KRAKERS 2025

Cracow Art Week KRAKERS reveals the first program details of the 14th edition, which will be held April 24-30, 2025 and it’s motto will be “At times I think I am dreaming”. This year’s theme comes from Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz’s ,,622 Downfalls of Bungo,” a novel on the border of autobiography and autofiction. Borrowing a quote from this work, the organizers want to pay tribute to Witkacy on the 140th anniversary of his birth and enter into a dialogue with his work, reflecting on the value of various self-narratives in contemporary art. Detailed information about the announced events is now available at www.cracowartweek.pl  

New sincerity, autoethnography, intimacy, transgression and self-creation are just a few examples of the directions that will be explored in the main program. On April 24 at 6pm KRAKERS will be inaugurated by the special event , “Y” at the Palace of Art – curated by Kamil Kuitkowski and being an artistic intervention in the exhibition of Franciszek Starowieyski’s studio. Confirmed artists include Karolina Jarzębak, Patrycja Piętka, Jakub Julian Ziółkowski, Edyta Olszewska and Konrad Gubała, among others. Regular art week exhibitions will start the next day.

In the competition part of the art week – Laboratory Section, 10 projects have been funded, which prove that autobiographies, auto-fiction and self-theories do not just reflect subjective experiences, but are also valuable tools of cognition. Some will balance on the border between dream and reality, while others will blur the lines between reality and fiction. One encourages the experience of an outsider’s perspective and the precipitation of tame structures of meaning, another invites us to travel together in search of our own promised land, and in yet another, artistic self-portraits – understood as dreamlike traces of our subconscious – will be intertwined with technology. In connection with the decision to build a subway line in Krakow, there will also be an exhibition divided into two locations: its first station will performatively open at Zwierzyniecka 4, and the second and final station at Bałuckiego 15, and there will be a ceremonial transition between these points.

Another important part of the program is the 4 exhibitions organized in cooperation with the University of the National Education Commission in Krakow. The Potocki Palace will host “SHIFTED HORIZONS”  – a group exhibition of lecturers associated with the UKEN Faculty of Art and invited artists. “The frog cooks slowly” by the Critical Workshop at MAS Modular Art Studio will take the viewer into an intimate story about our personal world created by the era of omnipresent crises in which we grew up and which we have to face. Podbrzezie Gallery will present “Designed Communities – between reality and vision,” showing how applied graphics, design and spatial design shape identity, a sense of community and convey important cultural and historical values. Meanwhile, in the Museum of Engineering and Technology we will see “New Designs. Students’ projects UKEN Design”.

While the first four days of Cracow Art Week focus on openings, April 28-30 are intended for a calmer tour of the exhibitions. You can do it on your own according to the map available at all locations, or join one of the organized groups, where guided tours will be accompanied by meetings with artists, curators or gallery managers. The Kultour series is in fact a brand of 6 walks along the trail of Krakow’s districts and their galleries, with two parallel walks starting each day at 5pm from Monday to Wednesday. They will cover the Old Town, Downtown, Kleparz, Wesoła, Kazimierz and Podgórze. There will also be a “A river that doesn’t exist” walk dedicated to children aged 8-10 and their parents, for which registration will soon begin.

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