The Museum is open 11:00 – 20:00
Cinema is closed now
The Museum is open 11:00 – 20:00
Cinema is closed now
Lecture
The Desires and Emotions of Contemporary Poles. A Lecture by Andrzej Leder
27.10.2026 18:00–19:30
An event as part of the series Things to Think About
LOCATION
Auditorium
LANGUAGE
Polish
ADMISSION
Free thanks to a partnership with Audi Polska
Graphics: Agata Muszalska
Things to Think About is a series of philosophical lectures and debates on the most important issues shaping the present and our immediate future. During the first session, Andrzej Leder will discuss the ideas, desires, and social emotions that govern Polish society today, influencing both politics and cultural debates. Together, we will reflect on what kind of world Poles desire today, why they so often seek its image in the past, and how this affects the reality around us. The lecture will be followed by a discussion moderated by Mateusz Falkowski, curator of the Things to Think About series.
The Polish imagination is governed today by two “retrotopes,” to use Zygmunt Bauman’s brilliant term. They define the axis of political conflict, which for at least twenty years has been shaping political emotions and behaviors, translating into both the party system and the culture war waged by Poles. But what conditions the possibility of such unambiguous hegemony of retrotopias in the collective imagination? And what desires lie behind them? Finally, what is the deep affective foundation associated with them?
Andrzej Leder
Organizer of the philosophical essay contest
The Barbara Skarga Foundation for Thought
Collaboration
Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
Series curator and moderator of the meetings
Mateusz Falkowski
Project funded from the state budget, allocated by the Minister of Science and Higher Education as part of the Social Responsibility of Science III Program.
Andrzej Leder
Things to Think About: 21st-Century Philosophy in Poland
Mateusz Falkowski
The Barbara Skarga Foundation for Thinking
