WEDDINGS 21

WEDDINGS 21

a temporary exhibition of the Ethnographic Museum in Kraków

Dom Esterki, Krakowska 46

On show from 6 Feb. 2016 to 2 Oct. 2016

The decision comes first. This one is for life. It is followed by months, sometimes years of preparation. Plans, dilemmas, choices, tips, offers, calculations, invoices, superstitions. Finally the big day arrives. Emotion, power of words. Smiles, kisses, hugs, wishes, gifts, toasts. Hot soup, cold vodka. The night, noise, hurting legs, dizziness. Trance.

For five years (2009–2014) the Ethnographic Museum in Kraków investigated the contemporary face of the wedding rite. We were interested in the language of the wedding narrative in which the young couple's dilemmas are intertwined with pressures of social expectations, consumer fashion with struggles with tradition, business with emotions.

The exhibition, which is the fruit of these studies, presents the rules for the marriage and wedding transformation into the wife and husband. Since the moment when the decision is made, through a maze of preparation, the marriage ceremony, the day and night of the wedding, until the event slowly starts to blur. The characters are taken on a trip from which they return transformed. This applies not only to the bride and groom but also to the wedding guests whom the ritual includes.

The narrative of the exhibition consists of accounts of the participants and witnesses, video footage, audio and photographic materials and lastly evidence from the event - items donated by the couples participating in the research.

The work of anthropologists may also be seen and heard. We provide access to selected materials from field studies and items from the earlier and contemporary wedding collection in the museum, we draw attention to the historical and pop-cultural contexts of marriages, we urge you to read the the researchers' library, listen to the sound recordings of the wedding audio-sphere.

The exhibition is based on a research project entitled Weddings 21.

Exhibition script and text edited by: Dorota Majkowska-Szajer, Magdalena Zych

Exhibition concept by: Antoni Bartosz, Bożena Bieńkowska, Ewelina Lasota, Dorota Majkowska-Szajer, Alicja Małeta, Małgorzata Oleszkiewicz, Grażyna Pyla, Marcin Wąsik, Magdalena Zych

Exhibition design by: Anna Zabdyrska

Consultations: Joanna Hajduk

Sound: Igor Kłaczyński

Media Patrons: Gazeta Wyborcza, Radio Kraków, Miesięcznik ZNAK, Kwartalnik "Konteksty"

MORE INFORMATIONS: http://etnomuzeum.eu/Aktualnosci,937_weddings_21_new_exhibiton.html