Rysy - Szymon Klejborowski

Szymon Klejborowski, a joiner, conservator and sculptor, starts from a single piece of furniture at Villa Koliba - a table designed by Stanisław Barabasz - and works outwards to the Zakopane Style as a whole. The show runs from 18 July to 31 December 2026 at Villa Koliba, the Tatra Museum’s Museum of the Zakopane Style at 18 Kościeliska Street. The museum publishes no English text on the exhibition; the words below are our translation of its Polish description.

Tatra Museum on the exhibition:

The exhibition “Rysy” delves into the history of one of the pieces of furniture at Villa Koliba. Its aim, however, is not a simple reproduction of the table designed by Stanisław Barabasz but an attempt to come to terms with the heritage of the Zakopane Style as a whole.

In the space of the permanent exhibition, objects will be shown that document the successive stages of this process: from studies of archival material and Zakopane Style designs, through attempts to read its “code”, to the artist’s own interpretation.

“Rysy” is a story of learning by doing.

What to expect

There is no separate gallery. Klejborowski’s pieces are placed among the furniture and fittings of the villa’s permanent display, so you meet “Rysy” as you walk through the period rooms. The museum gives neither the number of objects nor the floor they are on.

The show is meant to change. According to the museum’s announcement of 20 July 2026, new objects will keep appearing for as long as Klejborowski’s artist residency at Koliba lasts, and the museum itself suggests coming back more than once. A December visit may therefore show a different stage of the work from a summer one.

The title plays on several meanings: in Polish “rysy” are scratches and cracks in a surface, the features of a face, and also the name of Rysy, the highest peak in the Polish Tatras. The museum does not explain the title.

Klejborowski graduated from the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts in Poznań and from Design Academy Eindhoven. For his diploma project he worked with “Tatrogród”, a children’s care home in Zakopane, running sculpture workshops for its teenagers. The curator is Michał Kowal. The show opened on 17 July 2026 at 17:00; a woodcarving workshop planned for 21 August was cancelled by the museum.

Allow about an hour for the whole of Koliba, “Rysy” included. That is our estimate; the museum gives no visiting time.

Context

Villa Koliba was the first house built in the Zakopane Style. Stanisław Witkiewicz designed it for the collector Zygmunt Gnatowski, and it was built in 1892-1893; the Museum of the Zakopane Style has occupied it since December 1993. Stanisław Barabasz (1857-1949) was a painter and one of the pioneers of Polish skiing. From 1901 to 1922 he ran Zakopane’s School of Wood Industry, where he brought Podhale ornament into furniture design. Furniture of his design stands at Koliba alongside pieces by Witkiewicz and Wojciech Brzega, so the show takes as its starting point an object that belongs to the permanent display itself.

Tickets and time

Villa Koliba prices: permanent and temporary display 28 PLN (reduced 14 PLN), permanent display only 25 PLN (reduced 12 PLN), temporary display only 8 PLN (reduced 4 PLN). The museum does not say in so many words which ticket covers “Rysy”. The branch page lists it as the only exhibition at Koliba, and the same price list sits under the exhibition text, so we read the temporary ticket as the “Rysy” ticket. Since the works stand in the permanent rooms anyway, the sensible buy is the combined 28 PLN ticket - only 3 PLN more than the permanent display alone.

Free Thursday covers the permanent displays. Whether “Rysy” is included on that day the museum does not say - ask at the ticket desk.

Other options: the weekly combined ticket to every open branch of the Tatra Museum costs 69 PLN (reduced 34 PLN). Holders of the Polish Large Family Card (Karta Dużej Rodziny) pay 5 PLN per person for all exhibitions in the branch. The audio guide costs 5 PLN and a guided tour 69 PLN. Residents of Zakopane, Nowy Targ and seven neighbouring municipalities pay 1 PLN.

Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday 9:00-17:00 (9 AM to 5 PM), Friday and Saturday 11:00-19:00, closed on Tuesday; last entry half an hour before closing. The museum publishes one timetable for Koliba with no seasonal variant; check the hours and prices page before you go. Its English-language page for the villa still shows an older, lower price list; the Polish page, whose figures are given here, is the current one.

Getting there and access: take city bus no. 11 to the “Za Strugiem - willa Koliba” stop, then walk about three minutes. The building has no lift, so wheelchair users can see the ground floor only, while the upper floor is available as a virtual tour on a multimedia screen inside. The entrance is at the back, up eight steps or by a platform lift operated by staff. There is parking for at most four cars in front of the villa.

Worth it for anyone interested in furniture, woodcarving and design, and for those who want to see a present-day craftsman working with a historical model. Do not make the trip to Koliba for “Rysy” alone if the Zakopane Style itself leaves you cold: the show is woven into the permanent display and makes little sense without it.

English on site: the museum states nothing about English labels or tours for “Rysy”. It does offer a free audio-guide app for the villa (“Muzeum Stylu Zakopiańskiego - willa Koliba”), with audio description and Polish Sign Language; it does not say which languages the app covers.

Events

• 26 September 2026, 14:00-15:00 - “Dotknij rys” (“Touch the scratches”): a sensory session with Szymon Klejborowski during the Festival of Sensitive Culture, carving with crayons instead of chisels and handling works from the show; open to all ages; free, maximum 12 people, booking by e-mail to mkowal@muzeumtatrzanskie.pl - festival programme at the Tatra Museum

See also

• Tatra Museum profile - the main building at 10 Krupówki Street with the permanent display on Podhale and its visitors; it also explains the weekly ticket that covers Koliba.
• Jan Gryboś “In the Rhythm of the Old Village” - folk sculpture in wood at the open-air museum in Szymbark, until 14 November 2026; the same material, a very different tradition.
• Orava Ethnographic Park in Zubrzyca Górna - the wooden building of the Orava highlanders on the scale of a whole village, the folk carpentry of a neighbouring region. A good point of comparison for a villa designed by an artist.

Museum profile: Tatra Museum in Zakopane .