Per aspera ad astra. Through hardship to the stars. Work ennobles man. It makes people better and more valuable. It is a source of satisfaction and a testing ground for new skills. Or so claims chat gpt. The cult of work and the belief it is a virtue happens to be a relatively new invention. Ancient writers regarded it as an urbane past, which is hardly surprising given that the economic prosperity of the period was guaranteed by slavery, while modern aristocracy’s attitude to labor could have been summed up in one word: contempt. Katarzyna Wyszkowska’s exhibition, featuring Szymon Sokołowski, does not only speak about work but is a work as well. It collects work-related stories and anecdotes, circling burn-out, depression, and exploitation, the oppressive domain of housework, money-manifesting meditations, promotion up to the edge of one’s incompetence and the absurd atmosphere of positivity hovering over corporate office spaces – sites not so much of teamwork as mutual control. Ostensibly, it all boils down to finding ways of working less, improving working conditions, and increasing efficiency. In any case, efficiency is harnessed by capitalism. Realistically, this very system transforms and commodifies its critiques and social anger, grinding every revolution and every protest into one pop-cultural pulp. We are prophesying the end of work when even spare time amounts to consumption and constant craving: the incessant satisfaction and production of needs; we are forecasting the end of the working class, while big corporations open factories in the global South, new and invisible, as exempt from democratic control. We still believe in the American dream, in time-saving technology, or even that the poor only have themselves to blame. After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained. By the way, an art collector acquaintance of mine thinks people in the United States can’t go hungry. There are McDonald’s everywhere! Labor vincit omnia. Yet another motto and another Latin dictum. In a 1902 film about the conquest of space, a group of scientists lands on the Moon. There, they battle extraterrestrials and win the fight using rain umbrellas. They return to Earth empty-handed. Back home, they are welcomed by an exhilarated crowd, unveiling a monument to the astronomer. The wizard-like sculpture points a finger at the sky. An inscription beneath spells out work conquers all.