Karol Radziszewski

The Classroom

Stockholm, 31.1 2026 – 12.4 2026

Karol Radziszewski recreates the setting of a Polish classroom from the 1990s, but with a different curriculum. Material from the artist’s Queer Archives Institute – his collection of queer histories in Central and Eastern Europe – is integrated into the school desks and chairs. The blackboard, teacher’s desk and the portraits of prominent queer figures lining the walls further augment this classroom as a living archive. The Classroom is presented for the first time in Scandinavia and has been acquired for the Moderna Museet Collection.

Karol Radziszewski was born in 1980 in Białystok and lives and works in Warsaw. His artistic and editorial practice includes filmmaking, painting, installation, publishing, archiving, education and activism.

Activating queer archives

Radziszewski is the founder of the Queer Archives Institute (QAI) and the magazine DIK Fagazine, the first and, so far, the only art magazine from Central and Eastern Europe focusing on queer histories. For the past two decades he has, through QAI and DIK Fagazine, gathered queer narratives, materials and oral testimonies from Central and Eastern Europe that have been systematically excluded from established historiography and thus education. His work and achievements are not only about collecting and preserving the extensive archival material but also about activating it.

Queer history in The Classroom

The artists seemingly conventional school environment The Classroom (2023) tells a different story than one first might expect: Radziszewski has collaged materials from the QAI on top of the school benches, while adding painterly elements of his own. As such, the desks are simultaneously a display of the archive, a pedagogical tool and an artistic intervention. The posters lining the wall are reproductions of his paintings of historical and contemporary queer icons – a play on the historical figures usually displayed in classrooms. Radziszewski’s site-specific mural painting depicts “fag fighters”, based on his ongoing performance Fag Fighters (2007–present) in which a street gang in pink balaclavas subvert mainstream notions of masculinity and queerness. He has also produced a new issue of his magazine DIK Fagazine, titled “The Classroom”.

– In the installation, Karol Radziszewski uses the archival material as a tool for learning and the exchange of ideas, transforming a setting and time associated with ‘instruction’ into a space that allows room for other worlds of thought and collective exploration, curator Hendrik Folkerts says.

The exhibition is presented in the museum’s new exhibition room, the 144 square metres gallery located next to the restaurant.

“History lessons”, lectures and talks

The Classroom is regularly activated by a series of “history lessons”, diving deeper into queer histories from Central and Eastern Europe but also creating connections to Swedish queer histories and contemporary experiences.

To the schedule:
Karol Radziszewski | Moderna Museet i Stockholm

Please note that the performance Fag Fighters takes place on the evening Friday 30 January, preceded by an introductory conversation between Karol Radziszewski and Hendrik Folkerts.

For the complete Friday program please visit: Preview: The Classroom | Moderna Museet i Stockholm