KATARZYNA (KASIA) SLOBODA
Since 2009, I have been involved in curating and researching practices of contemporary art, choreography, and improvisation in the context of exhibition-making and participatory projects. I have edited several publications on dance, choreography, and contemporary art.
I hold a PhD in Dance Studies from the Institute of Art at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. My dissertation, Embodied Attention in Contemporary Dance Practices in the Perspective of Critical Dance Studies, was supervised by Prof. Krystyna Duniec. I have taught courses at the Institute of Contemporary Culture at the University of Łódź, focusing on curatorial practices and the intersections of dance, choreography, and performance.
Currently, I am an Assistant Professor in Curatorial Studies at the Art Academy in Szczecin. Between 2009 and 2022, I was part of the curatorial team of the Modern Art Department at Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź.
I am a member of AICA – International Association of Art Critics and the Common Space initiative. Between 2021 and 2025, I served as a Board Member of the Forum Association of Dance Art Societies, and between 2019 and 2022, I was a member of CIMAM – International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art.
Together with Alex Baczyński-Jenkins, Ola Knychalska, Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga, and Kasia Właszczyk, I co-developed How to Touch Movement? Social Choreographies, Performance and Queer Feminisms as World-Making, a Kem School programme.
I am a recipient of the Grażyna Kulczyk Fellowship in the field of contemporary choreography and the Młoda Polska scholarship (2018). In 2018, I was a visiting researcher at the Centre for Dance Research at Roehampton University, London. In 2026, I graduated from the intensive course in experimental choreography organized by Centre in Motion / Burdąg Foundation.
The exhibition reflects on the present as a state of permanent instability - a moment suspended between the disintegration of existing orders and the possibility of new forms of social life emerging. Its starting point is a question about the possibility and necessity of thinking about solidarity, community and mutual responsibility in a world marked by war, violence, forced migration and a deepening climate catastrophe.
How can we navigate rapidly changing geopolitical maps? Is it possible to move beyond the „us” and “them” dichotomy, and if so, on what terms? What kinds of communities and what forms of solidarity can we still speak of today? What narratives can help us imagine the present and the future in a world where safe places no longer exist? And finally - what role can contemporary art play in the processes of adapting to a reality on the edge of chaos?
The title of the exhibition refers to complexity theory. The „edge of chaos” describes a state in which a system has lost its stability but has not yet crossed the threshold of disintegration. Biological and social systems tend towards forms of adaptation that allow them to function precisely within this zone of dynamic equilibrium. This process is referred to as “adaptation to the edge of chaos” and is most effective in decentralised structures based on cooperation rather than hierarchy. From a social perspective, this raises questions about possible forms of community that could become a response to contemporary crises - including their most radical manifestations.
The exhibition opens up a space for imagining other ways of coexisting. It weaves together facts and fiction in search of a new language for telling stories about the world and for finding one’s place within it. It asks about the kinds of relationships and communities that make it possible to survive crises. The artists and artistic collectives invited to participate share their experiences, intuitions and poetic narratives. Works created several years ago, presented alongside recent works and selected pieces from the museum’s collection, reveal a remarkable relevance within the exhibition and, together, reach towards the future.
The titular “edge of chaos” points to a moment of instability in which existing forms lose their coherence while new ones are only beginning to emerge. It is a space of transformation - a space in which different social relations, new ways of coexisting and bonds extending beyond the human world begin to take shape. In this sense, the exhibition becomes an attempt to imagine a future based on interdependence, solidarity and care.
Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź
Dates: 19 September 2026 – 4 April 2027
Opening: 18 September 2026, 6.00 pm
Artists: Noor Abed, Architects for Gaza, Moumita Basak, Edgar Bąk, Alicja Bielawska, Eglė Budvytytė, Rana Hamadeh, Ana Laura Lozza & Barbara Hang, Inside Job (Ula Lucińska, Michał Knychaus), Martyna Jastrzębska, Agnieszka Kalinowska, Eliza Proszczuk, Yulia Krivich, Zoarinivo Razakaratrimo / Madame Zo, Ala Savashevich, Iza Tarasewicz, Julita Wójcik, Hannah Alexandra Younger
Curators: Małgorzata Ludwisiak, Katarzyna Słoboda
Collaboration on behalf of CMWŁ: Maria Grzeszczak
Producer: Sonia Nieśpiałowska
Installation coordination: Aleksandra Kmiecik
Exhibition design: Dziewczyny od Wystaw (Joanna Góra-Raurowicz, Katarzyna Similak)
Light: Artur Frątczak
The exhibition is part of the Łódź of Many Cultures Festival.