Everything Will Change

“Everything Will Change” is an open-air exhibition launching the museum’s new exhibition programme, “Resources” (“Zasoby”), devoted to the extraction and use of natural resources and their irreversible consequences. Its narrative is built from four installations created by artist collectives that take on the theme of polycrisis - the mechanisms by which space, people and animals are appropriated, and the long-lasting consequences of colonisation for the environment and indigenous communities.

The exhibition is shown in public space, on aleja gen. George’a S. Pattona, and runs until 27 October 2026. Admission is free.

More information on the museum’s website.

What to expect

Don’t look for a gallery building. The show fills a row of ten glass pavilions on the Vistula riverfront in central Warsaw, between the Dance Pavilion and the Copernicus Science Centre. The first six, nearest Copernicus, are open-sided and introduce the theme with wall texts. The last four are sealed: you view the installations through the glass, and one pavilion has painted-over panes with small peepholes.

Lamps inside switch on after dark. The curator is Marta Matysiak.

The museum lists four works, arranged as a story that runs from water to a local wetland to the global trade in raw materials:

• They Have a Muscle That Loves Being Alive (Hydroza collective) - a dried-up fountain and mussels, which scientists use to monitor water quality.
• Two and a Half Metres of Marsh (Grupa ZAKOLE) - the story of Zakole Wawerskie, a wetland in Warsaw’s Wawer district where nature meets the expanding city.
• Import/Import/Import (Sen o Końcu) - an installation shaped like a parcel locker, about the glut of goods and what producing them costs.
• Moving forward (Piotrowska/Szczęśniak) - river sand as a building material; the museum notes that Dubai imported sand, including from Australia, because desert sand is too smooth to bind concrete.

Context

“Polycrisis” describes several crises - climate, economic, social - happening at once and amplifying each other; some critics dismiss it as a buzzword. Zakole Wawerskie, the subject of one pavilion, is a large marshy area on Warsaw’s east bank, running along the Zerzeń Canal; part of the Gocław housing estate was built on its former ground. Concrete needs angular sand, which is why it is dredged from riverbeds and the seabed rather than taken from deserts.

Tickets and time

• Tickets: the pavilions stand on a public riverside promenade, so there is no ticket to buy; the exhibition page gives no opening hours.
• Main building: the museum’s exhibitions at Kredytowa 1 have their own price list (21 PLN standard, 16 PLN reduced).
• How long: four installations and six text pavilions take about 30 minutes. Treat it as a stop on a riverside walk, not an afternoon out.
• When to go: in the evening, when the pavilions are lit. Expect noise: the museum itself warns about music from a moored restaurant barge and a tour boat broadcasting announcements every few minutes.
• Who it’s for: people walking the Vistula boulevards and anyone interested in how contemporary artists deal with climate change. There are no objects from the ethnographic collection here: those are on show at the main building at Kredytowa 1, and the collection’s take on resources comes with “Resources” (“Zasoby”) and “Czyja to ziemia?” (our translation: Whose Land Is It?), both opening on 21 November 2026.
• Access: the promenade is smooth, with patches of uneven paving, gravel and sand near the pavilions. The open pavilions have floors raised about 20 cm, and each pavilion has two fixed chairs with armrests in front. QR codes lead to audio description and Polish Sign Language videos.

What the press says

• Vogue Polska (16 June 2026, Karolina Rychter): picked the show for its list of ten exhibitions in Poland to see at the start of summer, noting its focus on collective action in the face of the climate crisis - Vogue Polska article (in Polish).
• NN6T / Notes Na 6 Tygodni (5 July 2026, editorial team): a short note linking the riverside installations to the heatwave then sweeping Europe and tracing the works from water to global resources - NN6T note (in Polish).

See also

• State Ethnographic Museum profile - hours and tickets for the main building at Kredytowa 1, home to the permanent exhibitions.
• A Home Together - the museum’s other current show, a hands-on family exhibition in Polish, English and Ukrainian, until 30 June 2028.
• Neither Water Nor Land at Ujazdowski Castle - a group show about peat bogs that pairs well with the Zakole Wawerskie pavilion, until 27 September 2026.
• Mirrors. Between Illusion and Reality at the Copernicus Science Centre - a few minutes’ walk from the pavilions, until 31 October 2026.

Museum profile: State Ethnographic Museum.