Exhibitions

Galicia – a mythical land? A brand that can sell anything? Everyone has a different image of Galicia. At present, it is especially important in Ukraine, where it has become a tool used in political struggles. The exhibition opened on October 10 at the International Cultural Centre in Krakow confronts existing myths with historical facts and with the perspective of nations entangled in this history.

This exhibition examines the figure of Václav Havel as oppositionist, statesman, writer and dramatist – an icon in his own time, as seen in photographs taken over several decades. Their author, Oldřich Škácha, accompanied Havel for over 30 years, and the material amassed by him builds up a unique portrait of a remarkable personality.

The International Cultural Centre Gallery is flooded with some of the finest works of Czech symbolism, featuring oneiric compositions, fairy-tale themes and fantastical figures in the first such extensive show of symbolism from the Czech lands in Poland.

In the contemporary humanities, the past few decades have been widely labelled “the age of memory” due to disciplines’ undying interest in traces of the past as well as role and mechanisms that govern memory. This time roughly began at the point when Pierre Nora published his first thoughts on the subject of lieux de mémoire (places of memory). Contemporary art has not remained indifferent to the phenomenon in question.