"Mother" by Tara Abdullah
Kurdish Art in Poland
The project Kurdish Art in Poland is carried out by the Kurdish Studies Section of the Jagiellonian University (Dr. habil. Joanna Bocheńska) in cooperation with the office of the Representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Poland (Mr. Ziyad Raoof) and the Kurdish Information and Documentation Center in Kraków. The aim of the project is to compile information and to internationalize knowledge about exhibitions devoted to Kurdish art held in Poland. It is based primarily on an analysis of curatorial strategies, understood as a process of the “narrativization” of Kurdish art exhibitions organized in Poland between 2003 and 2026.
In the project, Kurdish art is defined as exhibitions representing exclusively Kurdish artists and referring, in their titles, to Kurdish identity, geography, history, or culture. The research tools include textual analysis of curatorial texts published in exhibition catalogues, analysis of documentary reports produced by Krzysztof Krzyżanowski, and interviews with exhibition curators. Apart from funds supporting the dissemination of results through Joanna Bocheńska’s participation in an international conference within the framework of the Jagiellonian University Excellence Initiative programme, the project does not receive any funding.
Below we present selected materials related to the project:
Chronlogy list of Kurdish exhibitions
In the PDF file below, you can find a list of Kurdish art exhibitions held in Poland between 2003 and 2026 and curated by Ziyad Raoof, Wacław Kuczma, Aneta Szyłak, Anna Budzałek, Adam Organisty, and Marta Smolińska. Alongside it, there is a map of the cities where the exhibitions have taken place so far. The list will be expanded where possible.
Outlook: Contemporary Kurdish Art in Europe 2003
Thanks to the courtesy of the National Museum in Kraków, which has agreed to make the exhibition catalogue available free of charge in electronic form, we are pleased to present the PDF of the first exhibition of Kurdish art held in Poland. The exhibition Outlook: Contemporary Kurdish Art in Europe opened on 4 March 2003 in the main building of the National Museum in Kraków. The exhibition was curated by Anna Budzałek and Adam Organisty in collaboration with Ziyad Raoof. In 2004, it received a distinction in the Sybilla competition for the best art exhibition in Poland in 2003.
Ebrahim Alipoor: Suzan’s Journeys The Kurdish Language in Rojhelat
Suzan’s Journeys. The Kurdish Language in Rojhelat (Iranian Kurdistan) is the title of the photo exhibition by Ebrahim Alipoor opened between 04.11.2025-21.03.2026 in the Asûs Gallery of the Faculty of Philology of the Jagiellonian University (Kraków). The exhibition was curated by Joanna Bocheńska and Ebrahim Alipoor.
Mehtap Baydu: Necessity
Thanks to the courtesy of the Arsenał Municipal Gallery in Poznań, we are pleased to make available the electronic version of the exhibition brochure Mehtap Baydu: Necessity, which was held at the Arsenał Gallery from 10 April to 7 June 2026. Mehtap Baydu is a Kurdish artist living in Germany.
