International Conference
5–6 February 2026
Zachęta – National Gallery of Art
Pl. Małachowskiego 3, 00–916 Warsaw

language: English (simultaneous interpretation into Polish)
conference concept: Gabriela Świtek, Wiktoria Szczupacka

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Thursday, 5 February 2026

9.30 a.m. Event opening and welcome by Agnieszka Pindera, director of the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art
Introduction by Wiktoria Szczupacka

10–11.30 a.m. Panel 1: Institutions [chair: Wiktoria Szczupacka]

Gabriela Świtek, Central Bureau of Art Exhibitions: The Geopolitical Aspects of Its Activities

Terezie Nekvindová, A Distributed Exhibition State: Institutional Conditions of Organising Exhibitions Abroad in Czechoslovakia

Dorota Jarecka, Art Institution as Quilt: Global Transfers at the Galeria Studio in Warsaw

Discussion

11:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Coffee break

12.–1.30 p.m. Panel 2: Geographies – Asia [chair: Zsuzsa László]

Thục Linh Nguyễn Vũ, The Socialist Post-colonial Moment: Vietnamese Art in Zachęta in the 1950s

Maija Koskinen, Formal and Informal Artistic Exchanges. Finnish Art in the Soviet Union and China in 1958: an Unorthodox Journey Across Planned and Improvised Venues

Hatice Özdogan Türkyilmaz, Participation of Artists from Socialist European Countries in the First Two International Istanbul Biennials

Discussion

1.30–3 p.m. Lunch break

3–4.30 p.m. Panel 3: Geographies – Asia [chair: Gabriela Świtek]

Simone Wille, South Asian Art and Artists in Central Europe: 1947–1989

Wiktoria Szczupacka, Between the People’s Republic of Poland and India: Women Artists, Feminism, and the Exhibition at the BWA Gallery in Bydgoszcz in 1988

Justyna Balisz-Schmelz, India as an Imaginary Spiritual Home: Jerzy Ćwiertnia’s Work as an Early Example of the ‘Eastward turn’ in Post-war Polish Artistic Theory and Practice

Discussion

4:30–5:00 p.m. Coffee break

5–6.30 p.m. Panel 4: Geographies – Africa [chair: Pavlína Morganová]

Maja and Reuben Fowkes, Monumental Alignments with Revolutionary Ethiopia: Collaborative, Decolonial and Ecological Practices of Socialist Memorialisation

Katarzyna Falecka, On Artistic Exchanges Between Algeria and the Former Eastern Bloc

Paulina Banas, Publishing living Egypt on Both Sides of the Cold War: Paul Strand’s Photography and the Networks of 1960s Art Publishing

Discussion

7–8 p.m. Curators’ tour of the What Are Our Collective Dreams? Global Connections – Abandoned Friendships exhibition [curators: Taras Gembik, Joanna Kordjak, Antonina Stebur]

Friday, 6 February 2026

10–11.30 a.m. Panel 5: Geographies – Latin America [chair: Daniel Grúň]

Agata Jakubowska, Exhibitions of Mexican Women Artists in Europe: Feminism and Cultural Diplomacy

Karolina Zychowicz, Mexican Art as a Catalyst for Change: Exhibitions in Warsaw (1955) and Beijing (1956)

Jorge M Sanguino, The Legacy of Marcos Kurtycz: Three Decades of Contemporary Mexican Art

Discussion

11.30 a.m.–12 p.m. Coffee break

12–1.30 p.m. Panel 6: Geographies – Latin America [chair: Zsuzsa László]

Heloisa Espada, From Bioromanticism to Concrete Art: Kázmér Fejér and the Connections Between Abstractionism in Brazil and Central Europe

Rado Ištok, Czechoslovakia at the 10th Bienial de São Paulo

Rada Georgieva, Beyond Alignment: Liuba Wolf at the São Paulo Biennial

Discussion

1.30–3 p.m. Lunch break

3–4.30 p.m. Panel 7: Geographies – Latin America [chair: Pavlína Morganová]

Juliane Debeusscher, Multidirectional Realisms: Antonio Berni in Socialist Europe (1956–1966)

Katarzyna Cytlak, Cultural Anthropophagy: Angelo de Aquino’s Decolonial Dialogue with the Polish Artist Jarosław Kozłowski

Katerina Valdivia Bruch, Third World Solidarity: Transnational Cultural Encounters in 1970s Peru

Discussion

4.30–5 p.m. Coffee break

5–6.50 p.m. Panel 8: Geographies – Latin America [chair: Wiktoria Szczupacka]

Zsuzsa László, Divergent Attempts Towards a Transregional Profile of Art

Daniel Grúň, Cosmic Utopia as a Critique of Cold War Ideology? Július Koller and His Participation in International Mail art Networks

Diego Renart González, A Dominican Artist in Poland: Silvano Lora and His Forbidden Exhibition in Warsaw

Dorota Jagoda Michalska, The Open Veins of the Earth: Władysław Hasior (1928–1999), Post-war Marxism and Decoloniality Between Poland and Uruguay

discussion

7–7.30 p.m. Closing remarks: New research directions

Zsuzsa László, Daniel Grúň, Pavlína Morganová; [chair: Gabriela Świtek]