Festival Exhibiton

Afterimage: Sylwia Kowalczyk

1st – 24th August 2025

Image credit: Sylwia Kowalczyk, Metamorphoses (2024), courtesy of the artist

We are delighted to announce Afterimage, a solo exhibition of new and recent work by the Edinburgh-based Polish artist Sylwia Kowalczyk, curated by Alexander Moore.

Kowalczyk’s practice bridges photography and collage, transforming fragments of the body, landscape, and material memory into surreal, unsettling compositions. Drawing on her acclaimed series Lethe and Metamorphoses, the works in Afterimage invite us to navigate layers of concealment and revelation, evoking the elusive, fragmentary nature of personal and collective memory.

Presented as part of the UK/Poland Season 2025 and aligning with the Edinburgh International Festival’s theme “The Truth We Seek”, the exhibition will be accompanied by a bilingual public programme including an artist’s talk, a surrealist collage workshop, and a live performance evening.

Alexander Hamilton - Studies in Photography

Artist’s Biography

Sylwia Kowalczyk is a Polish-born artist based in Edinburgh. Her work combines photography, collage, and sculpture, with a focus on memory, identity, and transformation. Her series Lethe and Metamorphoses have been exhibited widely and published internationally. She holds an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków and has been awarded residencies and commissions across Europe.