Filip Pawlak

Performance maker / activist for disabled artist rights / independent curator and producer

Graduate of the Film School in Katowice and the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. Currently a MA student of Performing arts at Malmö Theatre Academy / Lund University. Self-advocate for artists with disabilities. In recent years has been involved in the Europe Beyond Access project as an ambassador and expert. After a break of several years, he is once again taking steps on stage as an artist, premiering recently show „Do what you want” in Teatr21/Center for Inclusive Art in Warsaw. in 2024, scholarship holder of the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage in the ‘Young Poland’ programme, artist in residence at the Hellerau European Center for Arts in Dresden and Komuna Warszawa Theatre.

A changing room, a municipal swimming pool in Sweden. I am standing in my swimming trunks and want to go swimming already, but an unknown child stares at me with big eyes. He stares intensely at the absence of my left hand and gathers himself for that act of courage – to riddle the stranger in English. “So…. so…. are… you… special person?”.