Open City

Górki Czechowskie is one of the last wild habitats within Lublin’s city limits and a refuge for protected species. In 2026, a billboard featuring an image of a European hamster appeared nearby; the billboard was quickly removed. Diana Lelonek adapts this censored object into an artistic intervention. The Reserve asks where the boundary lies in the struggle for the visibility of what is structurally destined to become invisible.

Diana Lelonek – visual artist, graduate of the Faculty of Multimedia Communication at the University of the Arts in Poznań (2014), where she also completed the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Studies programme, receiving a PhD in Visual Arts in 2019. She currently works at the Faculty of Artistic Research and Curatorial Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In her work, she explores relationships between humans and other species, as well as the redefinition of the concept of nature. She works across various media, including experimental photography, installation and textiles.

She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Polityka Passport Award (2019), the Vordemberge-Gildewart Foundation Award (2018), and the Dorothea von Stetten Kunstpreis (2022). Her work has been presented at, among others, Culturescapes Festival in Basel, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, National Museum in Warsaw, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków, Krakow Photomonth, Temporary Gallery in Cologne, Museo Amparo in Mexico, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tallinn Art Hall, WRO Biennale, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Tinguely Museum in Basel, Sea & Art Festival in Busan, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, Fotofestiwal Łódź, National Museum in Kraków, Polish Institute in Düsseldorf, Ludwig Museum in Budapest and LCCA Centre for Contemporary Art in Riga.