Name: Mikołaj Sobczak. Share and Rule
Start: 2026-10-09T13:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-10-09T19:00:00+02:00
Location: Polnisches Institut Düsseldorf

Share, Remember, Reinterpret: Mikołaj Sobczak at the Polish Institute Düsseldorf

With Share and Rule, the Polish Institute Düsseldorf presents the first institutional solo exhibition of Mikołaj Sobczak in the city. The exhibition is part of the extended Manifesta-16 framework and brings together central works from different phases of his artistic career. Sobczak works between painting, video, objects, and performance and uses history itself as the main material of his art. ([instytutpolski.pl](https://instytutpolski.pl/duesseldorf/2026/05/31/mikolaj-sobczak-ausstellung/))

History Painting Under Tension

Sobczak questions the conventions of history painting and designs alternative scenarios where real protagonists, fragmented narratives, and surreal image spaces intersect. In his multifaceted tableaux, power dynamics shift, memory becomes an aesthetic and political field, and it becomes visible who is often overlooked in the canon. ([instytutpolski.pl](https://instytutpolski.pl/duesseldorf/2026/05/31/mikolaj-sobczak-ausstellung/))

Painting, Video, and Performance as a Living Archive

The exhibition brings together works in which Sobczak does not tell history linearly but makes it experienceable as a contradictory, fragile, and intentionally open structure. His approach to performance and video, particularly in The Peasants and in works like Adam Gawron, translates biographical traces, political persecution, and collective experience into precisely composed sequences of images. ([instytutpolski.pl](https://instytutpolski.pl/duesseldorf/2026/05/31/mikolaj-sobczak-ausstellung/))

Queer Perspectives, Resistance, and New Communities

A central theme of the exhibition is the visibility of queer and trans perspectives. Sobczak places marginalized biographies in the spotlight and connects them with questions of exclusion, belief, resistance, and the right to shape history. This results in an exhibition of great contemporary relevance that makes art a space for critical reflection and cultural education. ([instytutpolski.pl](https://instytutpolski.pl/duesseldorf/2026/05/31/mikolaj-sobczak-ausstellung/))

Curating and Exhibition Atmosphere

Curated by Krzysztof Kościuczuk, Creative Mediator of Manifesta 16 Ruhr, the presentation unfolds a dense exhibition atmosphere between analytical sharpness and poetic image power. The Polish Institute Düsseldorf emphasizes Sobczak's practice as an open investigation of historical narratives, where major narratives and marginal episodes intertwine. For art enthusiasts, this creates an artistic experience that is both intellectually challenging and sensually engaging. ([instytutpolski.pl](https://instytutpolski.pl/duesseldorf/2026/05/31/mikolaj-sobczak-ausstellung/))

Conclusion

Share and Rule offers an exciting, art-historically grounded perspective on contemporary art that deals with memory, identity, and political imagination. Those interested in contemporary painting, video art, and performative strategies should experience this exhibition live. It opens a space for aesthetic experience, critical engagement with the works, and new perspectives on history. ([instytutpolski.pl](https://instytutpolski.pl/duesseldorf/2026/05/31/mikolaj-sobczak-ausstellung/))