Archive of Hesitations
Polish Pavilion at Malta Biennale 2026
On March 11, 2026, the Polish Pavilion at the second edition of the Malta Biennale opened with Archive of Hesitations, a video installation by Weronika Zalewska curated by Ada Piekarska. Organized by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, the exhibition remains on view at Fort St Elmo in Valletta until May 29, 2026.
The Archive of Hesitations is a two-channel video installation that reflects on how knowledge, memory, and political imagination are shaped in the age of nonstop media. The project emerged from the artist’s childhood memories of watching television with her grandmother in the early 2000s, at a time when her first intuitions about the socio-political were beginning to take shape, and when Poland tangibly shifted to the free market economy and western alliances. The grandmother’s lived experiences remained mostly unspoken—fragmentary, intimate, difficult to translate—while television delivered a steady flow of ready-made narratives shaped by the logic of the 24-hour news cycle and alluring entertainment culture.
The installation takes the form of a dual-channel structure composed of two parallel video projections. The first channel stages a fictional quiz show, Everything Is Clear, featuring a mechanic, a librarian, and a young entrepreneur—figures representing different social groups in Poland, offering a cross-section of society in a period of political transformation, when the notions of "community" were being questioned in favour of individualisation; a promise of freedom limited in times of state socialism. Performed in English, a language the contestants do not fully master, the game exposes cracks in a system built on instant, indisputable knowledge and immediate verification, exposing the different knowledge-management in the neoliberal, globalised order; one difficult to grasp due to its transparency. As rules shift and certainty fades, hesitation begins to challenge the authority of “correct” answer, emerging as a transformative in-between, or an opacity.
The second channel presents a non-linear montage of archival materials from Polish WFO Film Studio. Scenes of everyday life, simple gestures, and isolated details of objects and eerie buildings establish non-linearity which suggests a historical hauntology—both a mourning and a possibility of dialectical emergence from cracks and fragments, despite the precipice in the intergenerational and grassroot knowledge. Video feedback animations by Mila Nowacka further reveal the materiality of the image, turning glitches and negotiating powers into a method of reflection.
By juxtaposing these two regimes—the procedural logic of the quiz show and the fragmentary, relational archive—the Archive of Hesitation unfolds a tension between measurable knowledge and lived experience, and their much varying spaces of access. In today’s world saturated with data, the project proposes looking into gaps, breaks, hesitations, as necessary spaces of becoming. Hesitation is not framed here as indecision or weakness, but as a deliberate gesture of both resistance and responsibility—a site where thinking reclaims its own time.
The second edition of the Malta Biennale will be held from March 11 to May 29, 2026, with acclaimed international curator, Rosa Martínez, at its helm, as artistic director. The theme chosen for the second edition is: Clean / Clear / Cut.
Curator: Ada Piekarska / Artist: Weronika Zalewska / Feedback loop based animation: Mila Nowacka / Sound: Szymon Gąsiorek / Graphic design: Renata Motyka
Organizer: Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Co-organizer: Galeria Bielska BWA
Partners: Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Valletta, City of Bielsko-Biała Polish Capital of Culture 2026, TVP Kultura, WFO Film Studio
Press materials and high-resolution images are available at the following link.
Project is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland and City of Bielsko-Biała—Polish Capital of Culture 2026.
The Adam Mickiewicz Institute brings Polish culture to people around the world. Being a state institution, it creates lasting interest in Polish culture and art through strengthening the presence of Polish artists on the global stage. It initiates innovative projects, supports international cooperation and cultural exchanges. It promotes the work of both established and promising artists, showing the diversity and richness of our culture. The Adam Mickiewicz Institute is also responsible for the Culture.pl website, which is a comprehensive source of knowledge about Polish culture. More information: iam.pl.
