On 16 July 2025, the Tadeusz Kantor Documentation Centre Cricoteka opens a new collection exhibition – Kantor. Vision Therapy. Alongside works and unique archival materials related to Tadeusz Kantor’s art, the show will feature works by an international group of artists: Alexandra Bachzetsis in collaboration with Julia Born, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Marysia Lewandowska, Nikita Kadan, Goshka Macuga, Christoph Schlingensief, the “List” 2020 collective and Gisèle Vienne.
Data
16 July 2025
Data
6:00 PM
Our seeing—of the world and of ourselves—is constantly exposed to threats. It becomes blurred under the impact of the ever-present visual stimuli, fumbles in a thicket of the semi-true and false images created by the media, falters under the pressure of the visual persuasion exercised by political marketing, and faces the images produced by a lacerated memory and unhealed psychological trauma.
The Kantor. Vision Therapy exhibition makes it possible for us to see a response to this state of threat in Tadeusz Kantor’s work. It is not another exhibition on Kantor, but an “optical instrument” constructed using his works and the contemporary artistic interventions. An instrument that may help to sharpen our cloudy vision.
War, both the one from 80 years ago and the one waged across our eastern border; a past that is a burden and a past that becomes a hammer used against ideological enemies; dehumanization and the dangers resulting from making man the measure of all things; identity as a mask you can safely hide behind and as a ballast that you cannot untie yourself from… The optical instrument makes us look towards those areas of reality that we normally glance over or that we look at with indifference, numbed by the visual overload.
The exhibition comprises six kaleidoscopic constellations: I is Someone Else, This Uncanny Everyday, Human Things, In the Shadow of a Catastrophe, Art is the Only Revolutionary Power, and Oblivion. Each of them refers to the themes present in Kantor’s works, at the same time attempting to resonate with the experiences of a contemporary spectator. Their composition is not governed by chronology nor by genre or formal similarities. Painting, drawing, props, photos from performances and happenings, videos, and archive materials form temporary arrangements like in a kaleidoscope, mix with the works of other artists, and their sole purpose is to snap our vision from a state of numbness.
The exhibition was developed by Jarosław Suchan, invited by Cricoteka as the exhibition’s main curator; the institution’s curatorial team – Kamil Kuitkowski, Małgorzata Paluch-Cybulska, Magdalena Ujma, and Natalia Zarzecka – as well as, in the framework of curatorial collaboration, Thibaut de Ruyter. Work on the exhibition has been ongoing since 2023.
Curators:
Jarosław Suchan and Kamil Kuitkowski, Małgorzata Paluch-Cybulska, Magdalena Ujma, Natalia Zarzecka
Artists:
Tadeusz Kantor and Alexandra Bachzetsis in collaboration with Julia Born – Courtesy of the artists and Piktogram Gallery, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Marysia Lewandowska, Nikita Kadan, Goshka Macuga, the “List” 2020 collective, Christoph Schlingensief, Gisèle Vienne
Curatorial collaboration:
Thibaut de Ruyter
Organizer:
Cricoteka
Conservation:
Joanna Gorzałczany
Lighting and multimedia:
Mariusz Gąsior, Michał Warmusz
Visual identity:
Parastudio
Accessibility:
Anna Rejowska
Public programme:
Anna Bargiel, Wiktor Bury, Kamil Kuitkowski
Promotion:
Małgorzata Kmita-Fugiel, Zofia Mikołajska, Andrea Nikolov
Collaboration:
Michał Cygnar, Justyna Droń, Joanna Geroch, Małgorzata Jakubowska-Raczkowska, Ewa Kaczmarczyk, Valentyna Khomenko, Agata Klakla, Jolanta Lang, Anna Lejtkowska, Michał Lelek, Magdalena Link-Lenczowska, Kateryna Marchenko, Piotr Masoń, Aldona Mikulska, Justyna Nowicka, Agnieszka Oprządek, Wiktoria Paszkiewicz, Tomasz Pietrucha, Szymon Rabiasz, Bogdan Renczyński, Maciej Satała, Luna Sawka, Lech Stangret, Tomasz Stefaniak, Aleksandra Treder, Krzysztof Warmus, Krzysztof Wilk, Olena Yanushewska, Anna Yena, Adam Zamaria, Dorota Ziajko
Media partners:
Trójka, Radio Kraków, Radio Kraków Kultura, TVP Kultura, TVP 3 Kraków, Gazeta Wyborcza, Tygodnik Powszechny, MINT Magazine, Notes na 6 tygodni, Szum
Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund
The year 2025 is an anniversary year at Cricoteka, marking the 110th birthday of Tadeusz Kantor, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Cricot 2 theatre, the 50th anniversary of the premiere of The Dead Class, and the 35th anniversary of Tadeusz Kantor’s death.
Under the honorary patronage of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage
110/70/50/35 – Tadeusz Kantor Jubilee Year
