THURSDAY LECTURE/Recovered, post-German and Piast. Stories of things in post-war Poland and their paradoxes

6 p.m.

Lecture accompanying the exhibition [Adolph Menzel (1815—1905). The Tireless Observer] (https://www.mnw.art.pl/wystawy/adolph-menzel-18151905-niestrudzony-obserwator,277.html)

Hosted by: Karolina Ćwieć-Rogalska

How did they talk about things that were in the new borders of Poland in 1945? Where did the category of “post-German” come from? Although it might seem that these questions concern primarily the newly incorporated territories — then called the “Recovered Lands” — and the settlers arriving there, this is in fact a story concerning the whole of post-war Poland. In the lecture accompanying the exhibition, we will reflect on the problems caused by the “post-German”, both in distant (from the Warsaw perspective) Pomerania or Silesia, as well as here — in the capital. We will look at the movement of objects and how this movement influenced their biographies. Things, like people, have it.

Deadline: Thursday, October 29, 2026, 6 p.m./[Check the dates of the next lectures] (https://www.mnw.art.pl/edukacja/mlodziez-dorosli/wyklady-czwartkowe/)

Duration: approx. 75 minutes
Meeting place: MUZ Cinema, MNW Main Building
For whom: youth, adults, seniors
Rules of participation: free admission

Event availability: no architectural barriers, induction loop

[Detailed information on the availability of the National Museum in Warsaw can be found in the Museum available tab] (http://www.mnw.art.pl/wizyta/muzeum-dostepne/informacje-dla-osob-z-niepelnosprawnosciami/).

Karolina Ćwieć-Rogalska — postdoctoral fellow in cultural studies, anthropologist and bohemian. He works at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Winner of the Scientific Prize “Polityka” and the National Science Center. He has spent time in the USA, Great Britain, Germany and the Czech Republic. She wrote her PhD about a small Czech municipality in the northwest of Bohemia, from which the Czechs displaced “their” Germans. Since 2022, he has been managing a grant from the European Research Council: together with his team, he follows the emergence of new cultures in post-resettlement areas in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. She is the author of the book Earth. Stories of recovery and loss.

[We invite you to familiarize yourself with the full program accompanying the exhibition] (https://www.mnw.art.pl/edukacja/programy-do-wystaw-czasowych/adolph-menzel-18151905-niestrudzony-obserwator/)