Bonnefanten presents artworks by Polish Roma artist Małgorzata Mirga-Tas in the pop-up pavilion at Cultura Nova! The spectacular, colorful tapestries celebrate her culture and tell stories about important women in the Netherlands and Poland. Come to the pop-up museum to see art, sit in a beach chair, read, do crafts and more!

Małgorzata Mirga-Tas
The Bonnefanten pop-up museum showcases sensational tapestries by Polish artist Malgorzata Mirga-Tas. The meters-high artworks are portraits of extraordinary women from the Netherlands and her community in Poland. Women who step outside the box and mean a lot to their communities. Artists, activists, teachers. They lovingly hold their community together and help it move forward. But their soft power often remains invisible and missing from history books.

Mirga-Tas gives these women the stage they deserve. For thousands of years, portraits have been used to immortalize people and show how important they are. Historically, women have been portrayed less than men. Women’s role in society was considered unimportant, and many influential women never made it into the history books. We have forgotten about them. Mirga-Tas wants to draw attention to women around her, adding to history with untold stories.

The portraits are collages of fabric. Mirga-Tas says she sculpts with fabric herself. On large canvases, she combines pieces of fabric with drawings and paintings. She uses clothing, sheets, curtains and other household fabrics that she gets or buys from her immediate surroundings. The fabrics are lived-in, and carry memories within them. The making of these enormous works takes a long time and is a collaborative process, with the artist getting help from (mostly female) family members and neighbors. Mirga-Tas makes the tapestries with a few seamstresses with great expertise. The very act of making together and learning from each other and gaining inspiration gives the work extra meaning.

Mirga-Tas belongs to the Roma, a transnational people who have no defined territory and are spread over large parts of the world. It is one of the largest and most discriminated against minorities in Europe. Her art reflects on Roma identity from a feminist perspective. Through her work she combats the dominant, negative and stereotypical image of the Roma people created for centuries almost exclusively by non-Roma. She shows us an intimate and authentic insight into the Roma community.

In the pop-up museum you can not only see art, you can chill in our beach chairs, read a book, do crafts and play on it. Throughout the week there will be various activities that will bring you even closer to the world of Małgorzata Mirga-Tas.

Russian Box
Outside the museum pavilion is a special little building. It was conceived by the world-famous Italian

architect Aldo Rossi, who also designed the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht. The Russian Box (1989) resembles the Russian Matryoshka dolls, which can be pushed together from large to small. The Russian Box was donated to the Bonnefanten in 2020 and is now at Cultura Nova for the second time.

The Bonnefanten Pop-up Museum is open every day and free to visit, for everyone!