At the turn of the 20th century, the human brain became one of Europe’s great scientific obsessions. New laboratories sought to locate intelligence, mental illness, individuality, and even genius within its material architecture, transforming brains into objects to be collected, measured, compared and pictured. These aims were often bound up with eugenics and dreams of improving the human race. 

This exhibition returns to the largely forgotten Polish Institute for Brain Research in Vilnius, placing its history within this wider scientific and political field. Archive photographs, microscope preparations, atlases and documents are combined with contemporary artwork, exploring what archives cannot preserve: absence, myth, memory and desire. Rather than reconstruct the Institute’s lost archives, the exhibition asks how images produce knowledge and belief. 

Its pursuit of material traces of genius eventually focused on one extraordinary specimen. At the end of this story lies its most famous, and still missing, object: the brain of Józef Piłsudski (1867–1935), one of the founders of modern independent Poland.

Researchers and artists:
Maksymilian Rose
Stella Rose
Konstantinas Bogdanas
Sarvenaz Mostofey
Goda Palekaitė
Cesare Pietroiusti
Padraig Robinson
Vitalij Strigunkov

Curators: Krzysztof Gutfrański, Rasa Antanavičiūtė

Architect: Povilas Marozas

Designer: Liudas Parulskis

Consultants: Eglė Sakalauskaitė-Juodeikienė, Aistis Žalnora

Translators: Krzysztof Gutfranski (EN), Agnė Šimkūnaitė, e-vertimai, DeepL (LT)

Editors: Dangė Vitkienė (LT), Joseph Everatt (EN)

Technicians: Jokūbas Čižikas, Stanislovas Lučunas, Kazimieras Sližys, Vadim Šamkov, Elektra123, Spaudos idėjos

Items were lent for the exhibition by:
Cesare Pietroiusti
Vitalij Strigunkov
Vilniaus miesto psichinės sveikatos centras
Vilniaus universiteto biblioteka
Vilniaus universiteto Medicinos istorijos muziejus
Archiv der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin  
Vogt-Archiv, Düsseldorf (C. und O. Vogt-Institut für Hirnforschung, Universitätsklinikum Düsseldorf, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf)

Special thanks to:
Katrin Amunts, Jurgis Atroškevičius, Nataša Bodrožić, Anna Czaban, Vidmantas Eigėlis, Ursula Grell, Ivan Isaev, Lilija Karželienė, Joanna Kiliszek, Lina Kocienė, Irma Kušeliauskaitė, Caroline Laperrouze, Anna Lazar, Guilherme Lessa, Martynas Marcinkevičius, Simon Nobis, Aleksas Pikturna, Kristina Ryliškienė, Juozapas Ryliškis, Osvaldas Rukšėnas, Piotr Sikora, Florian Spillert, Anna Stössel
, Andrej Suchomlinov, Ūla Tornau , Susanne Uebele, Janina Utkuvienė, Brigita Zorkienė, Kauno miesto muziejus

Sponsors:
Lietuvos kultūros taryba
Baltisches Haus
Vilniaus miesto savivaldybė
Lenkijos institutas Vilniuje
Italijos ambasada
Italų kultūros institutas Vilniuje
Culture Moves Europe

Partners:
Vilniaus miesto psichikos sveikatos centras
Vilniaus universiteto Medicinos fakultetas
Vilniaus viešasis transportas
Zamek Ujazdowski