I Was Tadeusz Kantor's Assistant. Andrzej Wajda

In 1976 Andrzej Wajda, the director of “Ashes and Diamonds” and “Man of Marble”, took a break from shooting the latter to film Tadeusz Kantor’s theatre piece “The Dead Class” (“Umarła klasa”). He later wrote that for one day he became Kantor’s assistant. From 6 October 2026 to 10 January 2027 Cricoteka, the Kantor museum on the Vistula in Podgórze, shows the paperwork behind that film in its Galeria Szatnia, on a separate 10 PLN ticket.

Cricoteka on the exhibition (our translation; the museum has published no English text for this show):

The exhibition focuses above all on previously unseen documents connected with the making of the film version of Kantor’s performance The Dead Class, made by Andrzej Wajda in 1976. Sketches, photographs, correspondence and documents let us see the creative process from the perspective of the surviving records.

The exhibition is also accompanied by excerpts from the film made 50 years ago jointly by Kantor and Wajda. They recall the intensity of their artistic dialogue and let us experience the extraordinary energy of The Dead Class carried onto the screen.

The second part of the presentation consists of recordings and statements by Andrzej Wajda and Krystyna Zachwatowicz-Wajda relating to their visits to Cricoteka and their long closeness to Kantor’s work. Their memories build a personal story of friendship, inspiration and the meaning Tadeusz Kantor had for later generations of artists.

What to expect

The show opens on 6 October in the Galeria Szatnia (the name means “cloakroom”), on level -1 of the main building at ul. Nadwiślańska 2-4. The ticket desk is on the same level. Enter from the museum’s square, take the lift or the stairs down, and the staff at the desk will point you on. This is not part of the permanent exhibition “Kantor. Vision Therapy” but a separate gallery with its own ticket.

Expect an archive show: sketches, photographs and letters to read, excerpts from the film and recorded voices. You will not see the whole film here, only excerpts. The full recording runs 72 minutes, and Cricoteka has released it on DVD with subtitles in ten languages, English among them; on 23 September its shop listed the disc as out of stock. The museum has not yet published an object count or a list of exhibits.

The show is curated by Natalia Zarzecka and Krystyna Zachwatowicz-Wajda, working with Małgorzata Paluch-Cybulska. The partner is the Andrzej Wajda Archive at the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology, and the show is part of the national Year of Andrzej Wajda. The display is designed by Parastudio.

Context

“The Dead Class” is a piece by Kantor’s theatre company Cricot 2. It premiered in Krakow on 15 November 1975 and toured the world until 1992, from Adelaide to Geneva and Tokyo. Wajda filmed it at the Krzysztofory Gallery in Krakow’s Main Square and added two outdoor scenes, on the Kościuszko Mound and in Plac Nowy in Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter. The film is called “Umarła klasa. Seans T. Kantora”; the cinematographers were Edward Kłosiński and Janusz Kaliciński.

The title of the show comes from an essay in Wajda’s 1998 book “Podwójne spojrzenie” (“A Double Look”). There he wrote that “after twenty-two years of independent work” he became “Tadeusz Kantor’s assistant for one day”, because he wanted to see how Kantor would stage cinema (our translation).

The Polish Senate declared 2026 the Year of Andrzej Wajda, marking the centenary of his birth on 6 March 1926. On 9 October, three days after the opening, it will be ten years since his death. Krystyna Zachwatowicz-Wajda is a stage designer and art historian and a co-founder of the Piwnica pod Baranami cabaret; with her husband she gave his Kyoto Prize money to build what is now the Manggha Museum.

Tickets and time

Separate ticket: 10 PLN regular, 5 PLN reduced. The permanent exhibition costs 25 PLN (reduced 15 PLN) on its own, so the two together come to 35 PLN. The price list also offers a 40 PLN combined ticket for the permanent and temporary exhibitions at Cricoteka, but does not say whether it covers the Galeria Szatnia; at these prices two separate tickets are cheaper anyway. Holders of the Karta Krakowska, the city’s residents’ card (not the tourist KrakowCard), pay the reduced price for a regular ticket, so 5 PLN.

Wednesday is the cheapest day, but not free. The price list gives free Wednesdays to the permanent exhibition and to the Gallery-Studio on Sienna Street, but not to this show. On our reading, a Wednesday visit means the permanent exhibition for free and 10 PLN for the Szatnia; the museum does not spell this out.

Open Tuesday to Sunday, 11:00-19:00 (11 AM-7 PM), last admission a quarter of an hour before closing, closed on Mondays. Neither the show page nor the price list gives holiday hours, so for a visit between 24 December and 1 January check with the museum first. The show is not yet on sale in the online ticket shop.

Allow 30-45 minutes for the Szatnia alone, longer if you want to read the letters and hear the recordings in full, and an hour and a half together with the permanent exhibition. If Kantor is new to you, see the permanent exhibition first: without it the film paperwork will mean little. Best for people who know Wajda’s films or Kantor’s theatre and for film and theatre students; skip it with small children.

English on site: the museum has published the show in Polish only and does not say whether the labels will be bilingual. Nor does it say whether the recordings will be subtitled. The museum’s English-language ticket page still shows 2024 prices, so rely on the Polish price list.

Assistance, Polish Sign Language interpreting, audio description and a pre-visit can be arranged with the accessibility coordinator on +48 505 319 882. The nearest stops are Korona (tram and bus) and Plac Bohaterów Getta (tram); the museum has no visitor parking.

Events

• 06.10.2026, 18:00-20:00 - opening in the Galeria Szatnia, free entry - details (in Polish)
• 15.10.2026, 17:30-19:00 - lecture “The Filmed Dead Class: Tadeusz Kantor and Andrzej Wajda” in the series “Dalej już nic”, given by Joanna Walaszek, a theatre scholar at the Jagiellonian University and author of a book on Wajda’s theatre; in Polish, Cricoteka education room, free entry - details (in Polish)

What the press says

Magazyn SZUM (31 Aug 2026, editorial team): the Polish art magazine’s autumn preview lists the show under the working title “Kantor/Wajda” as part of the fifth edition of Cloakroom, Cricoteka’s series pairing Kantor with artists of later generations - link (Polish-language source).

krakow.pl (5 Mar 2026, the city’s official website): its programme for Krakow’s Year of Andrzej Wajda names an autumn show at Cricoteka on the collaboration behind the filmed “Dead Class” - link (Polish-language source).

Both are previews; there are no reviews before the opening. SZUM names the Kyoto Foundation as partner and dates the joint work to 1975, whereas Cricoteka names the Andrzej Wajda Archive at the Manggha Museum and dates the film to 1976.

See also

• Cricoteka and the permanent exhibition “Kantor. Vision Therapy” - in the same building, free on Wednesdays and the best introduction to this show.
• Andrzej Pawłowski. Kineforms - another of Kantor’s assistants, who helped him while still an art student; his projector from the Cricot 2 stage is at the Gallery-Studio on Sienna Street, open Monday to Wednesday.
• Wild Frolics. An Exhibition for All - a family show in the same building until 11 October, so both are open during the Wajda show’s first week.
• Manggha Museum - the museum built with Wajda’s and Zachwatowicz-Wajda’s Kyoto Prize money; the Andrzej Wajda Archive, partner of this show, is based there.

Tickets, opening hours, and current details are on the Cricoteka website (in Polish).

Museum profile: Cricoteka - Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor .