“Long live the apocalypse.” Meeting with Jan Sowa as part of the series “New ecophilosophies of art”

As part of the series New Ecophilosophers, we invite you to the meeting “Long live the Apocalypse” accompanying the exhibition “Demon's Brain” by Agnieszka Polska at the Arsenał Gallery in Bialystok.

▶ ︎ The conversation will be attended by sociologist and cultural scientist Jan Sowa and philosopher, essayist and translator Bartosz Kuźniarz, who will lead the meeting.

▶ ︎ October 7, 2026 (Wednesday), 6 p.m.
Arsenal Gallery in Bialystok
2 Adam Mickiewicz Street
free admission

Modern culture changes the Apocalypse by all means. Streaming service offerings swell with disaster films and doomsday visions, the humanities race against the natural sciences for ominous predictions, and environmental thinkers convince that it's too late to change anything. The mirrors are black, the ecology is dark, and artificial intelligence is about to get out of hand and first deprive human beings of income, and then turn the planet into a huge paper clip factory. “Misery is the condition of growth” — whispers a demon in the Polish film.

But are our concerns justified? Are we really living in the end times? And if so, what does that actually mean? During subsequent installments of Polycrysis (a term by which modern humanities replace the word Apocalypse), moods are often ambivalent. Fear is mixed with almost overt enthusiasm. As if the Apocalypse was not a cause for concern, but a long-awaited beginning.

▶ ︎ Jan Sowa — dialectical-materialist theorist and social researcher. Doctor of Sociology, he received his habilitation in cultural studies. He has conducted research and lectured in Poland and abroad, including at the University of Sao Paulo, at the Academy of World Arts in Cologne and at the Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna. He was the co-creator of the publishing house Ha! art and the Goldex Po-LDEX Cooperative. He worked as a journalist at Polish Radio and curator at Bunkier Sztuki gallery in Krakow. In 2016-19 he was a member of the Committee of Cultural Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and in 2018-19 he curated the discursive program and research of the Biennale Warszawa. She works at the Faculty of Artistic Research and Curatorial Studies of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

Jan Sowa is the author and editor of a dozen books, including “Sezon w théâtre dolek i inne eseje” (2004), “Enjoy, late grandson! Colonialism, Globalization and Radical Democracy” (2007), “The Phantom Body of the King” (2012), “Another Republic is Possible” (2015) and — together with Krzysztof Wolański — “Sport does not exist. Games in the society of the spectacle” (2017). He has published many articles in Poland, France, the United States, Mexico, Germany, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

▶ ︎ Bartosz Kuźniarz — philosopher, essayist and translator, professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and Cognitive Sciences of the University of Bialystok. Author of the books: “Money and the System. The Devil in the Economy” (Kraków 2006), “Goodbye Mr. Postmodernism. Social theories of thinkers of the late left” (Toruń 2011) and “The King of Numbers. Sketches from the Metaphysics of Capitalism” (Warsaw 2020). Since 2025, he has been the editor-in-chief of the magazine “Civitas. Studies in Philosophy of Politics.”

▶ ︎ About the cycle New Ecophilosophies:
The prefix “eco-” is surprisingly undemanding: for a decade, he has been making a dizzying career in universities, in art galleries and among marketing specialists. Philosophy is no exception. The purpose of our meetings is to bring closer the reflections that have arisen among philosophers in recent years in relation to our relationship with the natural environment. What are our obligations to animals and the natural world? What do they come from? What principles should we be guided by? What can philosophy do in the face of the climate crisis? How to combine ethical thinking with social and ecological knowledge?

▶ ︎ Concept and organization: Bartosz Kuźniarz (Faculty of Cognitive Science and Philosophy, University of Bialystok) & Eliza Urwanowicz-Rojecka (Arsenal Gallery in Bialystok)
▶ ︎ Visual identity: Ewa Chacianowska
▶ ︎ Organizers: Faculty of Philosophy and Cognitive Science, University of Bialystok & Arsenal Gallery in Bialystok