Monika Sosnowska: Weight of Matter, 2026. South London Gallery. Photo: Jo Underhill
£10 standard, £5 concessions
Natalia Sielewicz and Tom Emerson in conversation with Margot Heller
Join curator Natalia Sielewicz and architect Tom Emerson in conversation with the SLG’s Director, Margot Heller at Camberwell College of Arts, focusing on Monika Sosnowska’s current exhibition Weight of Matter and her wider artistic practice.
Monika Sosnowska’s sculptural practice engages with urban change and the impact that architecture and space have on how people live and feel. Her work is informed by Poland’s political and architectural history, and reflects on the implosion of the communist regime and the enduring traces it left on the built environment.
Sosnowska’s large-scale sculptures are constructed from steel, concrete and other industrial materials closely associated with modernist architecture. At the South London Gallery’s Main Gallery, Sosnowska presents a monumental site-specific installation uniting a group of previously disparate large-scale hanging sculptures. At the Fire Station, her works respond directly to the architecture and history of the building. The exhibition also features a selection of small-scale maquettes, shown in London for the first time and giving a fascinating insight in to the artist’s working process.
Please note that this event is organised in partnership with the Fine Art Programme at Camberwell College of Arts, and will take place next door to South London Gallery at Camberwell College of Arts Lecture Theatre, 65 Peckham Road, London, SE5 8UF.
ABOUT NATALIA SIELEWICZ
Natalia Sielewicz is an art historian and writer, currently serving as Chief Curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Over the past twelve years, she has curated numerous exhibitions at the museum, most recently Maria Jarema. Cracked Modernism (2026, with Éric de Chassey). In 2026, she curated the Estonian Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale, featuring the work of painter Merike Estna. Next year, together with Nikita Kadan, she will co-curate the Baltic Triennial. She is currently working on a large-scale group exhibition for the Museum exploring panic as a dominant condition of perception and action, and the ways in which it creates fertile ground for the consolidation of authoritarian and populist forms of power.
ABOUT TOM EMERSON
Tom Emerson co-founded 6a architects with Stephanie Macdonald. 6a has designed many arts and cultural projects including a fifteen-year collaboration with the South London Gallery: the Gallery’s major expansion in 2010, followed by a collaboration with artist Gabriel Orozco on the Orozco Garden in 2016, and the Fire Station in 2018. Alongside his practice, he is professor of architecture at ETH Zurich, where he leads a design studio exploring the relationship between making, landscape and ecology. In 2025 he published Dirty Old River (Park Books, Zurich), a collection of essays including The Monika Papers on the work of Monika Sosnowska.
ACCESS
- Wheelchair Access and Disabled Toilets are available at this site.
- Seating is available.
- Please contact leila@southlondongallery.org with any further access requirements.
- This talk is free for Camberwell College of Arts students, please email from your college email: leila@southlondongallery.org
