Zofia Kulik. Instead of Sculpture. Footnotes

3 October 2026 - 20 December 2026

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 will show 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 will open on 3 October 2026 at MuFo Rakowicka, on level -1. 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 will show 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 free places at the companion events, except the seniors’ workshop on 23 October. It pays for itself with the two Open Form workshops (10 PLN and 15 PLN separately). 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 the exhibitions is 45 minutes before closing, 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 announcing 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 as published by the museum on 23 September 2026 (all events in Polish):

2 Oct 2026, 18:00 - opening, MuFo Rakowicka, no registration needed - details
3 Oct 2026, 12:00 - “Kulisy wystawy” (“Behind the Scenes”), a curator’s talk with Monika Kozień and the Open Working Group on how the show was made, for adults, 90 minutes, 5 PLN, 30 places, book online, by email or by phone - details
4 Oct 2026, 12:00 - Espresso at MuFo, “Around Form”: chamber players from Sinfonietta Cracovia perform Philip Glass’s String Quartet No. 2 “Company” and Arvo Pärt’s “Psalom”, preceded by a talk with the curator; the ticket includes a coffee and entry to the show, tickets from Sinfonietta Cracovia - details
7 Oct 2026, 17:30 - workshop “Teoria Formy Otwartej w praktyce” (“Open Form Theory in Practice”), for adults, 2 hours, 10 PLN, booking required - details
14 Oct 2026, 17:30 - workshop “Teoria Formy Otwartej w praktyce II”, on Oskar Hansen’s teaching methods, for adults, 2 hours, 15 PLN, booking required - details
21 Oct 2026, 17:30 - upcycling workshop with the Crush On Trash Foundation: a photo frame made from an old CD, 2 hours, 15 PLN, booking required - details
23 Oct 2026, 11:00 - “Czułym okiem: Żywe rzeźby” (“Living Sculptures”), a photography workshop for seniors inspired by “Instead of Sculpture”, 90 minutes, 10 PLN, the pass is not valid, booking required - details

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.

Curator

Monika Kozień

Tickets and access

Entry to the level -1 show costs 5 PLN, or comes free with a ticket to the core exhibition (30/20 PLN) or to all exhibitions (35/25 PLN). A 15 PLN pass gives unlimited entry for the whole run plus the companion events.