The city of animals

Does the city belong only to humans? Can the history of Cracow be told without including those who do not speak our language but have been accompanying us for centuries? Our exhibition, „City of Animals,” which started in May in our branch Pałac Krzysztofory, gives us a glimpse into a different history—a history written by not only humans but also animals. The curators created a narrative where animals are not just a background to the ongoing events but the main characters. The exhibition is the answer to the growing need society has to talk about the natural world that surrounds us and animals living directly next to us. The story presented in the exhibition starts from the oldest to the most modern. Through the exhibition, we will tell the visitors about the mammals living near our river, pigeons we love to hate and hate to love, as well as horses, whose work contributed to the dynamic and multidirectional development of the city. We won’t skip past the bond the citizens always had with dogs and cats.

The connection between everything presented turns our attention to the role animals have in our city nowadays. Cracow, as well as any big city, is a scene for coexisting. Along the streets, between the buildings, and on the edge of parks, there is a place for beloved domestic animals and the wild ones such as foxes, boars, hedgehogs, or badgers.

The exhibition raises key questions: What rights do animals have in urban space? How do their status and perception of them change? What should a city where humans and animals can coexist in harmony look like? The exhibition "City of Animals" provokes questions about whether a modern city can exist without its animal inhabitants. Who does Cracow listen to? Only those who speak in a human voice?

The exhibition consists of historical representations of animals in art, alongside pieces by contemporary creators who boldly break down stereotypes. In our narrative about animals, our guides will include works by Juliusz Kossak, Jan Matejko, Olga Boznańska, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Jerzy Nowosielski, Józef Czapski, as well as Paweł Orłowski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Marta Jamróg, Agata Kus, Iwona Siwek-Front, Marian Siwek, Michał Korta, Michalina W. Klasik, and Marcin Maciejowski.

It is worth adding that the curators, while working on the exhibition, dived into not only museum storages but also into bushes and thickets, documenting the wildlife of Kraków from up close.

The exhibition presents not only what was but also what may come. What will the future of Cracow look like? Will there be a place for wild animals in it? Will increasingly urbanized spaces leave room for coexistence? Or perhaps in the future, we will be guests in a city ruled by animals? The exhibition "City of Animals" is an opportunity to look at the city differently. Not only from the perspective of monuments, people, and history recorded in books, but from the angle of paw and claw prints.

 

Media Partners:

·        Chillizet
·        TVP3 Kraków
·        Kraków.pl
·        Kraków Culture Karnet
·        Gazeta Wyborcza

Exhibition partners:

·        Towarzystwo Miłośników Historii i Zabytków Krakowa
·        Politechnika Krakowska
·        Instytut Systematyki i Ewolucji Zwierząt Polskiej Akademii Nauk
·        Krakowskie Towarzystwo Opieki nad Zwierzętami