WHITE DESCENT / REPUBLIC OF CYNICS – PARADE SQUARE

Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, 2024–2025

In 2024, Tomasz Armada designed and created a costume for Katalin Ladik—a Hungarian poet, sound artist, and one of the most important figures in Central European performance art. The costume was created for “White Descent,” a performance presented during the opening of the new Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw on October 25, 2024. The performance took place in the building’s monumental stairwell and referenced Marcel Duchamp’s painting “Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2.”

In 2025, Tomasz Armada’s costume was exhibited again at the Museum of Modern Art as part of the exhibition “Republic of Cynics – Parade Square,” staged according to a score by Pierre Bal-Blanc. Tomasz Armada was among the artists featured in a project encompassing performances, protocols, films, and sound works from the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MSN) and the Kontakt Collection in Vienna. The exhibition presented performative practices in the context of corporeality, actions in public space, and a critique of prevailing social categories.

Scope of work: design and creation of the costume for the performance “White Descent”
Artist and performer: Katalin Ladik
Costume: Tomasz Armada
Exhibition curator: Pierre Bal-Blanc
Exhibition: “The Republic of Cynics – Defilad Square,” May 10–June 8, 2025