Neighbours

The 2018 festival exhibition aimed to examine the idea of neighbourly relations within the shared urban space, where rising migration, whether for economic or political reasons, calls for this notion to be considered anew. The range of experiences for people living side by side has acquired a new context that takes into account the life practices of both seasonal workers and other migrating people. This is the point of reference for the ideas expressed in the works on show and the dominant theme for the WARSAW UNDER CONSTRUCTION festival. The initiative has engaged curators from the Visual Culture Research Center in Kyiv, who have worked together to capture the picture of today’s neighbourly relations and the meanings taking shape around it through the prism of Warsaw – Kyiv link serving as an example of broader global processes that can be identified amid the ongoing migration between the two cities. The exhibition in Warsaw can also be read as a collection of diverse artistic approaches that take a timely look at social processes and their shift caused by the increasingly apparent presence of new neighbours. A part of these voices are artistic statements referring to the situation in Ukraine seen as a result of the widespread discontent with the nation’s political situation, compounded by the ongoing military conflict, as well as the hurried decommunization policy and the sweeping tide of ultra-nationalist movements. The latter processes, also present in Poland today, are indicative of a broader picture of neighbourly relations on a global scale.