Neighbors. Next to Us

14.10.2026 /Wednesday/ 7:00 PM room: Galeria 21 gramów, 2nd floor free admission duration of the event: 60 minutes "Neighbors. Next to Us" is an exhibition consisting of a series of paintings by Radosław Dzierzędzki Rayst under the same title. In it, the artist creates a story about people we pass by every day, though we often know little about them. We encounter them on the streets, at café tables, in restaurants, on staircases, or behind the windows of city apartments. They are close, sometimes just a few meters away from us, and yet they remain unknown. It is precisely this tension between closeness and not knowing that becomes the artist's starting point. The figures in the paintings are not portraits of specific people. The artist does not tell their stories to the end and does not offer unambiguous answers. He stops them in a single moment: a gesture, a glance, waiting, a conversation, or silence. Ordinary situations, torn out of context, begin to resemble film frames. We do not know what happened a moment earlier or what will happen next. It is precisely in this understated space between the painting and the viewer that the essential part of the series unfolds. Rayst consciously renounces unambiguous narration. Titles such as "I'll Wait," "I'm Leaving," "The Bill, Please," "And Which One Is It?" or "Just Like in Paradise" do not explain the situations depicted. On the contrary, they become further clues, sometimes a joke, sometimes a provocation. They set associations in motion and encourage the viewer to fill in their own stories. As a result, the viewer ceases to be merely an observer and becomes a co-creator of the story. Link to the event on the DK Kadr website