In between galleries, factories, palaces, and a swimming pool: The city program offers 12 cutting-edge exhibitions
What to expect across Łódź in the upcoming edition of Fotofestiwal!
A concert-performance by Hania Rani alongside multimedia screenings based on the latest project by Sir John Akomfrah, “Listening All Night To The Rain,” is this year’s special gift to the audience for the 25th anniversary of Fotofestiwal. But there is more in store! The faces of female prisoners of the regime in an installation by Sasha Velichko, Poland’s first-ever exhibition of the most iconic events of US last decade by Philip Montgomery, Taiwanese cinema in a historic YMCA swimming pool, and a colorful exhibition of show birds in a grand outdoor format—the upcoming Fotofestiwal will once again take over the entire city of Łódź through its City Program.
The opening event (June 18, Fuzja) is not one to miss: a special audiovisual performance by Hania Rani accompanying the multimedia screening of Sir John Akomfrah’s Venice Biennale piece, “Listening All Night To The Rain.” Patroned by PKO Bank Polski, this audiovisual installation will remain open as an audiovisual installation from June 19th to 24th.
Also at Fuzja, Helena Majewska’s exhibition “Better ‘magua’ than pain” chronicles a visual shift from club crowds to silent landscapes, featuring a custom soundtrack by Pointless Geometry (FOQL and Dariusz Pietraszewski). While at Koncept Gallery stands the PKO Bank Polski-patroned exhibition “Eclipse” featuring Adrian Chmielewski’s underground club culture photography. In collaboration with the Audioriver festival, this opening will be accompanied by Rusałka DJ set.
The City Program: 12 exhibitions in unique venues
Hilary Majewski Tenement House hosts “Hallucinations of the Image: Polish Photography after AI” (curated by Adam Mazur), a collective exhibition exploring artificial intelligence as a creative tool, featuring prominent artists like Paweł Bownik, Weronika Gęsicka, and Szymon Rogiński. The same venue also features Sasha Velichko’s “Called on the Carpet” (Fotofestiwal Grant 2026), an empathetic installation of hand-woven portrait carpets dedicated to female political prisoners in Belarus.
Art Propaganda Center (City Art Gallery in Łódź) presents “American Cycles” by the renowned photojournalist Philip Montgomery—the first comprehensive Polish showcase of his stark, black-and-white documentation of a turbulent decade in United States of America.
Bałucka Gallery (City Art Gallery in Łódź) features Karolina Gembara’s “A Mind of Winter”, an intimate exploration of trauma and post-memory related to historical displacement.
Chimera Gallery (City Art Gallery in Łódź) hosts Igor Omulecki’s “DADA ZOO”, focusing on the symbolic figure of the animal.
Biederman Palace (one of this year’s festival centers showcases several projects. From Alisa Martynova’s solo project “COSMOGONIE”, blending visual research with AI to question identity to Marcin Sudziński’s “Black Light: Strokes of Time”, an installation that tackles theological inquiries and the origins of image-making. Still at the place, curators Karol Jóźwiak and Jakub Krakowiak present the multimedia exhibition “Andrzej Różycki: Film and Ethnosophy,” exploring the artist ethnographic legacy. Meanwhile, Augustin Rebetez’s ‘very charming cats’ add some life to the Palace attic, accompanied by wild videos, epileptic animations, photographs, objects, and drawings.
YMCA Swimming Pool present us with “KINO Utopia 奇影烏托邦” — a showcase of Taiwanese films by Ying-Ju Chen, Kuang-Yu Tsui, and Jui-Chung Yao that explore national identity, accompanied by hand-painted posters.
Wschodnia Gallery hosts Karolina Wojtas’s unique solo and unpredictable project “FUNreal”.
Herbst Palace Museum features “School of Vision – The City”, curated by Katarzyna Kończal. A text-and-photo dialogue embodies the spirit of the flâneur to examine urban environments, with a specific focus on Łódź.
While, outdoors, in Schiller Passage, Luke Stephenson’s large-format exhibition “An Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birds” invites us to look into a colorful, passionate community.
