Nearly 90 artists of the young generation will take part in the ”Anxiety comes at dusk’ exhibition, which will be opened at Zachęta – the National Gallery of Art on 15 July. It will host works by artists born in the 1980s and 1990s – both recent debuts and renowned ones.

The exhibition is not only a comprehensive presentation of young Polish art but, above all, a story about anxieties, emotions and the potential for change. The exhibition allows viewers to take a look at the language of expressing what is difficult to describe- uncertainty, lack of faith in the future – and at the strategies of telling the public about one’s own trauma or fear.

The wide range of works includes intimate stories about depression, mental health, the need for closeness and love, and solitude. A large number of them deal with violence – from that directed against the self to that systemic, patriarchal and capitalist violence. In many of them, one can see irony and humour, pop culture fetishism, as well as cyberfuturism and posthumanism inspirations.

“Although the form of the exhibition refers to a traditionally understood review of current art, it does not focus on mapping phenomena, tendencies and the most important attitudes, nor does it identify key actors of the art scene. It draws attention to generational sensitivity and different ways of reacting to tensions and changes. It is a search for what is common rather than a presentation of individuality or original attitudes”, announced the organizers of the event.

The final part of the exhibition is composed of works deriving from the poetics of catastrophe, devoted to the archaeology of the future, the relationship between man and nature, magic, esotericism and the search for spirituality. Skeletons, zombies, centaurs, vampires, cute guys, causal women, migrants, and cyborgs are only some of the protagonists of the works presented at Zachęta.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński