Tomasz Szerszen is an essayist, cultural anthropologist, and visual artist. He is the author of the books Byc gosciem w katastrofie (Being a Guest in a Catastrophe) (2024), Wszystkie wojny swiata (All the Wars of the World) (2021), Architektura przetrwania (Architecture of Survival) (2017), and Podróznicy bez mapy i paszportu (Travelers without a Map and Passport) (2015), and he is the editor of the anthology Oswiecenie, czyli tu i teraz (Enlightenment, or Here and Now) (2021) with Lukasz Ronduda. Szerszen is also the head of the Laboratory of Cultural Anthropology and Audiovisual Arts at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the editor of the quarterly Konteksty, and co-founder of the journal Widok. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture. He has co-curated exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and Galeria Studio in Warsaw, and co-authored theater projects presented at the Polish Theatre in Bydgoszcz, Biennale Warszawa, and in Chile and Japan. His photographic projects have been presented in dozens of solo and group exhibitions in Poland and abroad. He has received multiple scholarships from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Ministry of Education and Science, the French government, and the city of Warsaw. His book Wszystkie wojny swiata received the “Znaczenia” Literary Prize and the Academia 2022 Main Prize and was nominated for the Gdynia Literary Prize. Byc gosciem w katastrofie received the Beata Pawlak Award and was a finalist for the Marcin Król Award.