Radical Hope, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast

Golden Thread Gallery is proud to present Radical Hope, a new exhibition developed in collaboration with Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, Poland. Curated from Collection II, one of Poland’s most significant collections of contemporary art, the exhibition offers a timely reflection on uncertainty, resilience, and the transformative potential of art.

Artists: Hubert Czerepok, Zhanna Kadyrova, Diana Lelonek, Lada Nakonechna, Marina Naprushkina, Konrad Smoleński, Piotr Uklański

Curator: Monika Szewczyk

Golden Thread Gallery
Upper and Lower Galleries
23-29 Queen Street,Belfast
County Antrim, BT1 6EA.

13th September – 8th November 2025
Launch: Saturday 13th September 1-3pm


Collection II, held by the Arsenal Gallery and shaped under the direction of Monika Szewczyk, traces the evolving landscape of contemporary art in Poland and Eastern Europe over the past three decades. Developed as an ‘open corpus,’ the collection is a living archive: dynamic, growing, and responsive to the shifting narratives of our time.

The exhibition takes its title and inspiration from Radical Hope, a book by philosopher Jonathan Lear. In his foreword to the Polish edition, Piotr Nowak articulates three urgent questions that underpin the exhibition:

“(1) How does one live in a world which has suddenly lost all sense? (2) is hope at all conceivable in such a world?; if yes, (3) which language should be used to express it?” This approach to hope extends beyond regular expectations of improving a given situation or resolving specific issues; it is an idea of profound transformation.
Following Lear’s intuition: in order to exit existential impasse, we need a guide capable of noticing new meanings, new capacities within. Can such role be entrusted to art? Can artists anticipate as yet inexistent solutions through their commentaries on reality?

From Białystok to Belfast, these questions resonate deeply. Though Poland has not been directly involved in the war in Ukraine, the suppression of protests in Belarus, or the unrest in Georgia, the psychological and political impact of these regional upheavals is deeply felt. A growing sense of threat, helplessness, and disorientation has unsettled the sense of security once taken for granted.

Curatorial texts at the Arsenal Gallery website



The exhibition is made possible through the support of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, fostering international dialogue through the arts. It marks a unique collaboration between Golden Thread Gallery and Arsenal Gallery, two institutions committed to contemporary artistic practices that question, confront, and reimagine the world in which we live.
This exhibition is part of the UK/Poland Season 2025 organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, British Council and Polish Cultural Institute in London, and supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Poland.