Artists

Karol Radziszewski

Press release

Enter "The Classroom" by Karol Radziszewski, a reconstruction of a 1990s Polish classroom. Here, materials from the artist's long-term research into queer experiences in Central and Eastern Europe are integrated into the school benches. Portraits of historical figures line the walls, creating a new perspective on history — a new classroom. Karol Radziszewski's practice begins with the archive. Through his publication DIK Fagazine and the Queer Archives Institute, he has spent the past two decades gathering stories, materials, and oral histories that have been systematically excluded from mainstream historical narratives in Central and Eastern Europe, and therefore from the classroom itself. The archive in Radziszewski's work does not only preserve; it activates. In "The Classroom", these materials reappear as tools for learning and exchange, transforming a site of instruction into one of imagination and collective study. In 2024, "The Classroom" entered Moderna Museet's collection. First presented at Between Bridges in Berlin in 2023, the exhibition at Moderna Museet marks the work's Scandinavian debut, now expanded with new elements: A new mural by Karol Radziszewski evokes the daydreams of "fag fighter heroes", figures imagined while gazing out of the classroom windows. A new edition of DIK Fagazine is published on the occasion of the exhibition, along with a soundscape of interviews by the artist with key figures from the archive of the Queer Archives Institute.