The BWA Contemporary art gallery

When?
9 July 2026, 6:00 PM – Workshop session (Magdalena and Ludomir Franczak)
11 July 2026, 6:00 PM – Performative poster printing (Lotny Dom Wydawniczy / Flying Publishing House)

Where?
Political Critique Community Space (Świetlica Krytyki Politycznej) in Cieszyn
al. Jana Łyska 3, 43-400 Cieszyn
(entrance from ul. Przykopa 20)

How can we measure human connections?
Can emotions be quantified?
What becomes of a community once it loses its place?
How can we preserve it?

After 17 years of activity, the Political Critique Community Space (Świetlica Krytyki Politycznej) in Cieszyn is being closed by its founding organisation, the Stanisław Brzozowski Association based in Warsaw. This decision stands in stark contrast to the needs and aspirations of the residents of Cieszyn and the surrounding region. The closure of the Community Space is not merely the relocation of its activities and the dismissal of its staff—it also deprives the local community of a vital space for development, dialogue, and mutual support.

Earlier this year, BWA Katowice initiated a collaboration with the Community Space aimed at exploring new scenarios for socio-cultural engagement and rethinking the role of the art institution. In light of the closure, this collaboration has taken on an interventionist character. BWA Katowice will preserve the Community Space’s archives and develop a series of projects dedicated to the memory and legacy of the institution, both in Cieszyn and in Katowice.

The Community Space will close at the end of July. Together, we have prepared a collective farewell to the institution in its current form. The event will bring together artists and artistic initiatives including Magdalena and Ludomir Franczak, Lotny Dom Wydawniczy (Flying Publishing House), and long-term collaborators. We invite everyone who feels connected to the Community Space to participate in this performative workshop.

Common Ground offers an opportunity to reflect on the Community Space’s activities and on our relationship with it. Throughout the event, we will consider the significance of this place in fostering relationships, solidarity, and community. Working speculatively with and through the institution’s archive, we will attempt to reveal what at first glance appears invisible or immeasurable. Our focus is not only on the past, but also on what may yet emerge in the future.

The outcome of the workshop will be a performative printing of a limited edition series of posters. On one hand, the posters express an artistic bond with this place that has meant so much to us; on the other, they attempt to articulate a spell cast into the future. Accompanying us on this journey will be a deck of cards created last year as part of the Manifestos for the Future project, of which the Political Critique Community Space in Cieszyn was a participant.

The workshop session will take place on Thursday, 9 July at 6:00 PM at the Community Space. On Saturday, 11 July at 6:00 PM, the collaboratively designed posters will be printed in a performative event led by Lotny Dom Wydawniczy (Flying Publishing House)—an artistic and curatorial project centred around a printing press functioning as a social totem that brings together people and artistic ideas. The printing press is activated as a collective tool for documenting artistic concepts, including those that may never be realised. Its primary purpose is the production of printed matter and texts from the broad field of contemporary art. The soundscape accompanying the printing process will be created live by Ludomir Franczak.

This event is part of the Futurological Congress, presented within the framework of the Aesthetic Congress—a year-long programme of exhibitions and performative events dedicated to reimagining the contemporary art institution. The programme brings together diverse artistic and curatorial practices, methodologies, and voices. Its point of departure is BWA Katowice itself: an institution embedded within the urban and social fabric of the city as a historical instrument of social engineering. The modernist pavilion that houses BWA Katowice—now a listed architectural monument—is the same age as the emergence of Polish institutional critique. The need to rethink both its physical space and ideological framework serves as a starting point for a broader discussion on the meaning, purpose, and evolving dynamics of the art institution in a universal context.

Curator of the AESTHETIC CONGRESS – Łukasz Trzciński
Curatorial collaboration – Jessica Kufa, Natalia Kałuża