Democracies worldwide are under threat and authoritarian actors on the rise and increasingly dominate the affective realm. In the struggle over hegemony in times of multiple crises and uncertainties in late neoliberalism, rights-wingers offer easy answers and fuel retrotopian desires of reviving "better" times in the past. Poland stands today as one of Europe’s most vivid laboratories of democratic reawakening. After eight years of authoritarian populism under the Law and Justice Party (PiS), Polish civil society has undertaken the complex and unfinished task of redemocratisation – reclaiming institutions, rebuilding trust, and reimagining collective agency. This process, now in its early years under a new government, reveals that the restoration of democracy is not a moment of triumph but an ongoing practice of resilience, vigilance, and care. And while deeply political, these events and their contexts have also been profoundly cultural: they demonstrate how imagination, collectivity, and care can become transformative civic forces.
The first years of Poland’s renewed democratic experiment expose both the fragility and strength of redemocratisation. They show how easily democratic energies can be exhausted by compromise, how quickly populist structures reappear under new forms, and how necessary it is to stay focused, to practice what one preaches, and to look closely at the hands of so-called allies. Resisting the temptation of the “lesser evil” becomes part of the cultural task of maintaining democratic integrity – reminding us that redemocratisation is as much a moral and aesthetic process as a political one.
What can be learned from Poland’s collective resilience? What mechanisms can sustain a democracy after populism?
Against the neoliberal logic that reduces art to private consumption or market value, this symposium reaffirms the constitutive power of art. Redemocratisation is not only a constitutional act but a cultural and imaginative one. The symposium invites us to rethink how art practices can contribute to the reactivation of the instituting social imaginary: the shared capacity to envision what is ahead of us. In this sense, it examines postpopulism not simply as a political condition but as a curatorial, dramaturgical, and organizational challenge. How can we produce, present, and curate differently in the wake of populism? How can artistic institutions “take care” (in the etymological sense of curare) of the contexts in which artworks and audiences meet?
Moving beyond the binary of art and activism, the panels will explore curation as care and construction, the role of social imaginaries in democratic renewal, and the communal potential of the live encounter – as a temporary but vital construction site for alternative social worlds. Against the populist neoliberal rhetoric that reduces art to private consumption and economic value, this symposium reaffirms the public, constitutive role of art – not by mirroring the reality but making it by being part of the social fabric, shaping how communities think, act, feel and imagine themselves.
13.2.26 - WHY NOW? THE CHESTERTON FENCE PRINCIPLE
In conservative approach, there is a principle called the Chesterton fence. It is about situations in which young people come to the organization and ask: “Why is this fence standing here?” The answer is, “Nobody knows, it has been standing here for generations.”. The young people answered: “Let us tear it down!”. And the old folks: “No way! Until you check who, when and how to put this fence here, you must not dismantle it.” Usually, it is worth breaking down fences and walls. But Chesterton reminds us: before you do that, find out why it stands here. Understanding the causes of the current situation is a prerequisite for wise, effective change. We must learn about the past and talk about it, but – and this is a progressive maxim – always in order to create a better future. Is it worth fighting for our alternative stories about the past? Undoubtedly. But will a better story solve our modern problems? Probably not. Progressive forces should not disregard history, but their job is primarily to convince the public that the future is more important than the past.
14.2.26 - LESSONS FROM POLAND
How can we navigate an increasingly polarized landscape – marked by struggles over gender rights, migration, memory politics, and democratic backsliding? Drawing on recent examples – from independent art spaces and women’s strikes to grassroots media platforms – we ask what forms of solidarity and imagination can keep democratic energies alive today, how integrity, accountability, and attention can be sustained in practice? To name the tensions between politics, policy, and artistic autonomy, and reflect on counterstrategies emerging from Poland’s (and other places’) recent social and cultural transformations.
15.2.26 - REGAINING THE FUTURE: THE PERFORMANCE OF IMAGINATION
The critique of the present can be thrilling and fiery, but not always transformable into specific strategies and tactics for changing reality and building a better future. In the face of right-wing ‘retrotopian' desires of an idealised past, it is key to regain the future as a point of reference. Stories make sense of the past. They connect events into meaningful structures, give them a tangible materiality, make them “ours”, inscribing what is commonly known and recognizable. That is why it seems so important to develop a critical attitude towards the right-wing narrative, to approach the narratives reflectively, asking about their “conditions of possibility”. What makes us choose these structures? What do our codes make us sensitive to, and what do they blind us to? How do we draw the boundaries of memory communities? How do we envision care and conviviality?
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