Magdalena Abakanowicz: The Thread of Existence

A major artist on the Polish scene in the 20^th century, Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930-2017) experienced war, censorship, and deprivation imposed by the communist regime from an early age. She produced immersive, poetic, sometimes disturbing and often political sculptures and textile works. Inspired by the organic world, by seriality and monumentality, her work possesses an undeniable power and presence, resonating with contemporary issues—environmental, humanistic, and feminist ones.

Radical and pioneering, Abakanowicz's work has been regularly exhibited abroad, from the United States to Japan and Europe, and more recently at the Tate Modern in London and the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne. The Musée Bourdelle is presenting the first major exhibition dedicated to the artist in France, offering biographical and political insights through a chronological and thematic journey of 80 ensembles—40 sculptural installations, 12 textile works, drawings, and photographs. In the 600m² Portzamparc wing, whose concrete walls have been renovated for the occasion, the exhibition focuses on her monumental sculptural production, in order to restore the artist to her place among the great sculptors of the 20th century.

The subtitle of the exhibition, “the Thread of Existence” combines two terms used by the artist to define her work. She considered fabric to be the elementary cell of the human body, marked by the vagaries of its destiny.

Resulting from three years of work, the project has received active support from the Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz Kosmowska and Jan Kosmowski Foundation (Warsaw), the Polish Institute, and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. The main lenders are the Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz Kosmowska and Jan Kosmowski Foundation in Warsaw, the Toms Pauli Foundation in Lausanne, the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, the Tate Modern in London, the National Museum in Wrocław, and the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.