The exhibition presented manuscripts by one of the most prominent Polish poets, an essayist, drama writer and moralist, Zbigniew Herbert, author of “Barbarian in the Garden”. They formed the story of a journey: from Lviv to Warsaw, from the suitcases of a man-without-a-home to him packing them before the last voyage of death, from revelling in the freedom of travel to the bitterness of returning to the homeland, from the admiration of foreign cities to the longing for a non-existing one, from the joy of the here and now to the melancholy of the past, from euphoric gratitude to resignation before the end. It was a story about Herbert, but also a universal tale of life, transience and death.

The exhibition and its accompanying immersive audiovisual installations were met with great interest by the visitors to the Palace of the Republic, with over 117,000 people visiting it in just two months (Oct 30 – Dec 30).

Exhibition authors:

Anna Romaniuk – curator
Kuba Matyka, Kamila Staszczyszyn / MELT IMMERSIVE – immersive installation
Łukasz „Szatt” Palkiewicz – music
Aleksandra Toborowicz – graphics
Intermuseo – exhibition display cases
Eidotech Polska – technical installation