The Polish Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2016 directly responds to this year’s theme – Reporting from the Front – by addressing the ethical issues facing one of the most underrepresented participants in architecture: the construction worker.

COMMON AFFAIRS is an exhibition of Polish artists selected from amongst those who have been finalists in the VIEWS competition. This award for the best young artists, initiated in 2003 by two institutions: Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, whose mission is the popularization of contemporary art, and Deutsche Bank – which for many years has declared the promotion of art and an interest in contemporaneity amongst its activities – is the most important distinction awarded in the field of the visual arts in Poland.

The exhibition I like you, I like you a lot et.al. is the artist’s first solo show in Warsaw. The photographer, born in Kowary, has been living and working in London for many years. In her work one will find both her Polish and cosmopolitan experiences (some series of photographs were taken in Albania, Canada, Germany, Palestine, India). At the exhibition in the Zachęta Project Room Dobrucka shows two series of photos. The first one — I like you, I like you a lot — is a very personal project, started in 2008. It was conceived as a reflection of a family tragedy — the loss of a thirteen year old brother Maks, who drowned during a scouting trip.

The exhibition comprises many parallel stories and anecdotes: from historical references and recontextualisations of stereotypes and symbols, through analyses of the Polish fantasies and notions of wealth, to a critique of the market and personal narratives. Transformation-era clichés or experiences of the 2007 economic crisis mingle here with the manifestation of the joy of possession, fascination with luxury or the beauty of expensive items, as well as reflections on the real and symbolic value of works of art (which have invariably been considered as luxury goods).

Differences in works of art in the before and after stages may be visible, but often they are not noticeable to the viewer. The status BETWEEN, normally not revealed to the audience, includes complicated processes and activities, as well as important decisions regarding restoration.

The exhibition Bi-polar is the first such extensive presentation of the work of Jacek Malinowski in Zachęta. It presents a selection of the filmography of an artist who from 2000 has been realizing films in the style of fake documentaries. Over the course of over a decade Malinowski has developed his own, characteristic pseudo-documentary style that is an important element in his artistic “signature”.

How was folklore and folk art perceived directly after the war and in the first decades of the Peoples Republic of Poland? How did the ‘people’s’ government make use of it? How did its status change, the moment it was introduced into museums and galleries? What was the status of the folk artist — perceived as ‘the other’?