SURVIVAL Art Review | PILLS

SURVIVAL Art Review is an artistic undertaking intended to maximize the confrontation with the audience in a public space outside art galleries. The organizers’ ambition is to introduce problems raised in young art into public discourse and to provoke the audience to a lively response. Artists taking part in SURVIVAL take the challenge to realize their projects in the urban jungle, in public buildings and in open spaces. The 2022 year’s festival slogan refers to the multitude of meanings hidden under the term “PILLS”. It is, among others, the metaphor of the blue and red pills from the cult movie “The Matrix”, a reference to psychoactive substances or inducing altered states of consciousness. All issues are related to the history of cultural, social and political changes, such as the progressing mental health crisis in Poland which affects an increasing number of people. The reflection on the subject of mental health in social issues is also be deepened in the form of expert debates that accompany the main exhibition. The festival invites artists to submit works that address the contemporary meanings of consciousness in a wide array of contexts, from both systemic and social perspectives, offering alternatives or carefully examining various mental and cognitive states. The 20th edition of SURVIVAL will take place in the former Betania hospital in Wroclaw.