Avant Art Festival 2026 begins in Lower Silesia with the exhibition Energy / Sound Energy, presented at the Art Gallery in Legnica from 2 to 27 September.

The photographs by Tobiasz Papuczys and Kazimierz Ździebło were created during successive editions of the festival. They do not, however, form a chronological record of its history. Instead, they focus on what happens around sound: the tension between artists and audiences, the work of light, the physicality of gesture, moments of concentration and disorientation. On the instant when music begins to organise the entire space.

Blurred images, fragmented frames and multiple exposures do not attempt to freeze movement. Rather, they allow its energy to remain. The exhibition is accompanied by a sound installation by Kostas Georgakopulos, composed of his own works and pieces by artists associated with Avant Art Festival. Image and sound operate together here, creating successive layers of the same situation.

The exhibition also asks what remains after an event based on sound, movement and direct experience. How can something inherently temporary be conveyed without reducing it solely to documentation?

The Lower Silesian edition is complemented by a film programme taking place from 4 to 6 September at the Piast and Apollo cinemas. This year’s festival therefore begins outside its Wrocław centre — by looking back at its own history and at the energy that allows it to continue developing.