Behind the Horizon - Tomasz Owsiany “Under the Dark Skin of the Philippines - 10 Years Later”

Organizational information

Date: 26.11.2026

Time: 19.00

Venue: Z. Herbert Regional Cultural Centre in Kołobrzeg, RCK performance hall

tickets

15 zł - normal ticket

13 zł - discount ticket/Resident Card

Tomasz Owsiany

Tomasz Owsiany - formerly a novelist, today a traveling reporter, also engaged in the conservation of monuments. Author of books, articles and reporter shows.

He published his texts and photographs in the monthly “Poznań Świat”, “Podróże”, “Tygodnik Powszechny” and “Kontynenty”, among others.

His last two books: “Under the Dark Skin of the Philippines” and “The Country Really and Seemingly. Reportage from French Guiana” was honored in 2018 and 2021 with the Magellan Prize.

For his travel projects and ventures, he received the Andrzej Zawada Award and the Kolosów Journalists Award for 2015, as well as a three-time distinction at the Kolosach in the “Travel” category.

In his travels, Tomasz Owsiany focuses on unhurried integration with local communities and exploring important socio-cultural topics. Before leaving, he learns local languages.

In the province of Madagascar, among the indigenous inhabitants of the Philippines, in the Amazonian interior of French Guiana or on the outskirts of Paraguay, he always tries to be an active participant in everyday and unusual events.

From stays in tribal villages and millionaire families, from visits to prisoners and gold looters, from meetings with important figures and the most ordinary inhabitants, he brings fascinating stories about places, people and what matters to them.

Tomasz Owsiany - travel author on Facebook

“Under the Dark Skin of the Philippines - 10 Years Later”

Ten years after the first eight-month cognitive journey to the Philippines, in 2025 Tomasz Owsiany returns in his own footsteps to places and people long unseen.

He looks at them again - from a distance of years, through the eyes of a more experienced traveler-reporter.

The result of the author's return to the distant archipelago is an updated, expanded edition of the book “Under the Dark Skin of the Philippines” - Magellan Prize 2018 - and a new reporter show that combines fresh material and archival content into a previously unpresented story.

“Under the Dark Skin of the Philippines - 10 Years Later” is a cross-sectional and insightful look at selected areas of the Philippines, based on a long immersion in local reality.

This was the goal of the author's solo travels: to get to know the non-export face of the country and to find an answer to the question of how indigenous cultures are transformed under the influence of modernity and globalization.

He also made it a rule to leave all habits at the airport. He learned communicatively Tagalog - Filipino.

He took an active part in everyday life and unusual events: he mined coal, harvested, plowed plots, visited prisons and took part in unorganized ceremonies.

He established close ties with the inhabitants that stood the test of time.