The Foundation

Two decades of cultural persistence.

We work at the meeting point of contemporary urban art, public space and research.

Philip Larson

Art Director

Igor Dzierżanowski

Founder · President of the Board

Cezary Hunkiewicz

Co-founder · Board Member · curator, sociologist

Grace Hudson

creative director

Who we are

We grew out of Brain Damage, an international magazine on urban art. In 2007 we became a foundation. We run BD, Poland's first gallery of contemporary urban art, founded in Lublin in 2012 as Brain Damage Gallery and open in Warsaw since 2024. Over the years we have organised nine editions of an international urban art festival and produced large-scale murals, exhibitions and publications. In 2024 we established IKI Institute, our own interdisciplinary research organisation.

Our story

Mission

We support the development and popularisation of culture and the arts: integrating artists, cultural and artistic education, strengthening local communities and working towards European integration. Our main field is public space — the source and the voice of grassroots initiatives.

At every scale

We organise international festivals and exhibitions, run workshops, film screenings, meetings and discussions, and carry out projects in public space and with local communities. We work at every scale, from small independent projects with a single artist or a single street to multi-year programmes and international institutional partnerships. Our projects have been realised with the City of Lublin and the Lubelskie regional government, at the Centre for the Meeting of Cultures and within the programme of the European Capital of Culture Lublin 2029. Beyond Poland we have worked in New York, Paris, Berlin, Kyiv, Tbilisi, Stockholm, Prague, Košice, Lisbon, Lviv, Minsk and Budapest, among other cities.

Institutional profile

Our statutory aims are the development and popularisation of culture and the arts, the integration of young artists, cultural education, the development of local communities and European integration. We are the sole shareholder of IKI Institute Sp. z o.o., a not-for-profit research company.

Freemium great ideas

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Manager

Billy Morales

Freemium great ideas

“Sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit duis tristique sollicitudin nibh sit. Dignissim enim sit amet cursus.”

Designer

Otto West

Freemium great ideas

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3D artist

Mia Anderson