20.02 – 03.05.2026
Opening: 19.02 (Thursday), 7:00 PM
Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
How to communicate with the world when illness prevents previous forms of communication? How do women with disabilities experience motherhood? How to become a mother during the rehabilitation process? And what does it mean to “regain a voice” in a world that does not know your alphabet?
Karolina Wiktor answers these questions in „Cartography of Motherhood”. For the first time in her work the artist addresses motherhood from the perspective of a woman experiencing post-stroke aphasia, speaking out on parenting by women with disabilities. At the center of the narrative is the relationship between a mother with aphasia and her daughter, in which everyday gestures, domestic rituals and the development of new forms of communication become simultaneously a process of rehabilitation. When words failed the artist, drawing, sign, gesture, rhythm and sound appeared. Together with her daughter Iga they created an EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITY OF MOTHER-DAUGHTER CLOSENESS — a space based on mutual learning, attention and care. Children’s drawings function in the exhibition like points on a map of motherhood, which for Karolina Wiktor became a process of regaining agency and a place in the world.
The exhibition addresses issues of visibility, communication and development possibilities for people with neurological disabilities. It is the result of over fifteen years of artistic practice, in which confronting the crisis of the body gave rise to a new language. Wiktor develops thinking about art as a tool for describing experiences of body and mind, as well as a way to transcend their limitations. A recurring motif in the exhibition’s narrative is the „Font of Lack” — created by the artist during aphasia, when the letters she wrote were incomplete and illegible.
The display has an open structure. An integral part of it are gestures of presence: activities, meetings and workshops — so it functions as a dynamic map of both personal traces and collective experiences. Visitors also have the opportunity for direct contact with selected works — through touch and drawing.
„Cartography of Motherhood” develops threads initiated by the artist at Zachęta in 2014, during the conference „Culture and Neuroscience” devoted to various aspects of brain functioning. As part of the exhibition Wiktor also continues activities as an animator of meetings within the "NeuroUseful" project, which aims to activate and socialize people with diverse abilities.
The exhibition is accompanied by the book "Cartography of Motherhood" (2026) published by Zachęta and a revised and expanded second edition of the book "Sailing Through Aphasia" (2014), available at the Zachęta Art Bookshop.
About the artist:
Karolina Wiktor — visual artist, author and creator of the "NeuroUseful" project, supporting people after stroke. Winner of the Katarzyna Kobro Prize (2017). Between 2001 and 2013 she co-created the performance duo Grupa Sędzia Główny with Aleksandra Kubiak. In 2009, after an aneurysm rupture and strokes, her artistic path took a completely new direction. Today she works in visual and concrete poetry and creates her own "Font of Lack." In her practice she combines knowledge about the brain, cognitive science and neuroscience with the receiver’s experience. She co-created the "Culture and Neuroscience" conference and workshops at Zachęta. In 2020, at the invitation of the Teatr 21 Foundation, she made the performative film "Niezbędnik Afazjanina". She ran the blog, and currently runs: blog. She is the author of the books "Sailing Through Aphasia" (2014), the graphic poem "Pusto-stan nienawiści" (2019) and "Cartography of Motherhood" (2026).
