WELL ART: Japan as a Mirror for Poland. Paweł Pachciarek on the New Exhibition "East—East" at the Manggha Museum

On April 25, we visited the Manggha Museum in Kraków, which invited us to the opening of the East–East contemporary art exhibition, curated by Paweł Pachciarek and co-created by artists associated with Japan. It was no coincidence that the opening date coincided with the beginning of EXPO 2025 in Osaka — although the exhibition is not formally part of it, it is thematically part of a broader, international rhythm of artistic events that reflect on contemporary identity, mobility, and the place of the individual in the contemporary world.

Walking through the individual sections of the exhibition, we immerse ourselves in the intimate stories and experiences of the creators, which form a polyphonic narrative about being "in between" - places, languages, cultures, times.

East–East is a kaleidoscope of techniques and meanings present in installations, sound, ceramics, photography, textiles and video. Six artists present their works here: Mami Kosemura, Mitsuo Kim, Rui Mizuki, Tomoko Sauvage, Ewelina Skowrońska and Urara Tsuchiya. I talk to Paweł Pachciarek, a Japanese scholar and curator of the East–East exhibition at the Manggha Museum, about their work, a symbolic mirror of the East and the West, and about art that teaches us to listen carefully to other perspectives.

Maria Jasek, Well.pl: The Manggha Museum has been operating in its current form for almost two decades. Since its inception, it has been building a bridge between Japanese and Polish art, and more broadly, between European and Asian culture. How do you perceive the role of the Manggha today, not only in the context of science and art history, but also in contemporary times?

Paweł Pachciarek: The history of the Manggha Museum shows very well how distant countries – located almost on two cultural antipodes – can enter into a genuine dialogue. Not only talk about building bridges between cultures, but actually construct them – through the exchange of ideas, cooperation and mutual inspiration.

The idea that guided Andrzej Wajda in creating the Centre of Japanese Art and Technology in Poland was connected with the history of our country before 1989 – with the Solidarity movement, but also with the fact that the Japanese in the eighties strongly supported the Polish aspirations for freedom. The best expression of this solidarity was that the outstanding Japanese architect Arata Isozaki – winner of the Pritzker Prize – designed the museum completely free of charge, and the Japanese national railways supported the project both financially and substantively, sending their specialists to Poland.

The Japanese were very keen to accelerate and refresh relations between Poland and Japan. The history of Polish-Japanese relations dates back to 1919, when less than a year after regaining independence, Poland established diplomatic relations with Japan. This long-lasting friendship is today expressed, among others, in places such as Manggha, which is becoming a kind of hub — a space for dialogue about art and culture. And not only in the context of tradition, within which we organize woodcut shows or Japanese language classes, but also through exhibitions on contemporary times. We want to talk about new relations, new situations and build the future together.

East-East exhibition. Photo: Kamil A. Krajewski]

Japan is experiencing another moment of popularity in Poland – from gastronomy, through cinema and design, to literature and illustration. There are many examples. And what does it look like from the other side?

The exhibition we are talking about now is linked to the events of EXPO 2025 in Osaka. This is important because in 1970 the previous EXPO was held in Osaka, and now - after several decades - the city has become the host again. During this time, our thinking about Japan in Poland has experienced several distinct "waves". One of them was the 1990s, when manga and anime began to penetrate Poland - although often through Italy or France, which seems rather bizarre today.

Poland is indeed experiencing a real fascination with Japan. Unfortunately, the other way around is not so good – the Japanese know relatively little about Poland. The most common associations are Fryderyk Chopin or, especially among the younger, Robert Lewandowski. However, in the context of EXPO, a figure appears who enjoys enormous popularity in Japan, even greater than in Poland: Maria Skłodowska-Curie.

In Japanese schools, the biography of Maria Skłodowska, written by her daughter, is required reading. In everyday conversations, when Japanese people learn that I am from Poland, the topic of Skłodowska unexpectedly comes up often. I have had several such situations that have really surprised me - for me, Skłodowska has always been a rather severe figure from a portrait in the chemistry classroom, but for young Japanese women she is a real inspiration, a symbol of strength and perseverance. It turns out that Skłodowska can be presented in a more modern way: as a socially engaged woman, a mother, a scientist, a person who knew how to combine professional and private life.

And in this context Skłodowska-Curie appears at this year's EXPO?

One of the Japanese artists who presented her work at the Manggha Museum a year ago is preparing a large installation. Not a monument to an ideal, but a story about Skłodowska's everyday life, about her commitment, difficulties and the strength she drew from being an ordinary person. This message about the need for a balance between work and private life seems particularly relevant today.

Looking at the EXPO in a broader sense, we now have a real chance to re-emerge in Japan. Exhibitions, concerts – such initiatives are happening, although not on a large scale yet. Interestingly, many Japanese, including those from the culture and art industry, when they visit Poland and come to the Manggha Museum, are simply shocked by its existence. They say directly that they have no equivalent in Japan, and they are even jealous of the museum itself.

Works by Urara Tsuchiya and Ewelina Skowrońska. photo: Maria Jasek

What we have just discussed can undoubtedly be described as post-orientalism. In your curatorial text, you write that East–East is an attempt to decode the concept of the “East” in the context of contemporary times—a world that, despite divisions, is becoming increasingly common. How do you understand this title? What does the “East” mean today and how does it connect with the topic of identity?

When creating this exhibition, from the very beginning – partly deliberately, partly for fun – I used terms and meanings. I focused on the slogan “East East”, which suggests two easts, although of course there can be many more of these “easts”. As I noted in the introductory text to the exhibition: the east means something different to everyone. For a person from Western Europe, the east may already be Poland, for a Pole – Japan. In a sense, we are all part of the same “eastern” circle, we only look at it from different perspectives.

Based on this assumption and building an opposition between the East and the West, I wanted to show that despite huge differences — in approach to tradition, artistic techniques, or the way of expressing ideas — in the end we tell similar stories and use similar language. By focusing on common denominators, and not on simple oppositions such as "Oriental spirituality" versus "Western rationalism," we are able to see much more. However, if we lock ourselves in binary divisions: East-West, white-black, we lose all the color and depth of the narratives that take place between these extremes. This is best shown by the works of artists from Japan, understood not only as people with Japanese citizenship, but also as creators raised in this culture or associated with it. Despite different means of expression, they tell stories that — although communicated differently — are very close to us as well.

It often happens that people from outside can speak best about ourselves. We, immersed in our own symbols and assumptions, sometimes fail to see obvious truths that become visible only in the eyes of a foreign observer. What is currently happening in the history of art and in the broader view of the world is a departure from simple, national narratives. We are increasingly focusing on what is universal — on common problems, values ​​and experiences.

MITSUO KIM Goodbye My Love, 2021 / press materials of the Manggha Museum in Krakow

You deal with art from Japan on a daily basis. What aspects are crucial to learning to read it? What allows you to delve deeper into the proverbial canvas, beyond the first impression of observing form and aesthetics?

I think that to truly read art from Japan, you have to dismantle Western habits a bit. We are deeply immersed in pragmatism, in the need to immediately read and categorize everything. Meanwhile, Japanese art, especially contemporary art, very often knocks us out of this rhythm. It does not speak directly. It uses poetics, understatement, and leaves space. It is economical in form, but dense in meaning. This way of telling a story—more through silence than message—is not easy to grasp, because it does not work as a simple message. It requires time, openness, and acceptance that not everything will be immediately clear. But it is precisely in this ambiguity that its strength lies.