Radical Pedagogy
What Are Our Collective Dreams? | Opening weekend

Zachęta | entrance from ul. Burschego (down the stairs)
free entry

Event in english

participants: Nadira Husain, Ahmet Öğüt, Collective Ciudad Abierta / Open City: Victoria Jolly Mujica, Sebastian de Larraechea, Javier Correa.

This discussion brings together artists and educators who have developed counter-pedagogical models at the intersection of art, education, and community. 

Ahmet Öğüt is the initiator of the Silent University, a knowledge exchange platform led by migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Nadira Husain is an artist and mentor at the *foundationClass, which supports artists with refugee and migrant backgrounds. Ciudad Abierta is a pedagogical experiment where architecture, poetry, and communal life have been woven together. 

Сollectively, we reflect on why pedagogy must be rethought and radicalised today, and how artistic tools can act as mediators in this process. The conversation explores how alternative infrastructures of education emerge inside and outside existing institutions, how communities create their own forms of collective learning, and what role artists can play in expanding the boundaries of the educational process. 


Ahmet Öğüt (born 1981 in Diyarbakır, Turkey; based in Amsterdam) is an artist and initiator of the Silent University, a knowledge exchange platform led by migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Öğüt has presented exhibitions at Kunstverein Dresden, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Chisenhale Gallery, and Van Abbemuseum, and co-represented Turkey at the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009). 

Nadira Husain (born 1980 in Paris; places of belonging – Berlin, Paris, and Hyderabad) is an artist and a lecturer and a mentor at the *foundationClass at the Berlin-Weissensee Art Academy since 2017. She is regularly involved in self-organized collective initiatives and projects that are grounded in anti-racist and intersectional ethos in the field of art. Husain has presented exhibitions at Kunstverein Bielefeld, PSM Gallery Berlin, Art Basel 2025.  

Ciudad Abierta (Open City) was founded in 1970 near Valparaíso, Chile, by architects, poets, and artists connected to the School of Architecture and Design of university in Valparaíso. Conceived as both a community and a pedagogical experiment, Open City is built through collective acts of design, construction, and living, intertwining architecture, education, and everyday life. Over more than five decades, it has become a unique model of radical pedagogy and communal practice. 


W trakcie planowania wizyty w Zachęcie prosimy o zapoznanie się z opisem dostępności: www.zacheta.art.pl/wizyta/dostepnosc

Zachęcamy do zgłaszania swoich potrzeb minimum trzy dni przed danym wydarzeniem do koordynatorki dostępności: dostepnosc@zacheta.art.pl; tel. 887 036 195 (możliwość kontaktu SMS oraz poprzez wideorozmowę w PJM). 

event accompanying the exhibition
  • 17.10.2025 – 08.02.2026
    What Are Our Collective Dreams?
    Global Connections — Abandoned Friendships

    The exhibition opens the archives of Zachęta to revisit the networks of global artistic relations forged during the socialist era in Poland. Contemporary artists confront these histories with the present, asking what remains of the “internationalist friendships” from before 1989, and how they might shape our understanding of a shared past.

    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
Upcoming events
all
  • 15.03 (Sun) 10:45
    Yoga at Zachęta
    Zachęta | Matejkowska Room Zachęta | Matejkowska Room
  • 15.03 (Sun) 12:15
    Sunday guided tour
    (in Polish)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • 15.03 (Sun) 13:00
    The eyes of the skin. Movement workshops by Michał Przybyła for adults aged 16+
    (in Polish)
    Zachęta Project RoomZPR
  • 15.03 (Sun) 16:00
    Wool – traditionally innovative. Lecture by Ewa Gołębiowska
    Meeting accompanying the exhibition “Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet. I Cease to Exist for Myself" (in Polish)
    Zachęta | Cinema Room (entrance through the exhibition)Zachęta | Cinema Room (entrance through the exhibition)
  • 17.03 (Tue) 10:00
    Workshop meeting with Karolina Wiktor and Aneta Szymaszek for people with neurological disabilities
    (in Polish)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • 17.03 (Tue) 17:30
    Philosophy at Zachęta
    (in Polish)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • 18.03 (Wed) 11:00
    MAMY czas dla sztuki
    (in Polish)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • 18.03 (Wed) 18:00
    Frame weaving workshops. Masterclass with Joanna Lohn-Zając
    (in Polish)
    Zachęta / workshop room (entrance through the main hall)Zachęta / workshop room (entrance through the main hall)
  • 18.03 (Wed) 18:00
    Theatre 21: Wuthering Heights: Cathy's Contemporary Manifesto (video art) and Body to Body with Marilyn (video performance) 
    Zachęta | entrance from ul. Burschego (down the stairs)Zachęta | entrance from ul. Burschego (down the stairs)
  • 19.03 (Thu) 12:15
    Thursday guided tours of current exhibitions
    (in Polish)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta
  • 19.03 (Thu) 14:00
    Study visit to the dyeing workshop and weaving studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
    (in Polish)
    Faculty of Painting, Academy of Fine Arts, Krakowskie Przedmieście 5, 00–068 WarsawFaculty of Painting, Academy of Fine Arts, Krakowskie Przedmieście 5, 00–068 Warsaw
  • 20.03 (Fri) 12:15
    Looking/Seeing. Guided tours for adults 60+
    (in Polish)
    Zachęta – National Gallery of ArtZachęta