The Vision

“I understood that Polish heritage and legacy are also my heritage and legacy, even if I profoundly disagree with them,” says Mikołaj Sobczak (born 1989 in Poznań, lives in Düsseldorf). His erudite and meticulously rendered counter-historical paintings challenge dominant narratives by reframing them through emancipatory lenses, including transgender and peasant perspectives. Art-historical references and moments from countercultural movements merge into an explosive and queer language of myth-making. In his reproduction of a fragment from Robert Warthmüller’s 1886 monumental historical painting Der König überall (‘The King is Everywhere’), Sobczak juxtaposes Frederick II inspecting a potato harvest with elements drawn from Ukrainian artist Alla Horska’s Victory Banner and one of her mosaics in war-torn Mariupol. Adorned with site-specific additions, the banner on the courtyard facade weaves a loop of recurring patterns – domination, exploitation, erasure – and highlights the enduring power of even the smallest acts of resistance.