Krakow, 8 May 2026
The 23rd Krakow Photomonth: join us for the opening weekend!
Krakow Photomonth’s 23rd edition launches the weekend of 14–17 May. This year’s festival, with its main program presented under the title Unreal Estate, is dedicated to Polish-German relations and the experiences of Central Europe—a region marked by shifting borders and recurring questions of identity. The four opening days will be filled with exhibition openings: two shows from the main program at Bunkier Sztuki Gallery and the Potocki Palace Gallery, six exhibitions of the ShowOFF Section, and the FRINGE Section exhibition taking place in the former hospital spaces of the Wesoła district. The program will be complemented by curator-led tours, artist talks, and numerous events held in collaboration with Krakow’s cultural institutions. The festival opens with an expert debate at the International Cultural Centre.
The Photomonth opening weekend begins on 14 May at 18:00 with the debate Memory and Its Images. Where Do Central Europeans Come From?, featuring Felix Ackermann, Joanna Czudec, Anna Kwiatkowska, and Adam Leszczyński. The evening will continue with openings from the main program and the ShowOFF Section, which presents selected debut projects by artists from around the world. At 20:00, the Potocki Palace Gallery will host the opening of the collective Polish-German exhibition Uwarstwienia | Shifting Strata, featuring works by Jonas Höschl, Anna Orłowska, Susanne Kriemann, Tobias Zielony, and Wojciech Wilczyk. Shortly before, at 19:30, Szara Kamienica Gallery will present The Last Efendi by Sudanese photographer Abdalsalam Alhaj as part of the ShowOFF Section, curated by Yulia Krivich.
Friday 15 May opens with a morning conversation between Annette Kelm and Anna Voswinckel at MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art and a portfolio review with the Sputnik Photos collective at the Museum of Photography. Later in the day, the festival’s centre of gravity shifts to Bunkier Sztuki Gallery, where the opening of Możliwy układ | A Possible Arrangement is scheduled for 18:00. This collective exhibition, forming the second chapter of the main program Unreal Estate, brings together works by Paweł Bownik, Fungi (Phuong Tran Minh), Karolina Gembara, Eiko Grimberg, Jonas Höschl, Arwed Messmer, Ines Schaber, Arne Schmitt, Paweł Starzec, Andrzej Steinbach, and Tytus Szabelski-Różniak. The opening will be preceded by a series of curator-led tours. Two hours later, at 20:30, the former university hospital building at ul. Kopernika 15 will host the opening of the FRINGE Section exhibition Wonders—a collective show featuring works by students from photography departments in Krakow, Łódź, Szczecin, and Hamburg. Around the same time, If / Jeśli by Monika Libera opens at Galeria Sztuki “W Przyziemiu” as part of the ShowOFF Section, curated by Aneta Grzeszykowska.
Saturday 16 May will be filled with meetings, conversations, and numerous accompanying events. The Potocki Palace hosts a discussion entitled The Exchange—Critical Imaging Practices in Central and Eastern Europe, bringing together curators and researchers from Poland and abroad. The program also includes a talk with Tobias Zielony hosted by Ewa Dyszlewicz, editor of MINT magazine, silkscreen printing workshops, and the FRINGE × Przetargi art fair.
That day also sees the opening of further ShowOFF Section exhibitions: A Little Memory of «The Beginning» by Dutch photographer Maite Vanhellemont at the Archive of Science PAN and PAU (curator: Agnieszka Tarasiuk), Heat Signatures by Vitaliy Gerasymenko (Ukraine) at Piana Gallery (curator: Tobias Zielony), and Guest Room by Andrzej Frydrych at Szaber Gallery (curators: Turnus—Kamila Falęcka and Marcelina Gorczyńska).
On Sunday 17 May, visitors are invited to the second edition of the curator-led tours Sneak Prev vol. 2 at the Potocki Palace Gallery. The day’s program also includes a talk with Abdalsalam Alhaj about The Last Efendi, and the opening of the ShowOFF exhibition Family Album by Sonia Góral (curator: Dorota Szulc) at APTEKA Janicki Gallery.
The 23rd Photomonth in Krakow runs until 14 June, with the two main program exhibitions at Bunkier Sztuki Gallery and the Potocki Palace Gallery remaining on view until the end of August. The coming weeks of the festival will bring further events, including the debate series Constellations, Stories: Images and Ideologies at Bunkier Sztuki, Photobook Talks hosted by Rust Publishing, the exhibition Fischmarkt (1978) by Tadeusz Rolke co-organised with the Krakow Film Festival, the MFK × WODECKI TWIST concert, and the closing event—the opening of Rust Publishing photography bookshop at the festival hub at ul. Bracka 2 (Potocki Palace).
Krakow Photomonth is an international photography festival organised by the Visual Arts Foundation in collaboration with leading cultural institutions in Krakow and internationally. Its ambition is to present photography in its current—social, political, and historical—contexts and to bring these into public debate. Since 2022, the event has taken place every two years, in a biennial format.
The 23rd edition of the festival takes place under the title Unreal Estate, drawn from Vladimir Nabokov’s memoirs. Unreal Estate is a photographic tale about the borders, entanglements, and ghosts of Central Europe—a space marked by shifting boundaries, a sense of loss, and ambiguous identities.
The main program of the 23rd Photomonth in Krakow is curated by Krzysztof Pijarski and Anna Voswinckel. The festival’s artistic director is Witold Orski; the Visual Arts Foundation is led by Tomasz Gutkowski.
The event is co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund, the City of Kraków, and the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation.
Full opening weekend program: https://photomonth.com/pl/harmonogram-2026/