Current and announcement
CULTURE DICTIONARY 2.0
Tensions escalate within language—it is language that accumulates and reveals the politics of how we shape the field of art and what positions we occupy within it.
Words, like images, absorb one another and borrow from each other—yet they also remain in conflict.
We step into our own roles: facilitators, coordinators, artists, fellows, directors, officials, researchers, curators, negotiators, activists, and many others whose formulas are still crystallizing—in order to learn how to speak about ourselves and to map tensions.
We organize spaces of negotiation and friction, of articulating different visions and describing the positions we adopt. We pose questions about the dependencies and configurations connecting the actors involved in the field of art. We carefully examine the collected materials, searching for reflections of generated tensions, existing dissonances, and resonances.
The first edition, curated by Katarzyna Maniak and Łukasz Trzciński, concluded with a printed publication produced in cooperation with the Narodowe Centrum Kultury (National Centre for Culture) in 2016.
In 2026, ten years have passed since the publication that discursively framed both the outcomes and the course of the project’s first iteration. To what extent, and in what ways, have the relationships between the perspectives of that first edition changed? How has the circulation of art shifted in this time? How has the language that reflects tensions within its field—and language in general—evolved?
The “Culture Dictionary” was initiated during a series of meetings involving facilitators, activists, artists, researchers, directors, coordinators, curators, fellows, and officials.
The meetings, led by a mediator, cultural facilitator, and artist, were organized in a format of dialogue and negotiation of meanings, relationships, and mutually occupied positions; a clash of different perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes, but also a space for collaboration.
They constituted an attempt to create an agonistic space, referring to a popular and often (at least theoretically) applied concept popularized by Chantal Mouffe, whose foundation lies in revealing—rather than silencing or neutralizing—conflict. Conflict is understood here as inherently unavoidable, arising from differences naturally existing between participants in a given situation, including differences related to structural position, social role, needs, or worldview. The agonistic model assumes a shift away from hostility and opposition toward creating conditions for coexistence within a shared space and negotiating meanings with an awareness of this diversity and pluralism of attitudes.
The aim of the “Culture Dictionary” has been to hear differences, articulate tensions, and recognize existing dissonances and resonances among participants in the field of culture and art. Its principle, however, is not to antagonize, draw dividing lines, or place participants on opposing sides of a barricade. The initial question accompanying the Dictionary—an interest in how the so-called field of culture and art functions in the context of relationships between its creators—led to further inquiries: what visions of the role, place, and tasks of culture/art do participants in this field hold? How do these beliefs shape their relationships, and how are they reflected in the language they use? The Dictionary is not constructed by a single unified voice, nor by an individual narrative; rather, it is an ongoing conversation in which multiple tones resonate: questioning, organizing, evaluating, and reporting.
The year-long program is accompanied by the work of visual artist and illustrator Agnieszka Piksа.
The working group currently includes: Tomasz Dąbrowski, Marta Dvorak, Małgorzata Hordyniec, Olga Kasztelewicz, Piotr Knaś, Kinga Kołodziejska, Jessica Kufa, mariia Lemperk, Joanna Rzepka-Dziedzic, Claudia Spałek, and Łukasz Trzciński.
We invite you to participate in the upcoming editions of the Culture Dictionary 2.0 workshops!
In the exhibition space, a post-performative station—a site of encounters and frictions—awaits you.