When does the exhibition take place?

The exhibition is scheduled for October 2, 2026, at 11:00 AM. According to the house program, it will run until October 9, 2026.

Where can the exhibition be seen?

At the Polish Institute Düsseldorf, Citadellstraße 7, 40213 Düsseldorf.

What art forms characterize the exhibition?

The focus is on painting, video, performance, and object-based works that reassemble historical narratives.

Is the exhibition indoors or outdoors?

The event takes place indoors at the Polish Institute Düsseldorf.

Are there any details about tours or workshops?

The published exhibition entry does not mention specific tours or workshops. Information will follow from the institute.

How much is the admission fee?

No verified ticket price could be found for this date. There is no reliable information on an admission price.

Mikołaj Sobczak opens image spaces between history, resistance, and surprising present

Name: Mikołaj Sobczak. Divide and rule
Start: 2026-10-02T13:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-10-02T13:00:00+02:00
Location: Polnisches Institut Düsseldorf

An exhibition about power, memory, and new images of history

With Mikołaj Sobczak. Divide and rule, the Polish Institute Düsseldorf presents the artist's first institutional solo exhibition in the city. The exhibition offers a dense view of art that combines history painting, video, performance, and painting into a multifaceted narrative about memory, identity, resistance, and visibility.

Rethinking history painting

Mikołaj Sobczak questions the conventions of classic historical images and designs alternative scenarios in which real protagonists, marginalized biographies, and political movements enter surprising relationships. His tableaux open the canon to queer and trans perspectives and shift the focus to those voices that are often absent in official narratives.

Painting, video, and performance as a shared narrative field

The exhibition gathers key works from various phases of creation. Sobczak works with painting, video, objects, and performance; the connecting material of his practice remains history itself. In fragmentary image narratives, events, figures, and symbols meet and create an exhibition atmosphere between poetic condensation and critical analysis.

Alternative historical images with great immediacy

Especially striking is Sobczak's interest in the mechanisms of exclusion, the politics of remembering and forgetting, and the question of who receives historical visibility. The works on display link collective emancipation movements with individual life paths and make clear how closely art history, political history, and cultural education are interconnected.

In the space between surrealism and political precision

The artist's visual worlds often appear surreal, yet precise in their art historical context. The reference to history painting, collective mythologies, and alternative archives creates a demanding viewing experience that goes far beyond mere illustration. Anyone who visits this exhibition experiences an artistic encounter full of intellectual tension, visual intensity, and spatial presence.

An important contribution to Manifesta 16 Ruhr

As a participant in Manifesta 16 Ruhr, Mikołaj Sobczak is embedded in a regional art-critical context. The Polish Institute Düsseldorf thus presents an exhibition that is not only aesthetically impressive but also culturally and politically relevant. It invites viewers to think of history as an open field and to read the present with new images.

Conclusion: Mikołaj Sobczak. Divide and rule offers a clever, atmospherically strong insight into an art that rethinks history, present, and questions of power. Anyone interested in contemporary painting, curatorial precision, and critical exhibition culture should definitely experience this presentation in Düsseldorf live.