The Ainu, the Górals and Bronisław Piłsudski

Temporary exhibitions

My events

Add your favourite events to My events section to have them always at your fingertips.

  • Thursday, October 18, 2018 - Sunday, January 20, 2019

An exhibition is dedicated to Bronisław Piłsudski (1866-1918), a fervent patriot and a researcher of the aboriginal cultures of Sakhalin and Hokkaido, and that of the Sub-Tatran Górals, on the centennial of his death and the hundredth anniversary of Poland’s regained independence. It takes a closer look at the phenomenon of this extraordinary man, exile, accidental ethnographer, and museologist, by showcasing a considerable portion of his visual legacy: photographs immortalizing the Ainu and their customs, objects they used in their everyday life in the Nibutani-Biratori district on Hokkaido, where Piłsudski conducted his research and assembled his collection, and also a considerable quantity of his ethnographic material pertaining to the Górals, from the Tatra Museum in Zakopane. These are traces left by two “perishing cultures” which, despite existing in dissimilar spaces and conditions, seem close to each other. Piłsudski noticed the uniqueness, the primal quality, of both these cultures. And above all he saw human beings (ainu) in those who created them.

“The whole 18 years and more of my sojourn in the Far East was involuntary. Constantly longing to return to my native land, I strove as much as I could to get rid of the painful feeling that I was an exile, in bondage and torn from all that was dearest to me. I therefore naturally felt attracted towards the natives of Saghalien, who alone had a true affection for that country, their immemorial dwelling-place, detested by those who formed the penal colony there. When in contact with these children of nature whom the invasion of an utterly different form of civilization had bewildered, I knew that I possessed some power and helpfulness, even though deprived of every right, and during the worst years of my existence. […] I have felt deep pleasure in conversing with men of another race in their own language.” (Bronisław Piłsudski, 1912)

Share

More

Kraków Travel
Kids in Kraków
Close We use cookies to facilitate the use of our services. If you do not want cookies to be saved on your hard drive, change the settings of your browser.
<