Exhibition on the activities and legacy of Maria Kozlova - creator and promoter of Lasowiak folk culture
March 3-May 19, 2024
The temporary exhibition “NOT FROM THIS EARTH. Maria Kozlova (1910-1999)” organized by the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola, will remind the person of an outstanding and valued folk artist, who devoted her whole life to recreating the art and folklore of the Lasowiak region. We will get acquainted with her cultural activity thanks to her daughter Dorota Koziol – a writer, poet, journalist, popularizer of folk culture, known for her picturesque, poetic and emotional way of telling about the past times.
Legendary folk artist Maria Kozlova (1910-1999) was the daughter of well-known socio-political activist Wojciech Wiącek of Machow. This poet, artist, animator recreated and promoted the folk culture of the Lasowiak people already as a young girl. Active until the end of her life, she exuded strength and passion in saving the culture of the old village. This is the first such exhibition dedicated to the creator. The story will be told by her daughter Dorota Koziol, who accompanied her mother from an early age and participated in her interesting and active cultural life. It is her memories that will guide visitors. In the prepared film, the daughter recalls her mother’s colorful and active activities, talks about the Machovian home, family heirlooms, behind-the-scenes and interesting facts about Maria Kozlova’s life and activities, as well as people who appreciated and admired her efforts in preserving the unusual world of old traditions, superstitions and customs of the Lasowiak region. The prepared exhibition will show the life of a woman who, while pursuing her passions, reconciled her daily household and professional duties, sometimes struggling with various difficulties.
Maria Kozlova came from a family where love for the native land, culture, Polish language and customs was fervently cultivated. She passed on this sensitivity to folk culture to her daughter and other family members, her students, active women from Machov and the surrounding area, all those who came to her curious about what she said, showed and wrote about. The world she knew from her childhood and from the stories of her elders, she wanted to preserve at all costs. Today it can be said that her mission was successful thanks to her extraordinary creative activity and the legacy she left behind.
Maria Kozlova was a teacher, an artist, an activist, a guide for many women in the field of folk art, an expert in folk art and folklore. Despite many obstacles, she created her own art, poetry, searched for and recreated old customs and traditions of the village of Machow and the Tarnobrzeg area. She left behind numerous paintings, sculptures and handicrafts, which have been placed in museums, regional chambers and private collections. Priceless recordings with her participation remain in museum and private, radio and television archives.
The exhibition will feature more than 200 museum objects and family heirlooms of the artist. Among the exhibits will be Maria Kozlova’s most distinctive paintings with embroidery patterns, reconstructions of folk costumes, oil paintings painted on canvas, dicta, stipple, drawings and watercolors, and little-known sculptures. Also on display will be her handicraft works, such as tissue paper flowers, Easter palms, Easter eggs, Christmas spiders and cut-outs. The exhibition will also introduce the artist’s stage activities through props, scripts of songs. The artist’s poetry and the Lasowiacki songs she sang, preserved in the radio archives, will also be presented. Among family memorabilia, the artist’s personal items, family photographs and documents will be shown.
On the 25th anniversary of the death of Maria Kozlova of Machow, the exhibition will remind us of this extraordinary figure, who throughout her life with her personality and activities attracted the attention of the media, interested researchers and inspired ordinary people. The curators of the exhibition are Dorota Koziol and curator Elżbieta Skromak. The exhibits come from the family collections of Dorota Koziol, the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola, the Folk Culture Museum in Kolbuszowa, the Castle Museum in Sandomierz, the Maria Znamierowska-Prüfferowa Ethnographic Museum in Torun and private collections. A sizable collection of photographs and archival materials for the exhibition was provided by regionalist Slawomir Stępak.
Photo: Maria Kozlova paints Easter eggs, photo by Stanislaw Swierk, from the archives of the newspaper “Siarka”, 1990s.
Maria Kozlova came from a family where love for the native land, culture, Polish language and customs was fervently cultivated. She passed on this sensitivity to folk culture to her daughter and other family members, her students, active women from Machov and the surrounding area, all those who came to her curious about what she said, showed and wrote about. The world she knew from her childhood and from the stories of her elders, she wanted to preserve at all costs. Today it can be said that her mission was successful thanks to her extraordinary creative activity and the legacy she left behind.
Maria Kozlova was a teacher, an artist, an activist, a guide for many women in the field of folk art, an expert in folk art and folklore. Despite many obstacles, she created her own art, poetry, searched for and recreated old customs and traditions of the village of Machow and the Tarnobrzeg area. She left behind numerous paintings, sculptures and handicrafts, which have been placed in museums, regional chambers and private collections. Priceless recordings with her participation remain in museum and private, radio and television archives.
The exhibition will feature more than 200 museum objects and family heirlooms of the artist. Among the exhibits will be Maria Kozlova’s most distinctive paintings with embroidery patterns, reconstructions of folk costumes, oil paintings painted on canvas, dicta, stipple, drawings and watercolors, and little-known sculptures. Also on display will be her handicraft works, such as tissue paper flowers, Easter palms, Easter eggs, Christmas spiders and cut-outs. The exhibition will also introduce the artist’s stage activities through props, scripts of songs. The artist’s poetry and the Lasowiacki songs she sang, preserved in the radio archives, will also be presented. Among family memorabilia, the artist’s personal items, family photographs and documents will be shown.
On the 25th anniversary of the death of Maria Kozlova of Machow, the exhibition will remind us of this extraordinary figure, who throughout her life with her personality and activities attracted the attention of the media, interested researchers and inspired ordinary people. The curators of the exhibition are Dorota Koziol and curator Elżbieta Skromak. The exhibits come from the family collections of Dorota Koziol, the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola, the Folk Culture Museum in Kolbuszowa, the Castle Museum in Sandomierz, the Maria Znamierowska-Prüfferowa Ethnographic Museum in Torun and private collections. A sizable collection of photographs and archival materials for the exhibition was provided by regionalist Slawomir Stępak.
Photo: Maria Kozlova paints Easter eggs, photo by Stanislaw Swierk, from the archives of the newspaper “Siarka”, 1990s.
