When, in 2022, an ecological disaster resulting from water contamination struck the Odra River that and led to the death of most of its fish population, the then Chief of Police announced a one-million-złoty reward for anyone who could identify the culprit. Michał Zadara – director and co-founder of the Institute for Performative Law – stepped forward to claim it. With his team, he reconstructs in Smutna rzeka / The River of Sorrow the course of the catastrophe and names those responsible. In March 2025, the District Court in Warsaw ruled in favour of Zadara and his Centrala Foundation, granting them the one-million-złoty reward. The case remains open, as the General Prosecutor’s Office has requested justification of the verdict.

The River of Sorrow combines performance – featuring actress Barbara Wysocka and musician Dominik Strycharski – with an investigative inquiry that exposes the murky ties between political power and business in Poland, the corruption among the authorities, and the disregard for the natural environment as a shared good. The Institute for Performative Law is an unprecedented grassroots organisation in Poland, employing artistic, journalistic, legal, and activist tools to conduct investigations into cases related to ecology and social justice. The group’s earlier projects include Odpowiedzialność / Responsibility (2022) addressing the migration crisis, and Cisza / Silence (2023) devoted to war crimes. Zadara’s recent work focused on developing artistic methods of social and political intervention demonstrates that art is not only capable of reflecting reality as it can also shape it.

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Photo: press materials