Andres Serrano photographed Donald Trump for the series America in 2004. That year the TV programme The Apprentice provided Trump with unprecedented media exposure contributing to the expansion of his business, and in the long run, his popularity as a presidential candidate.  When Trump took Office thirteen years later, Serrano decided to create another portrait using Trump’s magazine covers and merchandise to expose the making of one of the world’s most successful propaganda stories. 

Image: Exhibition posters, New York, photo my own
 

Projections of Democracia's Silence onto renowned landmarks in London and Warsaw was followed by an exhibition focused on the police response to public protests across the world, We Protect You From Yourselves. The Covid-19 pandemic underscored many of the systemic inequalities affecting thousands of citizens - from restricted access to healthcare to police profiling. The works shown highlight how, overwhelmingly, governments have resisted change in the face of dissent. 

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Image: Democracia, Silence, 2020, photo my own 

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Dreamscapes launched a new stage of programming dedicated to double consciousness—a term coined by W. E. B. Du Bois, an American author and political activist, in The Souls of Black Folk (1903). Du Bois described the ability to see oneself from the perspective of an oppressive system, initially with Black Americans in mind, but later applied the term more broadly. Dreamscapes included solo shows by Shikeith and Chila Kumari Burman, the latter was featured in the Art Night 2017 program.

Image: Shikeith, Brush Your Blues, 2017, courtesy of the artist

The exhibition was developed in response to the paradox of anti-immigrant sentiments in Poland and those in the UK  aimed at  the Polish emmigration.  The show highlighted the works that are a shared heritage of both nations and those reflective of migrant experience in the history of Polish portraiture. The backbone of the exhibition was the collection of the ING Polish Art Foundation with loans from the Ben Uri Gallery based in London. 
 
Image: Exhibition view, photo by Marek Krzyżanek, courtesy of Zachęta National Portrait Gallery

The first showcase of the international collection of contemporary art acquired by the Wrocław Contemporary Museum examined the impact of colonialism, industrialisation and capitalism on contemporary labour. The exhibition also addressed the mental toil of economic inequalities on employees.
 
Image: Exhibition view, Works by Gregor Różański and Allan Sekula, photo by Małgorzata Kujda © Wrocław Contemporary Museum, 2016 

Punxdefektuozoz was an exploration of the ambivalent heritage of punk in Mexico. As a fashion trend, it embodied the cultural colonization coming from the West; as an attitude, it was the backbone of grass-roots social mobilisation in the aftermath of a series of powerful earthquakes in 1985. 
 
Image: Exhibition view, photo by Malgorzata Kujda © Wrocław Contemporary Museum, 2015