Autumn’23

Prescription for Autumn

There is quite a dose of literature and an antidote for longing for the summer ahead of us.

16 stories about Kraków

Ten years ago, in the autumn of 2013, following a lengthy application process, Kraków was granted the title of UNESCO City of Literature. When we look at the history of the decade, we see various programmes supporting bookshops and the book industry, the Conrad Prize for up-and-coming authors, new and growing festivals and everyday events at the Potocki Palace. This autumn, over the course of two weeks we will attend the 15th Conrad Festival, the International Book Fair and the Megabit Bomb Festival – quite a dose of literature and an antidote for longing for the summer.

Still, we’ll have to put off some of our new reading, since autumn also abounds with other festivals: Etiuda & Anima is celebrating its 30th anniversary, Sacrum Profanum presents a multiverse of contemporary music at its two instalments in September and November, while Unsound recruits AI as a co-director in a truly Dadaist gesture. Jazz Juniors returns with a refreshed formula and, together with Zbigniew Seifert Days, comprises the Kraków Jazz Week.

When we add the Kraków “All Souls” Zaduszki Jazz Festival and the Kraków Jazz Autumn, the season promises to be electrifying – and Kraków also welcomes stars of classical music, including Christina Pluhar with the L’Arpeggiata ensemble, Ian Bostridge and Philippe Jaroussky with Le Concert de la Loge, invited by Capella Cracoviensis as part of the celebrations of World Opera Day and the Opera Rara Festival. The international rock and pop scene is represented by Björk and Peter Bence, performing at Tauron Arena Kraków and the ICE Kraków Congress Centre respectively.

The Patchlab and Audio Art festivals introduce us to the ins-and-outs of digital art and experiments spanning music, contemporary art and performance arts.

Take a breather with a walk around Wesoła – the city’s new creative district shows off its beautiful green spaces and the Pharmacy of Design and various local cultural institutions making their home there. And that’s just a prelude to the development plans for the coming years! The Pharmacy of Design will host events as part of the Design in Kraków cycle and the project A Thing for Art. This year’s events focus on the legacy of the Kraków Workshops and the extensive local traditions of arts and crafts. The Open Eyes Art Festival brings together circles of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków; the project has evolved from being an accompanying event of the Open Eyes Economy Summit into a fully-fledged festival.

Kraków’s exhibitions hit the spot once again.

Image of the Golden Age is a monumental presentation at Wawel Royal Castle recalling the Renaissance era and the Jagiellonian dynasty. The exhibition Arms and Colours returns! The National Museum in Kraków has found the collection of historic militaria a new home at the Princes Czartoryski Arsenal, while the Main Building presents the latest instalment of the cycle 4 × Modernity showcasing Modernism from the communist period.

Kraków’s exhibitions hit the spot once again.

The exhibition Try to Make It Real! But Compared to What? by Lithuanian artists at MOCAK and the Luxembourg collection of photos by Edward Steichen at the Museum of Photography recall the difficult history of the 20th century.

Prescription for autumn blues? Reading, listening, watching!

Kraków`Culture Team

Summer’23

EventCalendar

16 stories about Kraków

Discover Kraków Culture

The year 2023 marks several important anniversaries celebrated in Kraków and beyond. When we discuss them as part of the cycle of Cracovian events in “Kraków Culture”, we eschew ostentatious discourse, and instead we look at their works as a major contribution to contemporary civilisation, art and literature and a starting point of future artistic and scientific pursuits.