Frontier

18 September 2026 - 31 May 2027

A painting show by Piotr Kowieski, a painter, poet and short-story writer from Biała Podlaska, in the temporary exhibition room of the kahal house, the third building of the Włodawa synagogue complex. It opened on 18 September 2026 and runs until May 2027. The Polish title, “Rubież”, means a frontier or a boundary line. The museum’s words below are translated from its Polish page; the museum has no English-language website.

Museum - Synagogue Complex in Włodawa on the exhibition:
Piotr Kowieski (b. 1968) - painter, poet and prose writer. For years he has consistently developed his own recognisable artistic language, in which painting and literature complement each other. In his paintings everyday life merges with metaphor, and light, silence and memory become carriers of emotion and of reflection on transience. He is the author of the poetry collections Oswajanie ciszy and Moje Nieba, and of the short-story collection Blask peryferii. He has shown his work at numerous solo and group exhibitions. Piotr Kowieski’s art grows out of attentive observation of the world, leading the viewer towards what is hidden, not obvious and timeless.

What to expect

Paintings in a single room. The museum places the show in the temporary exhibition room of the kahal house (Dom Pokahalny), a 1928 building that before the war housed the Jewish community’s board and its library. The museum gives no count of works and no titles; its page for the show is entirely the artist’s biography. The festival programme calls it simply “an exhibition of paintings”.

For what hangs on the walls, go to the artist himself. On his website, next to the announcement of the Włodawa opening, he describes oil paintings in grey and rust tones: decaying wooden cottages, makeshift footbridges, dried plants, still frames picked out by light. Neither the museum nor the artist explains the title.

The opening took place on 18 September 2026 at 14:00, on the first day of the 26th Festival of Three Cultures. Two and a half hours later a second temporary show, “Pamięć” (Memory) by Ewa Trafna, opened in the Great Synagogue. Allow 20-30 minutes for this show alone and about two hours for the whole complex including both synagogues.

Context

Piotr Kowieski was born in 1968 in Biała Podlaska, a town in eastern Poland, north of Włodawa. In the 1980s he co-founded the local band Tabes and played guitar in it; the band appeared twice, in 1986 and 1987, at Jarocin, the leading Polish rock festival of the 1980s. That is how the biography on his own website tells it, and his list of solo shows there starts in 2012 at Galeria Podlaska in his home town.

His poetry appeared as “Oswajanie ciszy” (Taming Silence, 2017) and “Moje Nieba” (My Heavens, 2021), followed by “Blask peryferii” (The Glow of the Periphery, 2023), short stories illustrated with his paintings. Before Włodawa he showed in Warsaw, Wrocław, Lublin and Siemiatycze, among other places, and in 2024 at the Józef Ignacy Kraszewski Museum in Romanów.

Tickets and time

The price list has no separate ticket for temporary shows; the standard admission applies: 18 PLN full price, 12 PLN reduced. A family ticket (two adults and two children under 18) is 12 PLN per person, and holders of the Polish Large Family Card (Karta Dużej Rodziny) pay 12 PLN and 7 PLN.

Watch out on Mondays. Free Monday admission covers only the displays in the Great Synagogue building. The kahal house is not one of them, so on a Monday this show costs 10 PLN full price and 7 PLN reduced, while “Pamięć” in the Great Synagogue is free.

From October this is a weekday show. Until the end of September the museum opens Monday to Friday 9:00-16:00 and Saturday and Sunday 10:00-14:00. From October to April it opens Monday to Friday only, 9:00-15:00 (9 AM to 3 PM). A weekend trip for this show works only in late September or in May 2027, when weekday hours return to 9:00-16:00 and weekends to 10:00-14:00.

During the run the museum is closed on 1 and 11 November, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, 31 December, New Year’s Day, Epiphany (6 January), Easter and Corpus Christi (27 May 2027).

The closing date is a month, not a day. The museum gives the run as “18 September 2026 - May 2027” with no closing day; for the calendar we use 31 May 2027. If you plan to come in the second half of May, phone first: +48 538 412 654 or +48 82 572 21 78.

Groups book two days ahead, Monday to Friday between 8:00 and 15:00, by phone or through the reservation form on the museum’s site (in Polish). A guide costs 100 PLN in Polish and 200 PLN in English.

Who it is for: readers of Kowieski’s poetry, followers of his earlier shows, and anyone visiting the synagogue complex with half an hour to spare. Who can skip it: a visitor who came only for Włodawa’s Jewish heritage and is short of time - this show is not about the town or its Jewish history.

English on site: the museum states nothing about English labels or an audio guide for this show; its page is in Polish only. The paintings need no language; the museum does not say whether any text in the room is in English. An English-speaking guide is available for groups at 200 PLN.

What the press says

Two festival previews, both mentioning the show only as a line in the programme of openings; no reviews yet.

Chełm Nasze Miasto (17 September 2026, Jolanta Masiewicz): a preview of the three festival days that lists the “Rubież” opening in the kahal house at 14:00 - article, in Polish .

Nowy Tydzień (18 September 2026, editorial staff): a report on the festival’s first day. It presents the opening as one item of the Friday afternoon, alongside Ewa Trafna’s “Pamięć” - article, in Polish .

Tickets and access

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