[spectre] CONF: [circulation of visual arts ... during the Cold War] (Zacheta, Warsaw, 5 Feb 26)

[Andreas Broeckmann LEU]

From: Wiktoria Szczupacka
Date: Jan 23, 2026
Subject: CONF: Global and Forgotten Connections (Zachęta, 5 Feb 26)

Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Feb 05, 2026

Global and forgotten connections: the circulation of visual arts between 
socialist European countries and Asia, Latin America and Africa during 
the Cold War.

International Conference
Zachęta – National Gallery of Art
Pl. Małachowskiego 3, 00–916 Warsaw

Thursday, 5 February 2026

9:30 a.m. Event opening and welcome by Agnieszka Pindera, director of 
the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art
Introduction by Wiktoria Szczupacka
10:00–11:30 a.m. Panel 1 Institutions [chair: Wiktoria Szczupacka]
Gabriela Świtek, CBWA
Terezie Nekvindová, A Distributed Exhibition State: Institutional 
Conditions of Organising Exhibitions Abroad in Czechoslovakia
Dorota Jarecka, Art Institution as Quilt: Global Transfers at the 
Galeria Studio in Warsaw
discussion

11:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Coffee break

12:00–1:30 p.m. Panel 2 Geographies: Asia [chair: Zsuzsa László]
Thục Linh Nguyễn Vũ, The Socialist Postcolonial Moment: Vietnamese Art 
in Zachęta in the 1950s
Maija Koskinen, Formal and Informal Artistic Exchanges. Finnish Art in 
the Soviet Union and China in 1958: An Unorthodox Journey Across Planned 
and Improvised Venues
Hatice Özdogan Türkyilmaz, Participation of Artists from Socialist 
European Countries in the First Two International Istanbul Biennials
discussion

1:30–3:00 p.m. Lunch break

3:00–4:30 p.m. Panel 3 Geographies: Asia [chair: Gabriela Świtek]
Simone Wille, South Asian Art and Artists in Central Europe: 1947–1989
Wiktoria Szczupacka, Between the People’s Republic of Poland and India: 
Women Artists, Feminism, and the Exhibition at the BWA Gallery in 
Bydgoszcz in 1988
Justyna Balisz-Schmelz, India as an Imaginary Spiritual Home: Jerzy 
Ćwiertnia’s Work as an Early Example of the “Eastward Turn” in Postwar 
Polish Artistic Theory and Practice
discussion

4:30–5:00 p.m. Coffee break

5:00–6:30 p.m. Panel 4 Geographies: Africa [chair: Pavlína Morganová]
Maja and Reuben Fowkes, Monumental Alignments with Revolutionary 
Ethiopia: Collaborative, Decolonial and Ecological Practices of 
Socialist Memorialisation
Katarzyna Falecka, On Artistic Exchanges between Algeria and the former 
Eastern Bloc
Paulina Banas, Publishing Living Egypt on Both Sides of the Cold War: 
Paul Strand’s Photography and the Networks of 1960s Art Publishing
Discussion

7:00–8:00 p.m. Curators’ tour of the What Are Our Collective Dreams? 
Global connections – abandoned friendships exhibition [curators: Taras 
Gembik, Joanna Kordjak, Antonina Stebur]

Friday, 6 February 2026

10:00–11:30 a.m. Panel 5 Geographies: Latin America [chair: Daniel Grúň]
Agata Jakubowska, Exhibitions of Mexican Women Artists in Europe: 
Feminism and Cultural Diplomacy
Karolina Zychowicz, Mexican Art as a Catalyst for Change: Exhibitions in 
Warsaw (1955) and Beijing (1956)
Jorge M Sanguino, The Legacy of Marcos Kurtycz: Three Decades of 
Contemporary Mexican Art
discussion

11:30 a.m. –12:00 p.m. Coffee break

12:00–1:30 p.m. Panel 6 Geographies: Latin America [chair: Zsuzsa László]
Heloisa Espada, From Bioromanticism to Concrete Art: Kázmér Fejér and 
the Connections Between Abstractionism in Brazil and Central Europe
Rado Ištok, Czechoslovakia at the 10th Bienial de São Paulo
Rada Georgieva, Beyond Alignment: Liuba Wolf at the São Paulo Biennial
discussion

1:30–3:00 p.m. Lunch break

3:00–4:30 p.m. Panel 7 Geographies: Latin America [chair: Pavlína Morganová]
Juliane Debeusscher, Multidirectional Realisms: Antonio Berni in 
Socialist Europe (1956–1966)
Katarzyna Cytlak, Cultural Antropophagy: Angelo de Aquino’s Decolonial 
Dialogue with the Polish Artist Jarosław Kozłowski
Katerina Valdivia Bruch, Third World Solidarity: Transnational Cultural 
Encounters in 1970s Peru
discussion

4:30–5:00 p.m. Coffee break

5:00–6:50 p.m. Panel 8 Geographies: Latin America [chair: Wiktoria 
Szczupacka]

Zsuzsa László, Divergent Attempts Towards a Transregional Profile of Art
Daniel Grúň, Cosmic Utopia as a Critique of Cold War Ideology? Július 
Koller and his Participation in International Mail Art Networks
Diego Renart González, A Dominican Artist in Poland: Silvano Lora and 
His Forbidden Exhibition in Warsaw
Dorota Jagoda Michalska, The Open Veins of The Earth: Władysław Hasior 
(1928–1999), Post-War Marxism and Decoloniality Between Poland and Uruguay
discussion

7:00–7:30 p.m. Closing remarks: New research directions
Zsuzsa László, Daniel Grúň, Pavlína Morganová; [chair: Gabriela Świtek]


Reference / Quellennachweis:
CONF: Global and Forgotten Connections (Zachęta, 5 Feb 26). In: 
ArtHist.net, Jan 23, 2026. <https://arthist.net/archive/51559>.