Cool, but at what cost? | opening of the exhibition — a space for conversation

“Nice, but at what cost?” is an exhibition and space for conversation about ADHD, productivity norms and social notions of success. Its starting point is the tension between what is visible — achievement, agency, task well done, biography for a medal — and what usually remains outside the frame: overload, masking, paralysis of action, excessive control and emotional cost inscribed in everyday functioning.

We are interested in ADHD beyond the most easily recognizable stereotype: the image of a “naughty” elementary school boy who bothers, does not think, has reprehensible behavior. The exhibition directs attention to other, often less visible, faces of ADHD: perfectionism, hyperresponsibility, hyperfocus, last-minute action skills, difficulty with rest and compensatory strategies, which from the outside may look like exceptional effectiveness.

The educational dimension of the exhibition is due to the need to expand the language with which we speak about ADHD. We want to create a space of cooperation in which knowledge does not flow in one direction. People with ADHD, loved ones, educators and the public can come together around questions about functioning conditions, about masking and about everyday survival strategies. Learning from one another here becomes a curatorial practice: a way of building a deeper understanding that grows out of mindfulness for different experiences.

“Nice, but at what cost?” asks what happens when success becomes the most readable form of invisibility. When “you're doing great” stops being a neutral compliment and begins to cover up tension? What costs are pushed beyond the biography of achievements? What language do we need to talk about ADHD without oversimplifying and without embarrassment? The exhibition invites us to talk about neurodiversity as an experience that requires conditions, relationships and institutional sensitivity. At its stake is a deep understanding: one that allows you to see not only the effect, but also the effort hidden beneath its surface.

Krystian Kamiński (he/she) — linguist, educator, translator and curator of artistic and social activities. She works in the Cultural Projects Department of the Goethe-Institut in Lublin. He combines language, art, education and equality; he is interested in culture as a tool for social change: a space in which to initiate conversations that are difficult, necessary or too long postponed, to smuggle uncomfortable topics and to see how an artistic story broadens the field of shared experience.

A person with a two-year diagnosis of ADHD. For years, he functioned as a “golden child”: eloquent, fast, efficient, outgoing — from what they will say, write, embrace, improvise and even make a nice punchline out of it. He can name chaos so convincingly that it looks like order for a moment. The regular ADHD tax payer: an additional cost of living in a world designed for a different organization of attention, time and energy. Master of masking and functioning in tension, sommelier of sensory hypersensitivity to certain foods, veteran of difficulties in initiating action. Diagnosis and treatment brought him relief above all: they allowed him to better understand his own ways of working, to name needs more precisely and to separate responsibility from embarrassment.

Paulina Mazurek (she/her) — born in 1995, intermediate artist, animator, curator and social worker. It works with the widely understood medium of photography, video, analog collage, digital editing, installation. He often works with his own image and archival materials. He uses relational aesthetics and the poetics of care, in art he initiates safe spaces of encounter. Associated with the Museum of Residential Housing in Lublin, where she is responsible for relationship-building activities and integration of the local community. Together with Michał Tokarz, he forms Kolektyw [SEE HOW], which received the Żurawie 2025 Cultural Award in the “Picture” category. In their practice, they operate with the language of joke and pleasant nonsense, deconstructing the established conventions of material culture and social rituals.

There is no official diagnosis of ADHD, although he identifies as an ADHD person. Like Krystian, from birth he is a “golden child” who will do everything perfectly, spectacularly, with pomp, brilliantly hiding paralysis and hidden costs. As the streak of success was interrupted, the intricately constructed world pounded for a moment, only to shine again and delight with its construction. Today we learn that done is better than perfect, and even that not everything has to be done. For her, neurodiversity is an area of search for understanding: the environment and herself. He tries to function more slowly and look at himself with a greater dose of understanding.

Curator: Agata Sztorc-Gromysek

The “Art of Sensitivity” project was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund.

When:

20 November 2026, 6 p.m. | vernissage

23 November — 10 December 2026 | exhibition | Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 17:00, and during selected events accompanying the exhibition

Where: Culture Workshops in Lublin, 7 Grodzka Street, exhibition hall, 2nd floor

For whom: no age restrictions

Admission is free