Zofia Kulik. Instead of Sculpture. Footnotes

In 1971 Zofia Kulik graduated in sculpture from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts with a work built around a projection of some five hundred slides. Krakow’s Museum of Photography shows it from 3 October to 20 December 2026 on level -1 of its Rakowicka Street building, together with “Footnotes”, the Open Working Group’s response to it. Entry costs 5 PLN.

The Museum of Photography in Krakow on the exhibition (our translation of the museum’s Polish text):

Does understanding contemporary art require expert knowledge? The exhibition “Zofia Kulik. Instead of Sculpture. Footnotes” invites you to look at art from the perspective of your own experience - with openness and curiosity. Its starting point is a work by one of the most important figures of the Polish neo-avant-garde, and its complement is “Footnotes”, the outcome of meetings of the Open Working Group, which spent several months looking at Zofia Kulik’s work while creating a space for discovering it together.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is one of Zofia Kulik’s most important works, made in 1971 as her diploma at the Faculty of Sculpture of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. In it, the artist gave up the chisel and classical sculptural materials in favour of photography. Using a camera, she created a sequence of images arising from actions performed on the bodies of models and on various objects.

What to expect

The exhibition opened with a reception on 2 October 2026 at 18:00 at MuFo Rakowicka and has been open to visitors on level -1 since 3 October. The museum bills it as the first museum showing of this diploma work in Poland. The curator is Monika Kozień, who looks after the contemporary art collection at MuFo.

The show has three parts, and each asks for a different kind of attention:

• The 1971 slide show - one of the three parts of the original diploma, a projection lasting about 30 minutes. It is the heart of the show, so give it the full half hour rather than catching a few minutes on your way through.
• “Footnotes” - texts, notes, sketches and workshop records from a group that spent months learning to read “Instead of Sculpture”, starting from their first impressions. You will not get one correct interpretation here, only a record of other people’s questions.
• The loom - visitors weave a shared fabric from recycled materials. It keeps changing for the whole run, so a December visit will look different from an October one.

The Open Working Group brings together people of different generations and backgrounds. It formed in February 2025 around an earlier MuFo show about Katarzyna Kozyra’s “Olympia”, and membership is open: according to the museum, anyone can join. The museum also plans weekly meetings on Kulik and Open Form for the length of the run.

Context

Zofia Kulik was born in Wrocław in 1947. After graduating she worked until the late 1980s with Przemysław Kwiek as the duo KwieKulik, counted among the pioneers of performance art in Poland. Since the 1980s she has made monumental black-and-white compositions by exposing many negatives from her own archive onto one sheet. She represented Poland at the 1997 Venice Biennale. “Instead of Sculpture” itself is in Tate’s collection (catalogue number T14686), and MoMA also holds her work.

The diploma grew out of Oskar Hansen’s theory of Open Form, which valued the process and the viewer’s part in it over a finished object. In 1971 the slides were projected at once onto three screens around the viewer, next to a copy of Michelangelo’s “Moses” made of stiffened fabric (according to Wikipedia). MuFo shows the slide projection only.

Tickets and time

A ticket for the level -1 show costs 5 PLN. A ticket for the core exhibition, “Co robi zdjęcie?” (“What does a photograph do?”, 30/20 PLN), or for all exhibitions (35/25 PLN) gets you in at no extra cost. If Kulik is all you came for, 5 PLN is enough.

A 15 PLN pass gives unlimited entry for the whole run and a place at the companion events - lectures, meetings and workshops - at no extra charge. The workshop on 28 October costs 15 PLN, the same as the pass, and the lecture on 4 November 5 PLN, so the pass pays for itself with a single workshop. It is also worth having because the fabric on the loom keeps changing, which gives you a reason to come back.

MuFo’s price list limits free Tuesdays to the core exhibition. The museum does not say whether free Tuesday entry also covers level -1, so plan on paying 5 PLN. Holders of the Kraków City Card (Karta Krakowska, a card for city residents, not the tourist KrakowCard) get 20% off all admission tickets.

MuFo Rakowicka is open Tuesday 11:00-19:00, Wednesday to Friday 10:00-18:00, Saturday and Sunday 11:00-19:00, and closed on Mondays. Last entry to this show is an hour before closing (45 minutes for the other exhibitions), and the projection alone runs half an hour, so do not arrive at the last minute. Wednesdays 15:00-17:00 are quiet hours.

Allow 45-60 minutes for this show, or two and a half hours if you add the core exhibition. Best for anyone who finds contemporary art intimidating, and for those curious about the Polish neo-avant-garde and Open Form. Skip it if you want framed photographs on the walls or Kulik’s later monumental work: the museum is showing the 1971 diploma and a workshop, not a survey of her career.

The building is at Rakowicka 22A. Tram 72 stops at “Muzeum Fotografii”, and from Kraków Główny station it is about a 15-minute walk.

English on site: the show’s credits name an English translator, which suggests English versions of the exhibition texts, but the museum’s English page for the show so far gives only the title and dates. The companion events are announced in Polish only. The price list offers an English-language guided tour of the core or temporary exhibition for 180 PLN plus tickets; the museum does not say whether it covers the level -1 show.

Events

The programme below follows MuFo’s schedule, and pass holders take part in every event at no extra charge. The museum has not yet given a price for the meetings and workshops of 9, 12 and 16 December.

• 28 Oct 2026, 17:30 - “Rehabilitacja odpadów, czyli na czym polega upcykling II” (Rehabilitating waste: what upcycling is about, part II), a workshop for adults run by the Open Working Group, 2 hours, 15 PLN, booking online, by e-mail or by phone - details
• 4 Nov 2026, 17:30 - “Sztuka komunikacji, czyli do czego są nam potrzebne trudne teksty” (The art of communication: what we need difficult texts for), a lecture with a workshop by Wojciech Gorczyca for adults, 2 hours, 5 PLN - details
• 18 Nov 2026, 17:30 - “Teksty otwarte, czyli nie zawsze musimy panować nad sytuacją I” (Open texts: we do not always have to be in control, part I), a writing workshop, 2 hours, 5 PLN - details
• 25 Nov 2026, 17:30 - “Teksty otwarte, czyli nie zawsze musimy panować nad sytuacją II” (Open texts, part II), a writing workshop, 2 hours, 5 PLN - details
• 9 Dec 2026, 17:30 - “Po co nam sztuka?” (What do we need art for?), a meeting - schedule
• 12 Dec 2026, 12:00 - “Wspaniałość siebie - archetypy kobiece” (The splendour of the self: female archetypes), a collage workshop - schedule
• 16 Dec 2026, 17:30 - “Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna” (Something ends, something begins), a curators’ meeting with the Open Working Group - schedule

What the press says

Magazyn SZUM (31 Aug 2026, editorial team, Polish-language source): its autumn 2026 exhibition preview describes the show as participatory, split into a workshop part and a presentation part - link . SZUM gives a closing date of 10 January 2027; the museum’s own page says 20 December 2026, and that is the date to go by. No review or report on the show since its opening had been found by 24 October 2026.

See also

• MuFo Rakowicka (Museum of Photography in Krakow) - the museum’s profile and its core exhibition, whose ticket also covers level -1.
• Andrzej Pawłowski. Kineforms - at Tadeusz Kantor’s Gallery-Studio: another Krakow experiment with a projector, moving light images from the 1950s shown on the stage of Cricot 2.
• Under a Knitted Sky - Installation - at Krzysztofory Palace until 26 February 2027: a sunshade crocheted by more than a hundred people, another shared textile work like the loom on level -1.

Tickets, opening hours and current details are on the Museum of Photography in Krakow website (in Polish).

Museum profile: MuFo Rakowicka (Museum of Photography in Krakow) .