The author analyses two events from the Warsaw Biennale: the play Refugees (Beata Bandurska, Milena Czarnik, Leyla Elsanova, Luna JJ, Hava Hava, Aleksandra Matlingiewicz, Martyna Peszko, Gulbarg Sayfova, Katarzyna Szyngiera, Jacek Sotomski) involving women who for political and military reasons had to emigrate, and the exhibition Endless Space (curator, exhibition designer: Agata Siwiak; exhibition designer: Agata Kiedrowicz) being the culmination of a long-term work of artists with children and youth. The author brings out the emancipatory and political dimension of both projects. However, it also indicates the inconsistencies of activism cultivated by artists and cultural institutions, and the threat to democratic practices due to the influence of language and the strategy for describing participatory projects by reviewers and researchers.