About Media Centre Department
Digital archives Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art
Mediateka – multimedia library - is an information center and a source of documentary materials related to contemporary art and memories regarding it. It functions as the internet / an online space in which sources of inspiration and knowledge are shared. We would like to keep the promise to give access to all our resources / to make all our resources available to all through presentations of several topics of our collection and digitalized data gathered and stored by us till now and continuously updated and complemented.
Mediateka – the multimedia library of the Center for Contemporary Art at Ujazdowski Castle is for us one of the most important tools to present, to disseminate and to educate, in the information era we live in, about contemporary art and its history both in the context of the Centre for Contemporary Art and its history and in the context of Polish and international art history.
We try our best to give you an opportunity to have kind of travel in time. You will be able to watch fantastic digitalized ‘vintage’ audiovisual recordings, including recordings of performances, concerts, events at festivals, and finally a series of digitalized ‘vintage’ documentary photographs of exhibitions and accompanying documents and posters.
We have already published almost all materials from the period of 1988-2025, but we still will be working on their descriptions and interpretations and share both them and narratives related to them after they are ready and completed. We encourage you to explore in our unique resources.
All digital materials, which - due to restrictions imposed by copyright law - cannot be made directly accessible online, can be made available after previous contact with the Mediateka employees. If it happens to be such a case please let us know about it using the following address: mediateka@u-jazdowski.pl
If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in our archives, or an image of archival material (including installation views, photographs,exhibition view and press releases), please contact with us: mediateka@u-jazdowski.pl (publication). CSWZU licenses archival audio and select of copyright audiovideo. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to us: mediateka@u-jazdowski.If you would like to reproduce text from a CSWZU publication, please email mediateka@u-jazdowski.pl. If you would like to publish text from CSWZU archival materials, please fix the name of files send to mediateka@u-jazdowski.pl.
If you notice an error, please contact us at mediateka@u-jazdowski.pl
Search for Art – Rediscover contemporary art!
The free "Search for Art" app is an innovative combination of education, technology, and a passion for art. Created with contemporary art lovers in mind, it allows you to explore 40 selected objects such as sculptures, murals, neon signs, and art installations (both existing and defunct). Using a virtual map with object markers, you can search for objects, many of which are not widely known to residents.
The app combines education with modern technology, inspiring you to discover contemporary art. Thanks to it, you can explore 40 selected objects related to the CSWZU collections at mediateka.u-jazdowski.pl. It allows you to understand the objects (sculpture, mural, neon sign, art installation, etc.) in a broader context and explore the digital archive. The U–jazdowski digital archive allows for a virtual journey through time, a review of fantastic audio-video recordings, recordings of performances, concerts, archival recordings of festivals, and finally, a series of documentary photographs of exhibitions and accompanying documents and posters. The Mediateka is an information center and a source of multimedia documentation, a place for gathering memories about contemporary art. We treat knowledge about contemporary art as a component of individual and social development. Our research focuses on the human experience in relation to art, and our activities focus on understanding, developing, and disseminating knowledge. We inspire and support people in expanding their knowledge about art. Application users can continue browsing the website and learning about contemporary art by redirecting to the portal.
Thanks to its visuals, functionality, and location correlated with Google Maps, the project is also intended to be a tourist attraction. It is dedicated to diverse audiences, both young and established, cultural institutions, and tourists. Utilizing new digital technologies, it aims to inspire and encourage them to expand their knowledge and visit both the portal space: mediateka.u-jazdowski.pl, and the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art.
The project will be developed further – we plan to enrich the application with new features and functionalities to further delight and engage users. Download the "Search for Art" app today and embark on a journey through the fascinating world of contemporary art!
Ujazdowski Castle survived World War II. The surviving walls were demolished in 1954. The Polish Army House Theatre was to be built on the site of the building, but these plans were never realized. In the early 1970s, along with the decision to rebuild the Royal Castle in Warsaw, it was decided to rebuild Ujazdowski Castle as well. At the initiative of Aleksander Gieysztor, Stanisław Lorentz, and Jan Zachwatowicz, it was decided to rebuild the castle according to Piotr Biegański's design. Construction began in 1974. Initially, it was planned for ceremonial purposes. The building's completion date (supposedly 1978) was successively postponed. In 1981, Ujazdowski Castle was transferred to the then Minister of Culture and Art, who on October 15, 1981, decided to designate Ujazdowski Castle as the Centre for Contemporary Art. On June 7, 1982, the Mayor of Warsaw Warsaw handed over Ujazdowski Castle to the Minister of Culture and Art. However, the institution did not come into being until July 1985, when the Centre was effectively established for the second time. The group's chairman was Jan Karczewski, later director of the Centre for Contemporary Art (holding this position from 1986 to 1988).
The statute of the Centre for Contemporary Art was adopted in 1986. The attic rooms were finished, and the editorial office of "Sztuka" moved to the Castle. The Centre for Contemporary Art at Ujazdowski Castle was inaugurated on March 10, 1986. The institution's director at that time was Witold Bobiński (from April 1985 to 1986). During this time, the CCA saw the establishment of the Centre for Information and Documentation of Contemporary Art, the Gallery of the Collection of Polish Contemporary Art, the Department of Temporary Exhibitions and Artistic Events Studios, the Library, and the beginnings of a video library. An exhibition of graphic works donated by the Main Board of the Association of Polish Painters and Graphic Artists was presented in the attic. In May 1988, the Minister of Culture and Art appointed Michał Matuszyn (director from 1988 to 1990) as director of the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw. The year 1988 saw the inauguration of a truly distinguished institution. Its staff included A. Mitan, A. Kępińska, A. Wiśniewski, W. Borowski, A. Dłużniewski, J. Byszewski, B. Kowalska, and many others. The International Art Seminar organized in 1988 inaugurated the exhibition activities of the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art. Wojciech Krukowski was the next director, serving in this position for two decades (1990–2010). During this time, the Centre became one of the most important institutions dedicated to contemporary art in Poland. The following artists exhibited here: Abakanowicz, Althamer, Bałka, Dróżdź, Gierowski, Kantor, Kozyra, Kulik, Libera, Opałka, Stażewski, Tarasewicz, Wodiczko, Żmijewski and many foreign artists: Boltański, Gormley, Holzer, Kabakow, Kosuth, Long, Mach, Oppenheim, Oursler, Pistoletto, Serrano.
In 1985, the Centre for Information and Scientific Documentation was established, whose task was to create, collect, develop and make available documentation of the most important phenomena of contemporary art in Poland and selected activities of Polish artists abroad.
The Center's primary activity was to create and disseminate extensive information about and for Polish artists. Currently, U–jazdowski's resources include hundreds of thousands of documents: exhibition catalogs, ephemera, press releases, biographies, manuscripts, photographs, video recordings, and audio recordings.
The history of the Ujazdowski Castle dates back to the 17th century, when the construction of a brick castle for Sigismund III Vasa began next to the wooden Ujazdów seat. Successively, Władysław IV and Jan Kazimierz resided in it.
In the second half of the 17th century, the Crown Marshal Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski, who made the castle your headquarters. After his death, was estated of King Augustus II, who built the 820-meter-long Piaseczyński Canal on the main residence, stayed permanently. The canal was the second, after Versailles, to be a baroque water structure. In 1766, the castle was purchased by Stanisław August Poniatowski. In 1809, a hospital hospital was located in the Castle.
After regaining independence in 1918, the intention was to achieve marital status, but from 1922 it housed the Military Sanitary School, and between 1930 - 1939 it operated the Sanitary Training Center.
The castle survived the war years, but the interiors were burnt, the main substance of the walls was preserved. Initially, it was planned to rebuild the castle in its 17th-century model, but in 1954 the castle walls were pulled down.
In the 1970s, on the initiative of Aleksander Gieysztor, Stanisław Lorenz and Jan Zachwatowicz, it was decided to rebuild the castle according to the design of Piotr Biegański in the early Baroque version. In 1981 a decision was made to hand over the Ujazdowski Castle for the cultural object. Since 1985, it houses the Center for Contemporary Art - Ujazdowski Castle.