The avant-garde art in the 19th-century factory

The Art Museum in Łódź, whose collections are well-known in the international arena, is not yet situated in its own modern museum building. A unique set of the international avantgarde works included in the Museum’s 1930^s collection has placed this institution among the world’s leading museums. Yet for decades it has lacked proper exhibition space. Both in the inter-war period and in times of the Polish People’s Republic, the collection was displayed in the 19^th-century buildings adapted for exhibition purposes. The situation has not changed recently although the turn of the 20^th and 21^st centuries brought great interest and a real boom for modern museum architecture. In 2008, the Art Museum in Łódź started functioning in the new seat of the 19^th century weaving mill, belonging formerly to the complex of Israel Poznański’s plant, currently converted into the trade and entertainment centre, named Manufaktura. Spatial coexistence of the art museum and the trade centre arouses emotions and controversies.