's Archive of Polish Experimental Film.

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Within the backdrop of this dynamic arts space, the Archive of Polish Experimental Film is perhaps one of the most outwardly engaged programs of the center. Dedicated to the preservation and analysis of over 80 years of Polish film and video history, the archive initiates and promotes on-site screenings as well as traveling exhibitions of film and video work throughout Poland, greater Europe and the United States. Though Ronduda relates the exhibitions to the singular development of Polish media art, the issues addressed are internationally relevant in their examination of the meaning of archive, the relevance and relationship to culture and society and complex issues of ownership and access to these works.

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For more information about CCA Warsaw and the Archive of Polish Experimental Film see www.csw.art.pl/archfilm www.csw.art.pl/entuzjasci.