Culture in the European Union: a space for freedom or a tool for social engineering? – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

Vicky Richardson

is an architectural curator with a wide range of experience in the UK and overseas. In April 2021 she became Head of Architecture and Drue Heinz Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts. Recent exhibitions she has curated include ‘John Hejduk: London Masque’, ‘Light Lines: The Architectural Photographs of Hélène Binet’ and ‘What Where: Crossing Boundaries in the Architecture of Sala Beckett’. She was previously Head of Architecture, Design and Fashion at the British Council and Commissioner of the British Pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale. Other roles include Associate Director of London School of Architecture, Editor of Blueprint and Deputy Editor of RIBA Journal. She is an Honorary Fellow of the RIBA and in 2015 was named by Debretts as one of 20 most influential people in British architecture.

Frank Furedi

is a sociologist and social commentator. Since the late 1990s, he has been widely cited about his views on why Western societies find it so difficult to engage with risk and uncertainty. He has published widely about controversies relating to issues such as health, parenting children, food and new technology. His 2017 book, 100 Years of Identity Crisis: culture war over socialisation, argues that the principal driver of the ‘crisis of identity’ was and continues to be the conflict surrounding the socialisation of young people. In turn, the politicisation of this conflict provides a terrain on which the culture wars and the politicisation of identity can flourish.

His books and articles offer an authoritative yet lively account of key developments in contemporary cultural life. Using his insights as a professional sociologist, he has produced a series of agenda-setting books that have been widely discussed in the media. His recent books, Populism and the European Culture Wars: the conflict of values between Hungary and the EU and Democracy Under Siege: don’t let them lock it down! look at the importance of national sovereignty and democracy. Frank’s books have been translated into 13 languages.

Frank regularly comments on radio and television. He has appeared on Newsnight, Sky News and BBC News, Radio Four’s Today programme, and a variety of other radio television shows. Internationally, he has been interviewed by the media in Australia, Canada, the United States, Poland, Holland, Belgium, Brazil and Germany.

Rafał Ziemkiewicz

is a writer, political commentator, member of editorial staff Do Rzeczy weekly, is one of the most influential people in polish conservatism. He published over 30 books, most of them top-selling, and reached over 200.000 followers on social media. As a student active in the political underground as a member of an independent publishing house STOP, led by Marek Kaminski (now a professor of mathematics and social sciences at University Irvine, CA). In 1986 he graduated in Polish literature in 1986 and made his fiction debut in 1987. He began his career as a bestselling science fiction author and since the 1990s he has mostly worked as a journalist. Since 2005, he has published mostly non-fiction about political or social issues and history. He contributed, among others, to Newsweek Poland, Rzeczpospolita, and Wprost and occasionally works as a radio and TV host. He also runs a YouTube channel #ziemkiewicz with 120.000 subscribers, updated daily. He is married and has two daughters.

Manick Govinda

is an independent writer, artists mentor, lecturer, curator and arts consultant. He has written for The Critic, Index on Censorship, Arts Professional, Open Democracy and Spiked. He is the co-curator, alongside Agnieszka Kolek, of Culture Tensions, a new series of public discussions and conversations at Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art. Manick describes himself as an Eclecticist, open to different ideas and thoughts, open to unresolved contradictions. He was cancelled in 2019 by many English arts institutions for his gender critical comments and humour on social media and for his vocal criticism against the European Union.

Agnieszka Kolek

is an artist, curator and co-founder of the Passion for Freedom Art Festival in London. Through supporting artists forbidden to exhibit their art, she exposes the silence of many and challenges the comfortable position of those who inhibit “safe spaces”. Agnieszka survived the terror attack in Copenhagen in 2015. She continued the meeting on art and blasphemy after the attack by saying: “They not only want to kill us. They want us to stop talking, so we should continue.”