Contexts 2025

HOMECOMING is the central theme of this year’s 11th edition of the Konteksty Ephemeral Art Festival in Sokołowsko, which will take place from July 17–20, 2025. Curator Marta Czyż, along with invited artists, will explore the notion of returning home, often to a place that no longer exists—addressing themes of war, migration, and memory.

The festival’s theme, HOMECOMING, seeks to redefine the contemporary meaning of “home” in a world marked by global migration, crises, and identity transformations. It is a reflection on home as a place, a memory, or an ongoing process of searching for one’s own space. Inspired by both forced displacement and voluntary life choices, the theme intertwines philosophical reflections with artistic heritage.

It is the deep relevance and universality of the topic that draws international artists whose practices serve as personal commentaries on the idea of returning home.

This year’s curator, Marta Czyż, is known for curating the Polish Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2024, as well as for projects redefining the role of art in times of crisis.

Konteksty, taking place from July 17–20, will span four days of intense artistic activities involving both creators and audiences. Events include performative walks through Sokołowsko and the surrounding mountains, premieres of video art and meetings with artists who transform their personal migration experiences into art. Their voices contribute to the global discourse on migration, war, climate, and economic crises. In Sokołowsko – a place marked by a history of displacement and transformation—the questions of home and identity take on new meaning.

Participants in the 11th edition include: Bartek Arobal, Weronika Balcerak & Lukas Bury, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Magda Buczek, Centrala Group (Simone de Iacobis, Małgorzata Kuciewicz), Karolina Freino, Philipp Gufler, Blerta Hashani, Blerta Haziraj, Kateryna Iakovlenko, Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Alina Kleytman, Maria Magdalena Kozłowska, Ksenia Malykh, Filipka Rutkowska, Karol Radziszewski, Katarzyna Roj, Joanna Warsza & Övül Ö. Durmusoglu, Jan Struckmeier, Joanna Synowiec, Waldemar Tatarczuk, Petro Vladimirov, Driant Zeneli, and others.

This year, the concept of returning home is examined both as a physical journey and a mental one—often to a home that no longer exists or is no longer what it once was.

The festival’s program draws on the thoughts of philosophers such as Gaston Bachelard, Edward Said, and Rosi Braidotti, engaging with ideas of poetics of place, rootlessness, contemporary nomadism, and identities shaped by movement and migration. The events will explore how the idea of home is being redefined amid instability and mass migration, as well as the need for intergenerational dialogue, invoking both artistic heritage and the new definitions of home emerging from younger generations.

The Konteksty Ephemeral Art Festival has, for years, presented the most interesting phenomena in contemporary art within the open air and historical interiors of the former spa town in Lower Silesia. It is organized by the In Situ Contemporary Art Foundation, led by Bożenna Biskupska and Zuzanna Fogtt, which for over a decade has been developing the International Cultural Laboratory—a place for dialogue between art, history, and contemporary challenges.

This year’s Konteksty is an invitation to collectively reflect on what “homecoming” means today—and whether such a return is still possible.