Batik Girl. The Fabulous Józefa Kogut.
Treść
21 November 2025 - 20 September 2026
A collection of beautiful and unique items: works of art evoking the history of Polish design, samplers, paintings, sketches and a selection of documents confirming successes and crises in life. This is the legacy of Józefa Kogut. It was entrusted to the Ethnographic Museum in Krakow by her sister Zofia, two years after the artist’s death, in 1980.
As befits a legacy, this incredible collection is also a hotchpotch of understatements, repetitions, mistakes, conjectures and crumbs of information – sometimes contradicting each other.
Years later, it is difficult to establish even which of the two sisters created the particular works. Józefa and Zofia both learned the batik technique at the Krakow Workshops, lived together all their lives and supported each other. Perhaps they also shared work to be done? And helped each other out by doing the other’s work with deadlines approaching?
And yet, with this exhibition, we are commemorating, first and foremost, Józefa Kogut. We have followed her story, gleaned from personal and official letters, newspaper clippings, keepsakes and albums that she kept. And, last but not least, from her fabulous works and sketches that reveal the amazing power of her imagination.
Just how inspirational Józefa Kogut’s creative output has been, is evident in the works of contemporary artists who have been invited to co-create the exhibition. You can also experience the power of that inspiration for yourself, by taking action in specially labelled spots, and using the Exhibition Sketchbook.
Come in; look; listen; touch; play; act.
And then, tell others about Józefa Kogut, a Batik Girl from Krakow.
21 November 2025 – 20 September 2026
Curators team: Dorota Majkowska-Szajer, Justyna Matwijewicz, Katarzyna Piszczkiewicz
Arrangement design: Katarzyna Piszczkiewicz
Text: Dorota Majkowska-Szajer
Proofreading and editing: Anna Kowalczyk
English translation: Anna Sak
Art installation Józefa Back in the Game:
Animations: Elina Pyrohova
Soundtrack: Igor Kłaczyński
Animation Józefa: Kinga Klisz
Animation A 100 Years!: Kinga Klisz
Soundtrack: Krzysztof and Jonasz Iwaniccy and Marcin Oleś
Art installation Changing Shapes: Ewa Woźniak
Józefa Kogut voiced by: Dorota Segda
Audio prepared by: Wojciech Gruszka
Outdoor photos: Marcin Jędrysiak
Conservation: Agata Barczyńska, Katarzyna Mazurek- Lebowska, Renata Palka, Katarzyna Wilaszek-Rozwadowska
Digitization: Marcin Jędrysiak, Mateusz Król
Production and montage: PHU Lisowski, Aleksander Gałęziowski, Grzegorz Kurek, Iwona Matuła, Tomasz Ostafin, Paweł Przybylski, Krzysztof Wójtowicz
Technical consultation: Jacek Szymański, Adrian Tomasik
Technical design of the Telephone installation: Michał Kopeć
Accessibility coordination: Anna Szelingowska
Tactile materials: Mirosław Bury, Marek „Prus” Głowacki, Ewa Woźniak
Audio description: Małgorzata Hordyniec
Polish Sign Language translation: Jakub Studziński
Educational programme: Mirosław Bury, Agata Ćwiklik, Anna Koblak, Urszula Sobczyk,
Promotion: Piotr Bujakiewicz, Joanna Grabeus, Maria Suska
The exhibition is a part of the celebrations of the Year of Józefa Kogut at the Ethnographic Museum in Krakow - Imagination Means Freedom.
Subsidised by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Fund for the Promotion of Culture - a state purpose fund.
A collection of beautiful and unique items: works of art evoking the history of Polish design, samplers, paintings, sketches and a selection of documents confirming successes and crises in life. This is the legacy of Józefa Kogut. It was entrusted to the Ethnographic Museum in Krakow by her sister Zofia, two years after the artist’s death, in 1980.
As befits a legacy, this incredible collection is also a hotchpotch of understatements, repetitions, mistakes, conjectures and crumbs of information – sometimes contradicting each other.
Years later, it is difficult to establish even which of the two sisters created the particular works. Józefa and Zofia both learned the batik technique at the Krakow Workshops, lived together all their lives and supported each other. Perhaps they also shared work to be done? And helped each other out by doing the other’s work with deadlines approaching?
And yet, with this exhibition, we are commemorating, first and foremost, Józefa Kogut. We have followed her story, gleaned from personal and official letters, newspaper clippings, keepsakes and albums that she kept. And, last but not least, from her fabulous works and sketches that reveal the amazing power of her imagination.
Just how inspirational Józefa Kogut’s creative output has been, is evident in the works of contemporary artists who have been invited to co-create the exhibition. You can also experience the power of that inspiration for yourself, by taking action in specially labelled spots, and using the Exhibition Sketchbook.
Come in; look; listen; touch; play; act.
And then, tell others about Józefa Kogut, a Batik Girl from Krakow.
21 November 2025 – 20 September 2026
Curators team: Dorota Majkowska-Szajer, Justyna Matwijewicz, Katarzyna Piszczkiewicz
Arrangement design: Katarzyna Piszczkiewicz
Text: Dorota Majkowska-Szajer
Proofreading and editing: Anna Kowalczyk
English translation: Anna Sak
Art installation Józefa Back in the Game:
Animations: Elina Pyrohova
Soundtrack: Igor Kłaczyński
Animation Józefa: Kinga Klisz
Animation A 100 Years!: Kinga Klisz
Soundtrack: Krzysztof and Jonasz Iwaniccy and Marcin Oleś
Art installation Changing Shapes: Ewa Woźniak
Józefa Kogut voiced by: Dorota Segda
Audio prepared by: Wojciech Gruszka
Outdoor photos: Marcin Jędrysiak
Conservation: Agata Barczyńska, Katarzyna Mazurek- Lebowska, Renata Palka, Katarzyna Wilaszek-Rozwadowska
Digitization: Marcin Jędrysiak, Mateusz Król
Production and montage: PHU Lisowski, Aleksander Gałęziowski, Grzegorz Kurek, Iwona Matuła, Tomasz Ostafin, Paweł Przybylski, Krzysztof Wójtowicz
Technical consultation: Jacek Szymański, Adrian Tomasik
Technical design of the Telephone installation: Michał Kopeć
Accessibility coordination: Anna Szelingowska
Tactile materials: Mirosław Bury, Marek „Prus” Głowacki, Ewa Woźniak
Audio description: Małgorzata Hordyniec
Polish Sign Language translation: Jakub Studziński
Educational programme: Mirosław Bury, Agata Ćwiklik, Anna Koblak, Urszula Sobczyk,
Promotion: Piotr Bujakiewicz, Joanna Grabeus, Maria Suska
The exhibition is a part of the celebrations of the Year of Józefa Kogut at the Ethnographic Museum in Krakow - Imagination Means Freedom.
Subsidised by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Fund for the Promotion of Culture - a state purpose fund.
