Betül Aksu, Ines Borovac, Farah Hasanbegović, Ioana Lupașcu, Klodiana Millona, Esteban Prudencio, Mia Ribić, Maša Seničić, Hana Selena Sokolović, Abd Tammaa, Sana Shahmuradova Tanksa, Paula Tončić
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Curators: Što, kako i za koga / WHW & Ana Kovačić

Opening: May 22, 2026 at 8pm
Performance: Foreign Body, Ines Borovac
KO:KE Space, Prilaz Gjure Deželića 27, Zagreb

In line with the three-year thematic direction of WHW Akademija focused on the relation between poetry and borders, the exhibition What we speak of presents artworks by WHW Akademija’s eighth generation. Conceptualized as both the point of departure and a mutual encounter between the participants and the local scene, the exhibition shares segments of complex processes of distinct artistic research and poetics. It highlights how much our lives and experiences are inevitably shaped by historical and political circumstances of the time we live in, and it reflects on the ways we (don’t) acknowledge them. It points out the implication of everything we talk or avoid talking about, what we do or don’t do in the reality of contemporary moment, the unprecedented time defined by wars, genocides, violence, and ecological crisis.  

Inescapably inscribed in the tensions and contradictions of our own epoch, in the possibilities and limits of art attempting to find adequate answers to difficult questions, the works presented in this exhibition mark a symbolic beginning to the next generation of WHW Akademija. In dialogue with the professorial team and the localities of the program, this exhibition is the starting point of the collective building of a space where silence can be interrupted.  Using installation, film, performance, poetry, photography, book, sound, textile, and interactive formats, these works touch on the relations of body, memory, archive, and the social structures that shape personal and collective lives. They explore how history is transmitted outside of formal archives: in family diaries, migration stories, recipes, letters, photographs, domestic spaces, and even the body.  They unfold narratives relating to experiences of displacement, transgenerational traumas, institutional waiting, bureaucratic oppression, dementia, guilt, anxiety, political repression, and the right to speak. At the same time, the works respond to these experiences with a desire for empathy, justice, and belonging. By testing the relation between non-fiction and fiction, they show how personal histories, fragile traces and mundane materials can become the point of resistance, care, and an alternate imagination of what life together can mean.

Reflecting on cracks, fault lines, and borders as places of possibility, the exhibition affirms the belief that poetry is consequential. What we say here and now potentially surpasses the present moment, continuing to reverberate in future times as a common reminder of our refusal to be silent.

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Opening hours:

Tue–Fri: 4pm – 8pm

Sat: 11am – 3pm

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WHW Akademija is realized in partnership with Kontakt Collection /  ERSTE Foundation
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WHW Akademija is supported by:

City Office for Culture and Civil Society of the City of Zagreb

FfAI – Foundation for Arts Initiatives

Foundation Kultura Nova

Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia

Trust for Mutual Understanding (TMU)‍

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