Mama, I’m coming home – Sławomir Ambroziak

Mama, I’m Coming Home is an installation by Sylwester Ambroziak that combines sculpture, animation, and sound. Created for Poznań’s Art Haven, the staging moved along the borders of theatre, visual arts, and film.

The exhibition addressed issues of uprooting, forced migration, and alienation in today’s world. By invoking the dramatic consequences of global inequality, armed conflict, and displacement, the artist explored the fate of so-called “global orphans”, children deprived of parental care, facing loneliness and the severing of family bonds. The installation raised questions about how Western civilization, absorbed by the idea of progress, shapes our understanding of humanity, while drawing attention to fundamental human rights, including the right to freedom.

Mama, I’m Coming Home revealed the infant-like simplicity of the spirit as a universal language of communication, found in play, ritual, and community, while at the same time exposing how fragile and vulnerable this innocence becomes when confronted with the realities of the modern world.

The centrepiece of the exhibition was Sandbox — an oversized cage filled with sculptures that structured the plaza space between Concordia Design and the Bałtyk building. Around 40 sculptures accompanied it, some equipped with mechanisms that set them in motion and enriched them with sound. The project was complemented by screenings of five 3D animation films, presented in specially designed containers.