Together with 48 Stunden Neukölln, U8 HAUS presents:
Excessive Romanticism
3-5 July | 48 Stunden Neukölln
Curator: Zuzanna Terra
Curatorial Tour with Zuzanna Terra
Meeting point: U8 Haus, Herrfurthstr. 9
Saturday | 4 July 2026 | 6pm | Polish
Sunday | 5 July 2026 | 3pm | English
The exhibition stems from David Rieff's thesis that forgetting is harmful to the past, but memory can be harmful to the present. Juxtaposing it with the poetry of Wisława Szymborska, who depicts war through everyday life, opens up a reflection on what history reveals and what it omits.
The starting point was a personal attempt to learn about the story of a woman murdered in 1945. Divergent sources, unclear facts, and uncertainty about her origins raised questions about the right to form bonds with someone we know only through fragments of information. This search revealed how changeable and susceptible to manipulation memory can be, especially in the context of increasingly frequent attempts to politically appropriate the past.
The invited artists (
Dominika Kowynia, Anna Jarosz, Dorota Nieznalska, Monika Drożyńska, Izabella Gustowska and Joanna Piotrowska) refer to memory, identity, and everyday experiences, especially those related to women. In their works, they address issues of moral ambiguity, women's history, violence, national symbolism, the nature of memory, and emotional fragility.
Together, they create a story about how personal and collective narratives intertwine, how the past influences the present, and how easy it is to succumb to the temptation of adding meaning to stories that can no longer defend themselves.
