In a world shaped by visual culture, it is increasingly difficult to distinguish representation from reality. Especially when we think of places that function in the collective consciousness as projections of dreams and longings. Morocco has existed in the European imagination for decades as a land of sun and freedom. At the same time, Europe remains a symbol of prosperity and opportunity for many residents of North Africa. On both sides of the Mediterranean, images circulate of places that often say more about our desires than about reality itself.

The exhibition “Jak zrobić stół?” [How to Make a Table?] at Galeria Pracownia Wschodnia addressed the theme of meeting another human being, understood as a process of building bonds, community, and mutual recognition and understanding.

Works embedded in fragile and unstable matter. The installations reflect their contemplation on their own limitations regarding social and individual expectations and the challenges we face every day. The artists ask about the boundaries of freedom, the boundaries of subjectivity, and the roles of the individual in the face of elusive changes.

The window exhibition referenced the annual artistic and research programme TEREN [TERRAIN], which focused on redefining the concept of terrain/space in a social, artistic, and symbolic context.

Presented in the windows of Galeria Pracownia Wschodnia, the works by artist elm_735 and artist Paulina Mirowska served as the closing and culmination of the year-long activities.

"PODŁOGA" [Floor] proposed thinking about the base of every space as a medium, a carrier of meanings, a map of practices and rituals, a plane of diverse movement. The artists reinterpreted the floor as a point of contact with everyday life, weight and history, with that upon which we settle ourselves. In dialogue with the architecture of the display, the creators turned their gaze towards what silently accompanies our experience of the world. Their works examined the form and memory of space, revealing what is covered, stored, what has settled in layers and crevices.

The exhibition was a formal experiment aimed at a comprehensive description of the phenomenon of hoarding (known as zbieractwo). This phenomenon, embedded in contemporary consumer culture, has been analysed for decades by philosophers and artists, ranging from Duchamp's ready-made phenomena to the contemporary installations of Robert Kuśmirowski. The exhibition aimed to capture the complex specificity of the hoarding phenomenon in relation to contemporary culture, philosophy, art, and the depths of the human psyche and human trauma.

The exhibition "Okolica" (Neighbourhood) was a survey of works by selected artists associated with the Praga-Północ district. The exhibition was curated by two artists whose lives are inextricably interwoven with this part of Warsaw – it was here that their great-grandparents and grandparents lived, and here that their childhoods took place. Memories and stories heard in family homes gradually took on an oniroid, almost fairytale character.

The Solidarity Transport Hub (CPK) will be a major transport hub planned across three Masovian municipalities: Baranów, Teresin and Wiskitki. The exhibition Czas Przyszły Konceptualny. CPK i okolice (Future Conceptual Tense. CPK and Surroundings), presented from 18 June to 20 July 2025, constituted a spatiotemporal exploration of the surroundings of CPK – the Grodzisk, Żyrardów and Sochaczew counties – both in a speculative view and as presented through capitalist realism.

The starting point was the image of Masovian villages on the eve of the investment. This sleepy landscape referred to stories from the past and future, completed and unfulfilled. Its protagonists were: a bridge from Radziejowice, a viaduct from Hipolitów, a chimney from Moszna, sedge from Jaktorów, a signpost from Kaski, waterways of the Baranów municipality, a tick from Jaktorów, the Pisia river, animal farms, potato fields, asphalt roads, the A2 motorway, railway infrastructure, the Jaktorów Forest, Międzyborów Dunes, Baranów meadows, a park in Grodzisk, Bolimów Landscape Park, Mariańska Forest.

A lively debate has been going on for several years in connection with the investment, its periods of intensification overlapping with the Polish electoral calendar. We are interested in the place where the potential airport would be located. What is happening here? How was it here? And how could it be? What distinguishes a place that stands out for nothing? What can an investment lead to that has lost its form and idea, transforming into various scenarios depending on market conditions and chance? We attempted to answer these questions based on several years of research.

Accompanying events

• 28 June 2025, 12:00–18:00 – gallery duty, artist's tour by Anna Siekierska and Piotr Puldzian Płucienniczak
• 5 July 2025, 12:00–18:00 – gallery duty, artist's tour by Kuba Maria Mazurkiewicz
• 11 July 2025, 16:00–20:00 – gallery duty, artist's tour by Małgorzata Gurowska and Agata Szydłowska (Zoe)
• 19 July 2025, 20:00 – launch of the sight-seeing booklet Czasoprzestrzenna Podróż Krajoznawcza. Okolice Baranowa (Spatiotemporal Sightseeing Journey. Around Baranów), publ. Dar Dobryszyc 2025

Project funded from science funds of the Faculty of Sculpture (exhibition) and the Faculty of Artistic Research and Curatorial Studies (publication) of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.