The world around us is subject to constant change, and since the beginning of the 21st century, these changes have been picking up pace. How do we react to those changes? Shall we resist them or give in and accept them? Or is there another way? The latest exhibition in ŁAŹNIA Centre for Contemporary Art in Gdańsk attempts to answer these very questions.
The Changes exhibit explores the theme of changes in the surrounding reality. “The early 2020s have redefined the way we think about the world. The ‘invisible’ virus, the war in Ukraine, the wave of populism, and the increasingly palpable effects of climate change have undoubtedly shaken the image of European progress and stability. Reality is tearing at the seams; the established order demands redefinition”, says Agnieszka Kulazińska, one of the curators.
Changes showcases selected works from the British Council collection as part of the international arts programme UK/Poland Season 2025, promoting cultural dialogue between Poland and the UK. It offers Polish audiences a rare opportunity to view the works by leading British artists displayed at the Venice Biennale, Tate Modern in London, MoMA in New York, and Centre Pompidou in Paris. Divided into two sections in ŁAŹNIA CCA 1 (Dolne Miasto) and ŁAŹNIA CCA 2 (Nowy Port), the locations embedded in the history of Gdańsk and its social and urban transformations resonate with the theme of the exhibition. Dolne Miasto, a neighbourhood in gentrification, becomes the space for reflection on the spatial politics and social changes, whereas Nowy Port, with its post-industrial landscape and history of mobility, addresses the issue of migration, boundaries, and civilizational tensions.
Art as the lens for change
The title of the exhibition refers to the chorus of a David Bowie song: “Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, turn and face the strange”. The call to confront volatility and the unknown becomes the exhibit’s starting point. In the face of contemporary crises, Changes asks how we respond to the world that is no longer predictable. While discussing the exhibition’s concept, Agnieszka Kulazińska invokes the notion of ha-ha, which derives from the art of gardening and denotes the boundary between cultivated garden and wild nature. “If we assume that the garden represents nature subjugated to human will, reflecting our vision of reality, then its boundary may symbolise the end of an illusion – an awakening from the dream of controlling the ever-changing world around us. In this context, ha-ha also resembles an exclamation of astonishment at the realisation that the idyllic order is not eternal”, the curator explains. “Is contemporaneity akin to a walk in the garden leading to its borders? Are we approaching a moment of a ‘social ha-ha’ – a turning point where we must redefine our vision of peace, security, and prosperity?”.
The themes of Changes took shape through discussions between Polish and British curators, centring on how we experience historical and contemporary traumas, what lessons we have drawn from them and how we might regain lost stability.
The concept of the exhibition was created by Agnieszka Kulazińska and Katarzyna Serkowska in collaboration with British curator Rebecca Bridgman. Subjects tackled by the exhibition include identity, war, religion, nature, society, redefinition of institutions and power structures. The clash of distinct artistic sensibilities and points of view becomes the tool for analysing our times. In Kulazińska’s words: “The themes of Changes took shape through discussions between Polish and British curators, centring on how we experience historical and contemporary traumas, what lessons we have drawn from them and how we might regain lost stability. The exhibition aims to showcase works by artists from the British Council’s collection that illustrate the changes taking place in society”.
The end of illusion and new beginnings
The exhibition brings together artists who decode the present, challenging long-standing patterns and narratives. The artists tackle themes of identity, power, social change and the challenges of the global world, pointing to moments of breakthrough, crisis, and realisation in which the familiar order loses its power.
In his multi-channel video installation The Unfinished Conversation, John Akomfrah portrays the figure of Stuart Hall, a pioneer of cultural studies, whose figure becomes here the symbol of identity viewed as a constant process, not a state. The artist presents the vision of an individual shaped by history, migration, and culture, arguing that ethnic, cultural, or sexual identity can be fluid. The issues of cultural identity are also touched on in the series of tapestries by Grayson Perry, The Vanity of Small Differences, a satirical analysis of British social classes and their obsessions. Alluding to old paintings, the scenes feature characters, events and objects that Perry encountered during the making of a documentary series of television programmes analysing the taste of different social classes in Britain. Perry shows how deeply ingrained stereotypes of gender, status, and belonging run.
Matters of social and identity transformation are also addressed by Lubaina Himid, whose paintings reinterpret art history from a black woman’s perspective and speak to the cultural contribution of black people to Britain’s colonial past, yet, on the other hand, the complete underestimation of their role in it. In Burke, Hew Locke juxtaposes the colonial legacy against the aesthetic of contemporary sculpture. The monument of a British philosopher adorned like a deity reveals the tensions between the official history and the experience of the colonised. Past and present intermingle here in a visual critique of monumental thinking.
Damien Hirst’s Faithless conveys a meditation on the condition of spirituality in the modern world dominated by technology, suggesting that in the age of science, the sacred can take on entirely new, non-obvious forms. While Mona Hatoum’s installation Prayer Mat challenges the traditional symbolism of prayer, pointing out that spirituality is sometimes inscribed in systems of control and violence.
Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of today. Make Tofu Not War, a tapestry by Goshka Macuga, is a disturbing scene of climate protest in which the line between human and animal is blurred. The depiction comments on the destabilisation of the ecosystem and the changing status of humans as the centre of the world. The subject of the impact of global warming on nature also served as inspiration for the sculpture Butterfly Kid (boy) II by Yinka Shonibare. The artist combines African textiles with the aesthetics of historical European dress, exposing postcolonial tensions and globalisation paradoxes.
Simon Norfolk’s photographs from Kabul depict the remnants of war – destroyed buses, ruined houses, the desolation of urban spaces. Though aesthetically pleasing, the shots do not allow the viewer to forget about the suffering and chaos that a post-disaster society has to face. Angus Boulton’s photographs document post-communist spaces in Eastern Europe, with the empty interiors of abandoned military facilities becoming a metaphor for the end of ideology – a world that has lost its logic.
Changes is more than just an exhibition – it is also a dialogue and social experience.
Short films by Samson Kambalu deal with the question of freedom of an individual within the system, combining elements of performance, ritual and Dadaist humour. Larry Achiampong, on the other hand, creates an Afrofuturist narrative about diaspora, migration and the discontinuity of memory in his video work Relic 2. His vision of the future is composed of voices that have been marginalised for centuries – now they become the foundation of a new order, open to other ways of being and narrating the world.
What makes this exhibition special is the attempt to relate global themes to the local context – the one displayed in Gdańsk differs from the one that will be shown in Plymouth this fall. At the CCA ŁAŹNIA, the main theme is the present and the changes taking place here and now, while the focus at The Box in the UK will be on strategies of resistance and the past as a tool of activism. Although situated at the opposite ends of Europe, both cities are a common reflection on how to live and create in a time of constant change. Changes is more than just an exhibition – it is also a dialogue and social experience. It will be accompanied by a series of events, meetings, and discussions with artists and experts focusing on contemporary culture and society. Not only will the audience have an opportunity to see excellent works of art, but also participate actively in the conversation about the future of art, society, and identity.
Changes. Exhibition of works from the British Council collection
Artists: Larry Achiampong, John Akomfrah, Lea Andrews, Christine Borland, Angus Boulton, John Davies, Mona Hatoum, Lubaina Himid, Damien Hirst, Samson Kambalu, Rob Kesseler, Tania Kovats, Hew Locke, Bruce McLean, Rachel Maclean, Goshka Macuga, Jenny Matthews, Simon Norfolk, Cornelia Parker, Grayson Perry, Mark Wallinger, Rachel Whiteread, Yinka Shonibare.
25.04 – 24.08.2025
CSW Łaźnia, Gdańsk
