Memory

18 September 2026 - 31 May 2027

Ewa Trafna, a Warsaw painter, sculptor and performance artist best known for the memorials at Jedwabne, is showing “Memory” (Pamięć) in the upper women’s gallery of the Great Synagogue in Włodawa. It runs from 18 September 2026 until May 2027; the museum gives only the month for the close. The museum’s words below are translated from its Polish page; it publishes no English version.

Museum - Synagogue Complex in Włodawa on the exhibition:
In this beautiful Town, in an extraordinary place, we touch the past. Through its presence, it recalls an earlier, intangible reality. It creates new feelings and images in us.
…the women in the women’s gallery shower the boy standing below. On a solemn day for him, he reads a passage from the Torah for the first time. The sweets are colourful and delicate…

What to expect

The show fills the upper women’s gallery (babiniec) of the Great Synagogue, the upstairs space where women once followed the service. It is the same building as the permanent “Judaica” exhibition, so you see both on one visit.

Mind the floor: the lower women’s gallery houses the museum’s virtual-reality cinema, “Zachęta”, and “Memory” is one level up. The cinema screens Monday to Friday at 10:00, 12:00 and 14:00 on prior notice, on a separate ticket: 10 PLN full, 7 PLN reduced.

The museum does not say how many works are on show or in what medium. Its page carries a short prose poem, the artist’s biography and a single photograph.

The poem describes a scene that played out in exactly this kind of room: women in the gallery throwing sweets at a boy reading the Torah for the first time in the hall below. The title, the venue and that scene all point to the building’s own Jewish past as the starting point.

Allow 15-20 minutes for the show itself, and do not travel to Włodawa for it alone. It makes sense as part of a package: the “Judaica” rooms in the same building, plus the second show that opened the same day, Piotr Kowieski’s paintings “Rubież” in the Kahal House. Budget 90 minutes to two hours for all three.

It is most rewarding if you know Trafna’s Jedwabne memorials and want to see her work inside a surviving synagogue; for a casual visitor it is an add-on to the complex, not a destination.

Context

Ewa Trafna was born in Warsaw in 1958 and works across painting, sculpture, performance and site-specific installation. She is best known for the two memorials unveiled at Jedwabne in 2001. They were put up ahead of the 60th anniversary of the massacre of the town’s Jews on 10 July 1941.

One is a concrete block set with charred boards cut in the shape of a matzevah, a Jewish gravestone; the other is a sandstone matzevah inside the gate of the Jewish cemetery. Jewish memory runs through her work. Her solo shows include “Ślady na piasku” (Traces in the Sand) and “Powstanie w getcie warszawskim” (The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising). At the Stutthof Museum she performed “Cisza, ślady” (Silence, Traces).

A babiniec is the part of a synagogue set aside for women, who in traditional Judaism did not pray in the main hall. Wikipedia’s description of the Włodawa building lists two single-storey women’s sections in the side annexes. It lists a further former one above the vestibule, on a floor added in the second half of the 19th century. The museum’s “upper” gallery is most likely that last one.

Tickets and time

The museum’s price list has no separate ticket for temporary shows: the standard ticket is 18 PLN full price, 12 PLN reduced. A family ticket (two adults and two children under 18) is 12 PLN per person, and children under seven go in free. On Mondays, admission to the exhibitions in the Great Synagogue building is free, and “Memory” is in that building, so Monday is the cheapest day to come.

“Rubież” in the Kahal House costs 10 PLN full and 7 PLN reduced on Mondays.

The real trap is the calendar. From October to April the museum opens Monday to Friday only, 9:00-15:00 (9 AM to 3 PM), and is closed at weekends.

A weekend visit is therefore possible only at the very start and the very end of the run: until the end of September 2026 and in May 2027. In those months the museum opens 9:00-16:00 on weekdays and 10:00-14:00 on Saturdays and Sundays. It is also closed on 1 and 11 November, 24, 25 and 31 December, 1 and 6 January, at Easter, and on Corpus Christi, which falls on 27 May in 2027.

The museum gives only a month, May 2027, for the close, with no day; our calendar uses 31 May 2027. If you are coming in May, confirm by phone on +48 538 412 654.

The upper gallery is upstairs. The museum’s accessibility statement describes an accessible west entrance and a ground-floor accessible toilet in the Great Synagogue, but mentions a lift only in the Small Synagogue. If you use a wheelchair, ask about access to the upper gallery before you set off.

English on site: the museum states nothing about English labels or an audio guide for this show. Its price list offers an English-speaking guide for groups of up to 30 at 200 PLN, booked two days ahead; the exhibition page itself is Polish only.

What the press says

Three mentions in the regional Polish press, all factual; no review yet.

Super Tydzień Chełmski (7 September 2026, Monika Łubkowska): a festival preview; it lists the opening of “Memory” at 16:30 in the upper women’s gallery on the first, Jewish-heritage day - article, in Polish .

Chełm Nasze Miasto (17 September 2026, Jolanta Masiewicz): the full festival programme, with the opening of Ewa Trafna’s show at 16:30 - article, in Polish .

Nowy Tydzień (18 September 2026, editorial staff): a report from the festival’s first day, noting that the show opened in the Great Synagogue - report, in Polish .

Tickets and access

Check ticket prices and opening hours in the Museum - Synagogue Complex in Włodawa profile.