Soon Everything Will Change

From 24 April to 4 October 2026, Wawel Royal Castle showed three installations by Joanna Rajkowska, the artist behind Warsaw’s artificial palm tree, in its Royal Gardens and Outer Courtyard.

Wawel Royal Castle on the exhibition:

Joanna Rajkowska is one of the most important and distinctive figures in Polish contemporary art, known for projects that permanently alter the fabric of cities and our sensibilities. Her work, acclaimed worldwide, redefines public space, prompting deep reflection on the relationship between humanity, nature and history.

“The Hatchling. Common Blackbird”

The blue blackbird’s egg measured 240 by 160 centimetres, and the castle encouraged visitors to touch it. With an ear to the shell you could hear vibrations and the heartbeat of a hatching bird. You had to walk right up to the egg - from a distance it was just a sculpture.

“The Nest”

Hooded crows built this nest at the top of the artificial palm tree Rajkowska installed in Warsaw for her project “Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue”. The birds treated the fake tree like any other. The castle presented the nest as an example of nature taking over even the most artificial piece of a city.

What to expect

The third work was the geode “Soon Everything Will Change”, filled with amethysts and set into the ground of the Outer Courtyard, right next to the castle’s archaeological reserve. The Hatchling and the Nest stood in the Royal Gardens, while the geode was in the freely accessible part of the courtyard. The curator was Dr Bogumiła Wiśniewska.

The show was conceived as a subtle intervention into the historic grounds of Wawel Hill. It connected contemporary art with the site’s landscape, geology and history. Seeing all three installations took 20-30 minutes, so it worked best as part of a visit to the gardens or a walk around the hill.

Context

Joanna Rajkowska is one of Poland’s best-known artists working in public space. Her most famous work remains “Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue” (2002), an artificial palm tree in central Warsaw, which over more than two decades has become an informal gathering point for protests and gestures of solidarity. The Nest at Wawel was literally a piece of that history: a crows’ nest built at the top of that palm.

The artist had used the title and the crystal motif before, in 2014 in Birmingham, where her public project “Soon Everything Will Change” placed a large crystal next to the library in Erdington. Rajkowska’s work treats living and non-living matter as equal participants in a place’s history. That is why at Wawel the geode, with its reference to “deep time”, and the pulsing egg were read as partners in dialogue with the hill’s archaeological layers, not as background to them.

Tickets and time

The Hatchling and the Nest were covered by the Royal Gardens ticket (11 PLN regular, 9 PLN reduced). A ticket to any of the castle’s other exhibitions, or to the “Wawel - najcenniejsze” (most precious) route, also got you into the gardens at no extra cost. The geode in the Outer Courtyard was free to see.

The exhibition closed on Sunday 4 October 2026. The Royal Gardens ended their season on the same day.

What the press says

Tygodnik Powszechny (05.05.2026, Aleksander Hudzik, Polish outlet - our translation): the piece describes how working in such a historically loaded space pushed Rajkowska to rethink her own role; she says herself that at Wawel, art plays only a “servant’s” function to the place - link .

LoveKraków.pl (26.04.2026, editorial staff, Polish-language source): an opening-day report that quotes Rajkowska hoping visitors will experience the show with their bodies, and focuses on the sensory character of the Hatchling - descriptive, promotional tone rather than in-depth criticism - link .

Updates

• 13 Sep 2026 - added the description of the geode, context on the Warsaw palm tree, ticket and hours details and two press items; the exhibition dates (24 April - 4 October 2026) confirmed on the museum’s own page.
• 22 Sep 2026 - the castle published a dated programme of accompanying events; the dates until the show closes were added (source: exhibition page ).

See also

• MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow - a contemporary art collection and exhibitions in Zabłocie, for anyone drawn to Wawel by Rajkowska herself.
• Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Gallery - a contemporary art gallery on Szczepański Square, a few minutes’ walk from the Main Market Square.

After the show

“Soon Everything Will Change” closed on 4 October 2026, together with the Royal Gardens season. Neither the castle nor the artist’s website says the exhibition will be shown anywhere else. No catalogue of the exhibition was found, either on the exhibition page or in the castle’s online shop.

Tygodnik Powszechny wrote that working at Wawel led Rajkowska to rethink her own role, and the artist acknowledged that art serves the place here. LoveKraków.pl reported on the opening, focusing on the sensory experience of the Hatchling; the castle has published no attendance figures.

The castle has also announced a sensory listening workshop, “Usłyszeć więcej” (Hear More) , in the Sala Poselska on 13 October 2026, which according to its description builds on the closed exhibition.

Wawel’s only temporary exhibition now is “Lares and Penates. On Building a Sense of Security in Architecture” , until 6 January 2027: Poland’s project from the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale on building a sense of security. From 23 October 2026 to 14 February 2027, the castle will show “Anna Jagiellonka. Wszystkie twarze królowej” (Anna Jagiellon. All the Faces of the Queen).

Two current Krakow exhibitions take up related themes:

• “Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka. Ecologies of Togetherness” at MOCAK, until 18 October 2026 - a residency that treats the museum building as a living organism; its first instalment was the installation “Nest”, inspired by the colonies of nests built by African birds.
• “Now Everything Will Be Different” at the Manggha Museum, until 25 October 2026 - Karolina Breguła’s films and photographs from Taiwan about losing a home and waiting for change to come.

Museum profile: Wawel Royal Castle .