Name: Mikołaj Sobczak. Share and Rule
Start: 2026-09-18T13:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-09-18T13:00:00+02:00
Location: Polnisches Institut Düsseldorf

Mikołaj Sobczak in Düsseldorf: Historical Painting as an Open Possibility Space

With Mikołaj Sobczak. Share and Rule, the Polish Institute Düsseldorf presents an exhibition that makes history experienceable not as a concluded narrative but as a contested field of images. The artist, a participant in Manifesta 16 Ruhr, combines painting, video, objects, and performative strategies into an exhibition experience that reorders memory, power, and visibility.

Painting Between Archive and Imagination

Sobczak's works draw on the conventions of historical painting, dismantling and expanding them at the same time. In multilayered, often surreal tableaux, real protagonists encounter one another beyond linear time. Thus, a viewing of the works emerges, in which historical images do not appear as authoritative endpoints, but as a fragile structure of fragments, projections, and counter-images.

Queer and Trans Perspectives at the Center

The exhibition places a clear focus on marginalized voices, on queer and trans experiences, and on forms of resistance against exclusion and normalization. Sobczak works with alternative historical images and shifts established canons. This is precisely where the special aesthetic experience of this exhibition lies: It encourages a new reading of history and understanding the present as a politically charged space.

Between Düsseldorf Art Scene and International Contemporary Art

The Polish Institute Düsseldorf presents the artist's first institutional solo exhibition in the city. Curated by Krzysztof Kościuczuk, the exhibition brings together key works from different phases of Sobczak's creative journey and makes his artistic language visible in its entire breadth. His practice is internationally anchored in contemporary art and is closely tied to cultural education, as it conveys complex contexts in a comprehensible, sensual, and discussion-open manner.

Space, Light, and Narrative

Visitors to this exhibition do not experience a purely distanced view, but an art experience with an intense spatial impact. The combination of image, moving image, and performative traces creates an exhibition atmosphere in which political history, personal biography, and collective memory overlap. It is precisely this openness that makes the presentation intriguing.

Why a Visit is Worthwhile

Mikołaj Sobczak. Share and Rule offers an insightful, image-rich, and highly relevant perspective on art as a form of historical inquiry. Visitors can expect an exhibition that not only convinces aesthetically but also challenges intellectually. A live visit to the Polish Institute Düsseldorf is absolutely worthwhile, as these works only unfold their full power in direct dialogue with the space.