Permanent exhibition

We’re so glad you’re here! Discover a place where jewelry becomes a universal language that tells stories about people and the world.

At the MoJA Jewelry Museum, we invite you on an extraordinary journey. Our permanent exhibition offers an encounter with Polish goldsmithing created after 1945, as well as with unique jewelry from around the world. The foundation of both sections is the collection of Maria Magdalena Kwiatkiewicz, which has been in the making since 1998.

As you view the objects in our collection, you will quickly discover that jewelry is a distinctive cultural code, a language of artistic expression, and not merely a stereotypically defined accessory.

We have divided the journey through our exhibition into two main paths:

1. Jewelry of the World: A Record of Encounters and Cultural Stories

Immerse yourself in cultures where jewelry is a symbol of identity, an amulet, and an inseparable element of the sacred. We will present objects that Maria Magdalena Kwiatkiewicz acquires from local artisans, exploring the history of their creation and their broader cultural context. You will see magnificent craftsmanship from:

• Africa (including Morocco, Niger, Mali);
• Asia (including Tibet, Nepal, Turkmenistan, China)
• South America and Oceania (including Peru, Bolivia, Papua).

This is a story of diversity, woven into the fabric of precious metals, but also into natural, human-scale details such as feathers, seeds, and shells.

2. Contemporary Jewelry: The Language of Form and the Language of Storytelling in the Polish Edition

Join us in discovering how Polish artists master a unique language of artistic expression, commenting on current socio-political events and sharing stories about themselves and their experiences. We sincerely hope that you will view the objects here not merely in terms of their utility, comfort, or durability. It will be far more interesting to consider the ideas embedded within them, as revealed by their form and the circumstances of their creation.

To make navigation easier, we have divided this section into two segments:

• Aesthetics of Form

Here you will see objects where technical mastery and artistic experimentation reign supreme. You will discover jewelry from the communist era and extraordinary works by artists playing with form, texture, and a wide variety of materials (from precious diamonds and amber to raw wood, glass, and steel);

• Narrative Jewelry

Get ready for art that speaks. Here, practical function takes a back seat. You’ll see works through which artists express their manifesto, comment on socio-political events, and tell stories about human emotions, relationships, and the nature that surrounds us.