MODEERN FREEDOM

MODEERN FREEDOM is the largest exhibition of contemporary Central and Eastern European art ever presented in New York City. Bringing together the work of more than 80 artists, it offers a wide-ranging exploration of memory, trauma, courage, and the meaning of freedom in today’s world.

On view through November 1, 2026, the exhibition is presented at the newly opened Pilecki Institute USA, located at 92 Greenwich Street in Lower Manhattan.

Featuring internationally acclaimed artists alongside emerging voices from across the region, MODEERN FREEDOM explores how war, totalitarian violence, political oppression, and social transformation continue to shape identity, culture, and artistic expression across generations. Rather than treating Central and Eastern Europe as a peripheral region, the exhibition presents it as a vital source of insight into the contemporary struggle for freedom and democracy.

Curated by Piotr Franaszek, Tomáš Koudela, and Wojtek Radtke, the exhibition features artists from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Germany, Georgia, Moldova, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and beyond. Participating artists include internationally recognized figures such as Jiří Surůvka, Aleksander Tinei, Marek Schovánek, Paweł Althamer, Katarzyna Kozyra, Joanna Rajkowska, Zbigniew Libera, Robert Kuśmirowski, Izabella Gustowska, Kryštof Kintera, Wolfgang Stiller, Zhanna Kadyrova, and many others.

Rather than presenting art as a definitive statement, MODEERN FREEDOM invites visitors into an ongoing conversation about history, memory, and the future. Through sculpture, installation, painting, drawing, photography, film, text, and mixed-media works, the exhibition explores the intersection of remembrance, uncertainty, and hope. Its curatorial vision is organized around three thematic chapters:

MEMORY / TREMOR / FREEDOM

Piotr Franaszek, Curator
We cherish freedom and, drawing on the lessons of the past, understand that it must be expressed through tolerance. We stand at the forefront of building a modern, global future. At the same time, we observe with concern the resurgence of authoritarian systems, surveillance, and information manipulation. Borders are being redrawn, walls rebuilt, and fundamental freedoms once again restricted. Today, more than ever, we need a deeper understanding of history—its consequences, its tragedies, and its warnings. The memory of the past can protect us all from repeating its mistakes.

Wojtek Radtke, Curator
In the world of art, the concept of freedom has a different dimension. On the one hand, the purity of intention resulting from the creative process, intuitive work with the subconscious, conversation and encounter with oneself, and on the other, the emotions associated with public judgment, the temptation to follow trends, verification, and the cogs of the ruthless business machine that is the art market, place artists in the difficult role of commentators on the world. Let us therefore appreciate the courage of those who persist in their creative freedom, disregarding the complex consequences of their own attitudes. Let us appreciate this form of freedom. Let us also examine what freedom means for each of us. Within ourselves. Let us encounter ourselves, provoked to reflection by translators of „another language”—artists and their works, born of dilemmas, helplessness, sensitivity, reflection, anger, rebellion, and a deep desire to change the world for the better.

Tomáš Koudela, Curator
This exhibition does not present Central Europe as a fixed location but as a visual testimony—a field of signs through which civilizational tensions become visible in gesture, form, surface, and silence. The works presented—both contemporary and historical—do not merely comment on local issues. They create semantic layers through which deeper economic and social processes of recent decades become visible: shifts in the rhythm of labor, changing perceptions of the body, and evolving regimes of vision and memory. With a degree of interpretive latitude, this exhibition may be seen as a visual archive of unease—and a compelling call for change.

MODEERN FREEDOM is organized by Pilecki Institute USA and the University of Ostrava, in collaboration with partner institutions and organizations, with support from the Polish National Foundation.

Exhibition Details

MODEERN FREEDOM

Pilecki Institute USA
92 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10006

Gallery Hours
• Monday: Closed
• Tuesday–Thursday: 12:00 PM–6:00 PM
• Friday: 12:00 PM–8:00 PM
• Saturday: 12:00 PM–7:00 PM
• Closed on federal holidays

The Modeern Freedom exhibition has received media coverage from Time Out New York, To Do NYC, City Guide NYC, and other publications.

Time Out New York: Lower Manhattan gets a new arts center focused on Central and Eastern Europe
City Guide NYC: „Modeern Freedom” – An Exhibit by Pilecki Institute USA
InKorr: Ten Ukrainian Artists Featured in New York’s Modeern Freedom Exhibition
Mezha: Ukrainian artists present war memory in New York at Modeern Freedom exhibition
The New Voice of Ukraine: New York show puts Ukraine’s wartime art at center of Europe’s freedom debate
PAP: Twórczość artystów z Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej w nowojorskim Instytucie Pileckiego
Polish Slavic Center: PIlecki Institute zaprasza na Modeern Freedom
To Do NYC
ArtFacts
Poland.us

EXHIBITION ORGANIZERS

PARTNERS

Photos: Wojtek Radtke