Curatorial guided tour with Piotr Kubkowski

The bicycle has occupied a special and somewhat paradoxical place in the history of Warsaw for more than one hundred and fifty years. It was an invention that delighted at the end of the 19th century, but today is seen as less exciting. It is slower than modern means of transport, does not allow carrying large loads, does not protect from rain and usually serves only one person. And yet it is precisely this simplicity that makes the bicycle constantly return, also today, as a tool for change and renewal of the city. The exhibition addresses, among others, the topic of mobility as a cultural experience, issues of emancipation, as well as the role of cyclism in the material culture of the city and its importance as a phenomenon with a social and political dimension.

Piotr Kubkowski is a cultural historian and cultural historian, specializing in the period of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He deals with cultural history of sightseeing and travel, sports and the body, urban culture. Head of the Department of Cultural History (from 2025), vice-leader of interdisciplinary Urban Studies of the University of Warsaw (from 2024). Author of the monograph Sprinters. Cultural history of Warsaw cyclists at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (2018). Co-editor and co-author of four books from the Topo-Grafie series (about M. Białoszewski — 2013, L. Tyrmand — 2015, M. Hłaska — 2016 and T. Konwicki — 2017). Publisher of the memoirs of Maria Jadwiga Strumff and co-author of the volume Perspectives on People. The Sincere Confessions of a Masseuse (2021). Contributor of the Bibliographic Guide for IKP (2022). Co-curator of the exhibitions Massażystka, or intimate spaces of Warsaw at the turn of the 20th century (Wola Museum, 2015) and Wisła National Park (Stone Pavilion, 2022) and co-organizer of the exhibition Disappearing Landscapes. The spatial story of Miron Białoszewski (Prague Museum, 2016). Co-creator of the series about modernist settlements called BLOK. (directed by T. Knittel, 2018).

Ticket: 10/15 zł

Number of seats: 30

Venue: exhibition halls

Fig. Tomasz Kaczor

Education partner of the Warsaw Museum — PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna S.A.

www.gkpge.pl