The Change to Come

Art is always a mirror of the times; a reflection of the present; a response to social questions. That is illustrated by The Change to Come, an exhibition to be held at the Lipsiusbau from November 7, 2024–March 16, 2025. Presenting artists who live and work in Poland, its topic is their need for social, political and artistic change. The phenomenon of “commitment” has had a formative impact on Polish art over recent decades. Considering the dynamic upheavals affecting the entire globe, however, the exhibition is not restricted to Poland. Instead, it poses central questions about the relationship between art and society, highlighting the artist’s role as an eyewitness to contemporary challenges and as an active agent of change.

One good example is Marek Sobczyk’s Simple Rainbow, which was created in 1991 for the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw and displayed there for three years. The work of art returned to its place in front of the gallery in 2019, becoming both a symbol of the new life breathed into the public square and a platform for presenting political debates. The artwork was dismantled again in 2022. Marek Sobczyk has created a new version of the Simple Rainbow especially for the exhibition The Change to Come, and this has been set up on Georg-Treu-Platz on November 5, 2024 in the presence of the artist.

The exhibition creates a dialogue between historical and current artistic commentary pieces. The historical part presents key figures of 20th-century Polish art, their strategies and artistic practices. Starting with the doctrine of Socialist Realism in the 1940s and 1950s, it moves on to the “brief stabilisation” in the 1960s and 1970s, up to the 1980s when martial law was introduced. After the country regained its independence in the 1990s, the Critical Art movement emerged.

The historical works are contrasted with contemporary pieces created by artists from the young and intermediate generations in reaction to current crises and tensions. These commentary pieces are dominated by the concept of commitment, which seems to permeate every area of life. Artists from Ukraine and Belarus have now become a firm fixture in this Polish art scene.

Hanna Wróblewska (then Deputy Director of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum, now Minister for Culture and National Heritage) developed the concept for the exhibition in 2023 along with Magdalena Komornicka at the invitation of Marion Ackermann, Director-General of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. The exhibition was curated by Magdalena Komornicka in association with Maria Isserlis (SKD).

The exhibition architecture was designed by Maciej Siuda, demonstrating a particularly strong commitment to sustainability. His Warsaw practice is among the trailblazers in that field in Poland.

Marion Ackermann, Director-General of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden: “This exhibition offers impressive proof that art is political and art has an impact. Polish artists search for answers to current political questions and enter into dialogue with their audience.

If we are open to what their art has to say, it will change our point of view. Art can thus be used to build bridges. Working so intensively with our Polish colleagues, especially with Minister Hanna Wróblewska, has added further depth to our mutual ties and lastingly reinforced the German–Polish dialogue on art and culture.”

Olga Wysocka, Director of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute: “The Adam Mickiewicz Institute was founded to get Polish culture out into the world. We are proud and delighted to be involved in presenting an exhibition tackling the important topic of socially committed art and its role in the modern world. We hope that the works and perspectives of the artists in the exhibition will encourage people to reflect and act in response to the challenges of our times.”