Oratory on the Constitution of the Earth — Vernissage — 13/11/2026, 19:00

The exhibition Oratory for the Constitution of the Earth at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art explores how art can help us imagine a political future beyond colonial violence, anthropocentric thinking and technocratic visions of progress.

As in Poland and neighboring countries, many Latin American countries are increasingly boldly revising the political and economic transformations initiated in the 1980s. At stake in these ongoing disputes, however, is not so much a reckoning of the past as a reflection on the possible politics of tomorrow.

The works collected in the exhibition Oratory on the Constitution of the Earth encourage the exercise of the imagination, distancing oneself from patriarchal and technocratic visions of modernization. They also show that despite geographical distance and cultural differences, the artists involved from Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe are today seeking answers to similar questions. How can we free ourselves from the persistent forms of colonial and imperial violence that sustain contemporary social divisions and promote the unlimited exploitation of resources? Can the legacy of the emancipating social and cultural movements of the 20th century be reconciled with the struggle for the laws of nature?

The title of the exhibition was borrowed from the work of Marcel Expósito, one of more than twenty artists presenting their works at the CSW. His Oratorio para una Constitución de la Tierra is a score of performative action, composed, among others, of fragments of the contemporary constitutions of Ecuador, Bolivia, Mexico and Bhutan, as well as the rejected draft of Chile's 2022 Basic Law. Like Expósito, many other invited artists draw on writing practices — and above all: law writing — making them a convenient starting point for creative paraphrase and speculation.

An equally important role in the exhibition, however, is played by what comes before the language. In fact, the Oratory on the Constitution of the Earth shows, on selected examples, the transition from twentieth-century forms of performance art, focused on man, to contemporary approaches of performativity, which put more-than-people at the center of interest. It is no coincidence that with the emergence of new ways of thinking about nature as a fully-fledged subject—not merely a passive object of human action—art increasingly boldly emphasizes its agency.

The exhibition presents the latest creative and activist activities alongside art from the 1980s or 1990s. However, it does not have encyclopedic ambitions — it is rather an exhibition-essay. It confronts, in an associative way, practices from two opposite hemispheres, in which concern for the well-being of the entire planet is equally expressed, albeit in a different, context-dependent way. We trust that thanks to this, the exhibition will allow us to look from a new perspective on problems that are becoming increasingly important for contemporary culture in Poland and other countries of the former Eastern Bloc.

Artists Oscar Bahamonde & Tania Cortés Becerra, Tania Candiani, Ewa Ciepielewska, CUKTAI, Mark Cinkevich, Marcelo Expósito, Fernando Foglino, Cao Guimarães & Rivane Neuenschwander, Grupo de Arte Callejero (GAC), Grupo Escombros, Vladimir Havlík, Česlovas Lukenska/ Post Ars, Władysław Kaş Zmierczak, Mariana Lacerda & Rivane Neuenschwander, Maria Evelia Marmolejo, Cecilia Malik, Teresa Murak, Clemente Padín, Maria Pinińska-Beres, Eugenia Vargas Pereira, Jonas Staal, Dima Tolkachov, Dagmara Wyskiel.