Selected works from the exhibition ‘The Summer That Changed Everything. Festival 1955’ – about a spectacular event in the history of the capital!
The 5th World Festival of Youth and Students took place from 31 July to 14 August 1955, drawing nearly 170,000 young people to Warsaw from Poland and around the globe. Behind the slogan ‘For Peace and Friendship’ lay the propaganda aim of showcasing socialism’s superiority over capitalism. Yet the festival became a carnival of multiculturalism, foreshadowing political and social change, and above all – a formative generational experience.
The exhibition tells the story of the event itself while also sketching the broader social and cultural backdrop of the 1950s. Its themes include social advancement, the building of socialist Warsaw, the end of socialist realism in art, the role of public space, the beginnings of decolonisation, and the ‘permeability’ of the Iron Curtain.
On view are archival materials and keepsakes from the festival – posters, postcards, scarves, badges, programmes, photographs, as well as socialist realist sculpture and painting – alongside contemporary artworks.
Exhibition on view from 19 June to 21 December 2025 at the Museum of Warsaw.
