Mikołaj Sobczak explores the depiction of historic events in his works. He is working on a contemporary reformulation of the romantic genre of history painting, not least against the backdrop of the current right-wing populist government in Poland: in contrast to its historical heyday in the 18th-century founding of European nation-states, Sobczak brings narratives and perspectives beyond nationalising historiographies to the foreground of the pictures, and superimposes figures of rebellion on the narrative patterns of ideas of history that have been handed down. Thus he puts into play, in particular, historical contexts of exclusion and resistance, of protagonists of LGBTQI+-based organisations, of queer and anti-conformist milieus from different epochs, in his simultaneous depictions, with an interplay of quotations from iconic paintings, characters from fairy tales, myths, sagas and popular culture, copied pamphlets, posters and photographs. For Illiberal Lives, Sobczak extends his additive way of working into the exhibition space, opening his painting outwards to the architecture and including a selection of works from the collections of the Ludwig Forum.
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