Already from 14 March onwards an exhibition “Familiar Strangers. Eastern Europeans”, which takes a look at the transformations in Eastern Europe from the perspective of artists living in Poland, will be available to viewers at BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels. The exposition gives voice to persons from diasporas and minorities and those who broaden the perception of the public sphere through art and activism. The exhibition accompanies the international cultural programme of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2025 and will last until 29 June. The project has been created owing to the involvement of Adam Mickiewicz Institute and has been financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
A voice of diasporas and minorities living in Poland at an exhibition at Bozar in Brussels
Curated by Joanna Warsza, the exhibition offers a meeting space for artists who explore the changing reality of Eastern Europe through their art. The architecture of the exhibition has been prepared by Aleksandra Wasilkowska, and the artists presented at the exhibition comprise: Oliwia Bosomtwe, Assaf Gruber, Zuzanna Hertzberg, Renata Rara Kamińska, Jasmina Metwaly, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Natalia LL, Ngo Van Tuong, Open Group, Janek Simon, Shadow Architecture, Jana Shostak, and Mikołaj Sobczak.
The exhibition "Familiar Strangers" at Bozar in Brussels, photo: Kuba Celej / AMI
In the words of Joanna Warsza – curator of the exhibition:
The brutal Russian invasion on Ukraine has highlighted rifts and differences between Eastern and Western Europe, underlining the previous dominance of West-centricity. The exhibition shows the unique nature and diversity of the region from the perspective of its residents and, in particular, its minorities.
“Familiar Strangers” is a polyphony of socially and politically engaged persons mainly from diasporas and minorities: the Romani, Vietnamese intellectuals and entrepreneurs, as well as Belarussian and Ukrainian artists and activists. The exhibition also invokes the complex history of Polish-Jewish coexistence that transgresses the ‘subletting contract’, pursuant to which the rights of certain persons are conditional and can be suspended. The exposition traces the feminist and queer resistance, voluntary or forced migration from Poland and, ever more frequently, to Poland, as well as sensitises viewers to the question of what it means to be someone with a different skin colour in the prevalently white society.
The project shows negotiations between own identity and visibility on the one hand, and coexistence and noticing others on the other; between the local and transcultural; and between familiar and unknown, that can be very delicate and complicated. The title has been inspired by a biography of Stuart Hall, a Jamaican-British researcher, for whom culture was a process of lifelong striving, together with and against the others, towards a more just society.
Each room introduces viewers to the world of one of the artists, as if the doors to their studios or private spaces were opened, invoking the tradition of flying universities or galleries in private apartments, and reminding them of the times when the political was created mainly in private spheres. Diverse themes find a common ground in a hybrid, and informal space designed using waste from Asian market halls at Bakalarska Street in Warsaw. The exhibition at Bozar – Centre for Fine Arts offers a chance to meet ‘familiar strangers’, those who seek their own place in the universe between the structures of oppression and faith in new opportunities, in a society that is no longer post-communist, but still not post-migrant, somewhere in Poland, Europe, in the world.
The exhibition is co-organised by Adam Mickiewicz Institute and financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
The exhibition "Familiar Strangers" at Bozar in Brussels, photo: Kuba Celej / AMI
Familiar Strangers. Eastern Europeans
- Venue: Bozar – Centre for Fine Arts of Brussels, Rue Ravensteinstraat 23, 1000 Brussels
- Dates: 14 March - 29 June 2025
- Press conference: 13 March 2025, 11:00
- Opening: 13 March 2025, 19:00
- Artists: Oliwia Bosomtwe, Assaf Gruber, Zuzanna Hertzberg, Renata Rara Kamińska, Jasmina Metwaly, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Natalia LL, Ngo Van Tuong, Open Group, Janek Simon, Shadow Architecture, Jana Shostak, and Mikołaj Sobczak
- Curator: Joanna Warsza
- Exhibition architecture: Aleksandra Wasilkowska
- More information: https://www.bozar.be/en/calendar/familiar-strangers-eastern-europeans-polish-perspective
The exhibition “Familiar Strangers” accompanies the international cultural programme of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2025. The programme, organised by Adam Mickiewicz Institute under the slogan ‘Culture Sparks Unity’, is part of the cultural programme coordinated by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and aims at promoting the idea of solidarity and international cooperation. It presents the most interesting phenomena taking place on the contemporary Polish art scene, at the same time placing new generation in the foreground.
