A box of artistic delights

The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw [Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie] was founded in 2005 and since 2008 has been situated on ul. Pańska, across the other side of pl. Defilad. For many years, the museum used the gallery in the neighbouring Emilia pavilion and when this was demolished the main exhibition was moved to a building on the riverside – the Museum on the Vistula. Construction work began in 2019 on the new building between the Palace of Culture and Science and the Wars Sawa Junior department store – a project that has often been described as “iconic”. US architectural studio Thomas Phifer and Partners was commissioned to design it and came up with a minimalist external form: a four-storey building with two underground levels that had a length of 100m and a width of 26m. “But how on earth can this be iconic?” has been the response of many dumbfounded residents and visitors to the city. “You have to remember that from the outset th