All Directions of Wandering

The exhibition “All Directions of Wandering” (Wszystkie kierunki błądzenia) shows works from the collection of the Lower Silesian Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, 25 September 2026 - 30 December 2026 , on level 4 of Wroclaw Contemporary Museum: the newest acquisitions beside works that form the core of the collection. The curator is Katarzyna Zahorska, and the exhibition’s intellectual patron is the philosopher Byung-Chul Han.

Wroclaw Contemporary Museum on the exhibition (our translation of the museum’s Polish text):

The exhibition All Directions of Wandering presents the newest acquisitions of the Lower Silesian Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, set against objects that form the core of the collection, built since 2004. The works on show, placed in the context of the wandering of the title, create a narrative that oscillates around two opposing strategies of moving through today’s world, strategies that nonetheless grow from a common root.

What to expect

This is a group exhibition drawn from a single collection, not a show of one artist. The museum lists 23 artists, among them Adam Abel, Jan Jaromir Aleksiun, Olaf Brzeski, Anna Bujak, Olga Lewicka, Konrad Smoleński, Anna Szewczyk and Barbara Zworska-Raziuk.

The society has been building its collection since 2004. In the exhibition its core meets the newest acquisitions, including purchases from 2023-2026 co-funded by the City of Wrocław and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. The society and the museum organise the exhibition together, and the City of Wrocław funds its production.

The wandering of the title ties it all together. According to the museum, the exhibition’s narrative follows the reflections of Byung-Chul Han, author of “The Burnout Society”, and the works are arranged around two opposing strategies of moving through today’s world.

The exhibition takes up one floor of the building, level 4.

This autumn the museum ran tours of the exhibition with no sign-up: on 15 October with the curator, and on 5 November with the artists Anna Bujak and Anna Szewczyk. The museum announced that the artists would talk about their own practice and about how their works fit the wandering of the title.

Context

Byung-Chul Han is a South Korean-German philosopher. His short book “The Burnout Society” (German: “Müdigkeitsgesellschaft”) was first published in German in 2010. The museum refers to the collection “Społeczeństwo zmęczenia i inne eseje” (The Burnout Society and Other Essays).

Since 2011 Wroclaw Contemporary Museum has been housed in a cylindrical, free-standing air-raid shelter from 1942, designed by Richard Konwiarz. The Polish Wikipedia calls it the only museum in Poland in an above-ground air-raid shelter.

Tickets and time

Ticket: the exhibition is one of the museum’s temporary exhibitions, so you enter it with a museum admission ticket (standard ticket 20 PLN (about 5 EUR), reduced 10 PLN (about 2 EUR)).

Thursday: the museum has free admission on Thursdays, and on that day it stays open into the evening (on Thursdays 12:00-20:00). It is the best day to drop in on the exhibition after work.

When: the museum is closed on Mondays, and it opens earliest on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (on Tuesdays 10:00-17:00). The ticket office stops selling before the museum closes, so do not arrive at the last minute.

Where: on level 4 of Wroclaw Contemporary Museum , in the former shelter at pl. Strzegomski 2. Stairs and a lift wide enough for a wheelchair lead to every level. The nearest tram stop, pl. Strzegomski (Muzeum Współczesne), is about 140 m from the museum; trams 3, 10, 12, 13, 21 and 22 call there.

How long: the museum gives no visit time. One floor with works by 23 artists takes about 45 minutes. If you also want to see the other exhibitions, plan more time, since they fill the floors from the ground floor to level 5.

Who it is for: people interested in contemporary art and collecting who want to see what has recently entered the society’s collection. It is also worth it for readers of Byung-Chul Han, since the exhibition’s narrative follows his reflections.

Who can skip it: anyone looking for a monographic show of a single artist. This is a survey of a collection: 23 names on one floor, arranged around a philosophical theme.

See also

• Wroclaw Contemporary Museum - the profile of the museum in a 1942 shelter, whose permanent and temporary exhibitions fill the floors from the ground floor to level 5.

Up-to-date information on the exhibition is on its page on the Wroclaw Contemporary Museum website .

Museum profile: Wroclaw Contemporary Museum .