The 5th World Festival of Youth and Students took place between 31 July and 15 August 1955, drawing nearly 170,000 young people from Poland and from all over the world to Warsaw. There was a propaganda goal behind the slogan “for Peace and Friendship”—to prove the superiority of socialism over capitalism. And yet, the Festival turned into a carnival of multiculturalism that anticipated political and social change and, above all, served as a formative experience for a generation. 
 
The exhibition The Summer that Changed It All: The Festival of 1955 tells the story of the event itself while sketching the social and cultural backdrop of the 1950s. Themes include social advancement, building socialist Warsaw, the end of the Socialist Realism doctrine in art, the role of public space, the beginnings of decolonization and the “permeability” of the Iron Curtain. The exposition will include archival materials and Festival memorabilia—posters, postcards, neckerchiefs, pins, programs—alongside photographs, Socialist-Realist sculpture and painting, and contemporary artworks. 
 
The exhibition is guided by curator Blazej Brzostek. 

Find out more about the exhibition: https://muzeumwarszawy.pl/en/wystawa/the-summer-that-changed-it-all-the-festival-of-1955/