24th SURVIVAL Art Review: Art, Dialogue and the City

How can we design artistic and educational activities for children while recognising their agency, experiences of migration, technologies and contemporary social challenges?

How can we create tools that support inclusion, imagination and collaboration?

From 26–30 June 2026, Wrocław became the setting for the 24th SURVIVAL Art Review, organised by the Art Transparent Foundation, an annual contemporary art event that brings artistic practices into dialogue with the city and the communities that inhabit it,

Now in its 24th edition, SURVIVAL once again explored how contemporary art can occupy unexpected spaces and create opportunities for encounters, discussion and reflection. This year’s Review took place at the former Clinic of Psychiatry and Nervous Diseases, transforming a site with its own complex history into a temporary space for contemporary artistic expression.

One of the central elements of the programme was the Social Forum Tent (Scena Społeczna), which provided a space for conversations extending beyond the exhibition itself. On 27 June at 13:30, the programme hosted a discussion bringing together different perspectives on art, society and the role of cultural spaces in creating meaningful public dialogue.

The Social Forum forms part of SURVIVAL’s broader interest in making contemporary culture more accessible and connected to everyday life. Rather than treating art as something that exists separately from society, the programme creates opportunities to consider how artistic practices can engage with questions of inclusion, education, accessibility and community.

This approach is particularly relevant in a city like Wrocław, where the Review has developed a distinctive relationship with its surroundings.

Each edition responds to a specific location, allowing artists to work with existing architecture, histories and social contexts rather than presenting art in a neutral gallery environment.

The result is an experience in which the place itself becomes part of the conversation.

The 2026 edition, titled “Finger in the Heart,” invited artists and audiences to engage with the former psychiatric clinic and consider the layers of meaning embedded within the site. By bringing contemporary art into a location with a strong institutional and social history, SURVIVAL encouraged visitors to look not only at the artworks themselves, but also at the relationships between space, memory, people and society.

The Social Forum Tent extended this dialogue through discussion and exchange, creating a setting where cultural practitioners and audiences could consider broader questions about the responsibilities and possibilities of contemporary art.

Events such as SURVIVAL demonstrate the value of creating spaces where art is not simply something to be viewed, but something that can generate conversation. They also highlight the growing role of cultural initiatives in connecting creative practice with wider social questions.

For anyone interested in the intersection of contemporary art, public space and social engagement, the 24th SURVIVAL Art Review offered an opportunity to experience how a familiar urban environment can be transformed into a place for experimentation, encounter and new perspectives.