From: Ludwig Forum, Aachen (DE)
To: IKOB, Eupen (BE)
The flag Choking the Oracle by Mikołaj Sobczak depicts an ambivalent scene. One might see a supplicant who, upon hearing a prophecy about his future from the oracle, falls into a fit of fury. But at the same time, the image rather seems to portray two lovers engaged in an intimate act of choking. This gesture, part of a shared erotic language, mirrors the scene’s emotional complexity. It communicates that love and hatred, desire and violence, coexist as polarities of the same affective force. The uncertainty of the future evokes extreme reactions: fear, fascination, a turn toward esotericism, or, at the other end of the spectrum, political radicalisation that may lead to exclusion and destruction. Is what we choose really up to us?
Mikołaj Sobczak (b. 1989, Poznań, Poland) is an artist based in Düsseldorf whose practice spans painting, video, and performance. His work draws from queer activism and alternative historiographies, being an effect of a close collaboration with historians and theorists. He studied in Warsaw, Berlin, and Münster, and was an artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam from 2021 to 2023, as well as at the Art Explora residency in Paris (2023-2024). He has exhibited internationally at Salzburger Kunstverein (2025), BOZAR Brussels (2025), Ludwig Forum, Aachen (2023), Kunsthalle Münster (2022–2023), Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2021), MUDAM, Luxembourg (2021), and the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2020), with works in collections including LACMA, Moderna Museet, and Kunstsammlung NRW. In 2021, he received the Paszport Polityki – Poland’s most prestigious art prize.