Tokyo Story

18 September 2026 - 25 October 2026

In 2017 the Krakow painter Dariusz Vasina, one half of the duo Studio 2, photographed a mural in Tokyo that looked as if he had painted it himself. He had not. “Tokyo Story” is the record of the years he and Beata Kotnowska spent looking for its author, shown in the Manggha Museum’s Europe - Far East Gallery until 25 October 2026. Expect photographs, drawings, 3D prints, installations and films, all on the museum’s standard ticket.

Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology on the exhibition (the museum’s own English text):
The Studio 2 art duo discovered Tokyo just like Roland Barthes: ‘not by book, by address, but by walking, by sight, by habit, by experience.’
Thus encountered, paradoxically (perhaps due to the poignant feeling of alienation), the city motivated them to look closely at their own practice and to ask difficult questions: Is it possible that what we create is not unique, since our artistic doppelgänger is active in Tokyo? Living in a contemporary global village, can we still influence each other, whilst preserving autonomy and defying cultural homogenisation? These ‘cracks’ - where the past and present of Tokyo and its residents lurk, and which lie beyond the well-beaten tourist path - are what the artists chose to pursue. They found traces of the work of an unknown Japanese artist, whose very existence seemed doubtful. Following their trail, the Studio 2 artists discovered further points of convergence between themselves and this unidentified artist - meticulous craft, the pursuit of a synthesis, a characteristic line, and, above all, a strong belief that a distinction between ‘art’ and ‘design’ does not always hold. Their shared approach to their media was also striking: they used hand-drawing, 3D prints, installations and films to create their own worlds, suspended between reality and dream. Worlds populated by figures with cat faces, who less seem kawaii than resemble kabuki theatre actors; people nodding off in the Tokyo Metro, busying themselves reading manga, sometimes frozen in acrobatic poses. Are they overcome by Tokyo melancholy or Krakow spleen? The narrative of this exhibition is not linear - it keeps looping, inviting the audience to search for meaning on their own. Tokyo Story is above all a tale of a journey and an encounter with the Other, and one that allows us to discover our alter ego.

What to expect

The show fills the first floor of the Europe - Far East Gallery, the annexe Manggha opened in 2015 at the same address. The text quoted above is by the curator, Agnieszka Jankowska-Marzec. The opening took place on 17 September, alongside Karolina Breguła’s show in the same gallery.

The 20 items on the list of works are less a display of finished pieces than the archive of an investigation: photographs, drawings, 3D prints, films and found objects. The captions say what each work is and what it was made from. Even so, in their interview with the curator the artists admit they want you unsure whether you are looking at documents, reconstructions, original works, souvenirs or perhaps “fake” evidence. A few works show the method best:

Street - a photograph taken in Tokyo in 2017, the year the whole story starts.
Kokeshi Station - 68 hand-painted figures on a twin-axle trailer, an installation about copying and losing the original.
Witnesses’ Room - an audio-video installation with accounts from people involved in the search for the unknown artist.
Sketchbook - a copy of a Sanzō Wada publication bought at a Tokyo flea market and reused as a sketchbook.
Lift Sticker - photographs from the metro with motifs attributed to the missing artist; the museum’s caption states that parts of the work were generated with artificial intelligence.

Download the three PDFs on the exhibition’s English page before you go: the curatorial text, the interview with the artists and the list of works. The interview takes ten minutes and explains the puzzle better than any wall text. Vasina sums it up in one line: “Tokyo is not just a backdrop here.”

Context

Studio 2 is Beata Kotnowska and Dariusz Vasina, both graduates of the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. Kotnowska spent two decades as a designer in advertising before turning to her own art in 2022. Vasina is a painter and illustrator who teaches painting at his old faculty and illustration at School of Form, SWPS University. Since 2019 he has also designed murals, including one on the building of Krakow’s Academy of Theatre Arts.

The show’s epigraph comes from “Japoński wachlarz” (“The Japanese Fan”), a book of essays the Polish novelist Joanna Bator wrote after her first two years in Japan. The line about knowing a city by walking and by sight belongs to Roland Barthes, who travelled to Japan in 1966 and wrote about it in “Empire of Signs”.

Do not confuse the show with Yasujirō Ozu’s 1953 film of the same name: the artists say in the interview that the word “story” leaves room for cinema, but they never mention Ozu.

Tickets and time

There is no separate ticket: a Manggha ticket covers all current exhibitions. Regular 30 PLN, reduced 20 PLN, family 50 PLN, group (up to 20 people) 120 PLN; children under 7 go free. Admission is free on Tuesdays, and the museum states that the free day covers all temporary exhibitions, this one included.

Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00-18:00 (10 AM-6 PM), closed on Mondays. The museum recommends arriving no later than half an hour before closing. Online tickets for the following month go on sale only in the last week of the month before.

The gallery building is adapted for visitors with disabilities. The nearest tram and bus stops are both called Rondo Grunwaldzkie.

Allow 45 minutes for “Tokyo Story” alone, an hour if you want to watch the films and listen to the accounts in the Witnesses’ Room. Karolina Breguła’s show runs in the same gallery on the same dates and the same ticket, so give the whole gallery an hour and a half. Add “Akitsushima” and “Warrior Women” in the main building and you have a full afternoon, still for one price.

On 14 October 2026, 16:00-18:00, the museum holds quiet hours: no groups, soundtracks switched off and projections turned right down. A good slot if you are sensitive to noise, a poor one if you want to hear the witnesses properly.

Best for anyone into illustration, graphic art and design, for people who know Tokyo, and for fans of stories where you never quite know what is true. Skip it if you came for historical Japanese art: the prints and armour are in the main building, in shows running until 11 November.

English on site: the curatorial text, the artists’ interview and the list of works are published in English as PDFs on the museum’s English page. The museum does not say whether the wall labels in the gallery are bilingual.

What the press says

dzieje.pl / PAP (18 Sep 2026, Polish Press Agency): the opening wire covers both new shows in the gallery. On “Tokyo Story” it reports that some works were brought back from Tokyo and many others grew out of found sketches and drawings - link (Polish-language source). In it Vasina says he took a photograph in Tokyo in 2017, now on show, of a mural that “looked as if I had painted it” (our translation).

Magazyn SZUM (14 Sep 2026, editorial team): the Polish art magazine’s weekly listings call the show an artistic investigation in which each new lead brought fresh questions instead of answers - link (Polish-language source).

Both pieces read so far are news items: an opening wire and a preview. A Gazeta Krakowska article on the show and a TVP Kraków report on Manggha’s new exhibitions are still pending; none of the sources read so far is a review.

Curator

Agnieszka Jankowska-Marzec

Tickets and access

Check ticket prices and opening hours in the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology profile.