Maps of Our Everyday Lives
On March 11, 2026, the opening of the exhibition “Unmarked Map” took place at the WENA Gallery of the Starak Family Foundation in Warsaw.
As Jolanta Woźniakowska, principal of the Józef Chełmoński State High School of Fine Arts in Nałęczów, said:
The exhibition is the result of a year and a half of work by the students on shaping, searching for, and discovering themselves, and building their own identities.
In this way, the students responded to the theme of the 6th edition of the “Wena” Grant Program Competition organized by the Starak Family Foundation, titled “A Map on a Scale of One to One.”
In their exploration, they explored the area of Nałęczów, the municipality of Nałęczów—the place where they live and study. They did not follow established, well-known paths—instead, they blazed their own trail.
The final result is eight individual maps: (O.s)tentation by Oliwia Stelmach, Circulation by Anna Klajda, Senses by Magdalena Szkutnik, Personal Topography of Lostness by Agata Gutek, Form of Light, Form of Shadow by Oscar Winek, Beginning of Circulation by Julia Makuch, Stability by Marlena Baca, Synchronization by Maria Banaszek.
Each map was performed and complemented by text included in the Atlas “Unmarked Map,” and the exhibition is presented in this format.
The texts in the Atlas are ambitious, mature works—deep, well-developed thoughts that invite the audience to interpret them for themselves.
Wiesława Giedrojć from the Starak Family Foundation shared her impressions, emphasizing that: Reading your Atlas, I began to ask questions. And it is thanks to you that I now look at the landmarks of my everyday life with reflection, memory, and mindfulness. Thank you for that!
All the individual maps are open to future interpretations. Perhaps the performance that served as the highlight of the opening is already the ninth map?
A performance directed by Łukasz Głowacki, inspired by the works of art by Andrzej Wróblewski and Tadeusz Kantor.
The creator of the educational and artistic concept and the teacher guiding the students in the project—Łukasz Głowacki, a painter and performer—participates in the “ninth” map side by side with the students. He does not impose his will, but allows them freedom of artistic expression and supports his students.
The guests watched the performance with rapt attention and rewarded the performers with thunderous applause.
We were very pleased to host the community of the Józef Chełmoński State Secondary School of Fine Arts in Nałęczów, Dr. Stefan Paruch, professor at the Maria Grzegorzewska Academy of Special Education and director of the Institute of Art Education, Dr. Maria Kiesner, a professor at the Academy of Special Education (APS) along with her students, Prof. Tomasz Milanowski, Dean of the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and a member of the “Wena” Grant Program Committee, Anna Bieniek from the Bibliothèque Polonaise de Paris—the Polish Library Institute in Paris, and Maciej Kupidura, Deputy Director for Artistic Affairs at the PLSP in Warsaw at Smocza 6.
Maria Kiesner, Ph.D., Professor at the Academy of Physical Education, along with her students
The exhibition ran until April 15, 2026. WENA Gallery, 8 Bobrowiecka Street, Warsaw.
6th edition of the WENA Grant Program Competition of the Starak Family Foundation titled “A Map on a Scale of One to One”
Partners of the WENA Grant Program: Center for Art Education, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Society of Friends of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Academic Design Center.
