Monika Popiel and Paweł Świerczek — Stimpathy | exhibition opening

Do you ever play with a pen during a conversation, move your leg when you think about something, or hum under your nose to calm down? Such small gestures and sounds help us cope with emotions and stimuli. For many neurodiverse people, they are a particularly important way of feeling the world and taking care of their own comfort.

The exhibition “Stimpathy” by Monika Popiel and Paweł Świerczek invites you to take a closer look at them. With the help of image, sound and unusual art installation, he shows what we often do not notice on a daily basis, and sometimes we try to get rid of, because it does not fit into social norms. This is an opportunity to look at the human body and its needs from a different perspective, to discover non-obvious ways of communicating and to reflect on whether we really all need to behave the same way.

Monika Popiel and Paweł Świerczek in their artistic and research practice deal with neurodivergent perception, the embodiment of neurodiversity and stimulation as a relational practice. Through work with the body, sensory objects, theoretical texts and public actions check what allows neurodiverse people not only to survive, but also to flourish in a world that considers neurotypical, able-bodied and heterosexual people as the norm. They show that what is personal is at the same time political.

At the center of their interest is stimulation (self-stimulation behavior), that is, repetitive movements and sounds with which neurodiverse people regulate emotions and stimuli. Although neurodiversity is being talked about more and more, stimming is still rarely seen as an important bodily, cultural or relational practice. More often it is ignored, hidden, corrected or recognized as a pathology. Artists want to change this by neuroqueerizing, or, as Dr. Nick Walker writes, breaking both mental and gender norms. Both of these types of norms are closely interrelated and affect how we move around the city, how we work, rest or interact with other people. In this view, stimation is a way of imparting meanings through sensory exploration. It is a concern for one's own nervous system in a world that often refuses that concern, and a place for one's own rhythm, even if it does not fit the requirements of linear productivity. Stimming can become a language, you just have to learn to listen to it.

The installation “Stimpathy” grows out of meetings with neurotypical inhabitants of Berlin. Instead of recording their voices, the artists recorded their stims and bodies in contact with favorite places in the city. At close-ups so close that the image loses scale and becomes touch, people, animals, plants and inanimate matter are stimulated. The projection falls on an object resembling a halo, from which emerges a shape referring to one of the most direct gestures of opposition. It is impossible to argue, so it is easiest to consider it madness; in the installation it is elevated to the rank of sanctity. It is also a nod to the medieval saints, who today would most probably be considered neurotypical. The object is covered with mirrors from a disco ball, on which the image splits and scatters on the walls, ceiling, floor and bodies of visitors. From the sound stimes collected during the workshop, a piece of music composed by Valyen Songbird was created. Video and sound are looped, but their loops vary in length, so the layout of what is seen and heard is constantly changing. The project aims to make visible what is usually hidden, to empower neuro-disabled people and to tame the presence of stigmatization in public spaces.

The project “Stimpathy” was realized as part of the Fresh AIR residency organized by Stiftung Berliner Leben.

More about the project: stimpathy.com

Monika Popiel (free pronouns) works on a tangle of different disciplines, mixing artistic, technological and research practices. She graduated in directing from the Theatre Academy in Warsaw and applied mathematics from the Gdańsk University of Technology. At the heart of her work is the body as a fundamental place of experience, relationship and cognition. In his research, he combines the performing, relational, sensory and somatic arts with embodied practices of fabric-making, electronics design, and interface programming. It creates interactive spaces of encounter in which the body and the senses not only become material and tools of action, but also actively co-produce them. Her work explores the dynamic relationships between bodies, memory, imagination, technology, and the multisensory experience of the world. Working intensively with the sense of touch, interoception and movement, he raises questions about compassion, coexistence in uncertainty and dissonance and the possibility of joint action.

Website: monikapopiel.com

Paweł Świerczek — graduated in cultural studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice and the Laboratory of New Theatrical Practices at the SWPS University in Warsaw. She works at the intersection of performative and relational practices, artistic research and (neuro) queer activism. At the center of his interests are the tensions between identity politics and embodied experience, specifically queer and neurodiverse. In recent years, she has mainly explored the queer heritage of Upper Silesia (“Of Coal and Rainbow/Wungiel i donga”, Sophienasele, Berlin 2018; “From Ahead Our Time”, Favoriten Festival, Dortmund 2022; collective Silesia Przegiety, 2018—) and the bodily experience of neurodiversity (“Stimpathy”, Fresh AIR, Berlin 2026). Since 2023 he has been practicing and teaching the embodied method of communication Authentic Relating.

Website: pawelswiercz.com

Sound consultation and composition: Valyen Songbird

Sound stims: participants in Stimpathy workshops

Visual artists: Adaś, Célestin, Jenny Döll, Jarosław Gudowski, Katarzyna Mach, Martyna Masztalerz, Monika Popiel, Valyen Songbird, Paweł Świerczek, Tesia, Tere Więcko, Daniel Z.

Special thanks: Raum für Beteiligung Tempelhof-Schöneberg, Karada House

Curator: Agata Sztorc-Gromysek

The exhibition presented in the Cultural Workshops is part of the project “Art of Sensitivity”, co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund.

When:

23 October 2026, 6 p.m. | vernissage

26 October — 13 November 2026 | Sightseeing | 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: adolescents from 15 years of age and adults

Admission is free