On Saturday, June 7, 2025, the premiere of the play “Jesus Christ’s Retrial” directed by Katarzyna Kozyra will take place at the New Stage of the National Stary Theatre in Kraków.
This is the first theatrical project by one of Poland’s most important contemporary artists. The play is inspired by her long-term project Searching for Jesus. The Library.

Katarzyna Kozyra – an artist unafraid to ask questions

Katarzyna Kozyra is one of the most recognizable figures in Polish contemporary art — a sculptor, photographer, and creator of performances, films, and video installations. She gained fame as a leading representative of the critical art movement of the 1990s with works such as Animal Pyramid, Olympia, and Men’s Bathhouse. Her art has been exhibited in the world’s most prestigious museums and galleries, including the Venice Biennale and Documenta in Kassel. Kozyra is known for addressing taboo subjects and pushing social, aesthetic, and religious boundaries.

The play, the trial, the performance

Jesus Christ’s Retrial takes the form of a theatrical performance inspired by the project Searching for Jesus. The Library. The project resonated widely in both Polish and international media. Kozyra worked on it for nearly a decade in Jerusalem.

The starting point was the observation of the so-called Jerusalem Syndrome — a psychological phenomenon where visitors to the city identify themselves with biblical figures, most often Jesus Christ.

In the play, the artist examines the trial of Jesus from a contemporary perspective — exploring its cultural, symbolic, and legal dimensions.

The need to reexamine Jesus’s trial was expressed to me by a Jewish man I met in Jerusalem during the project. According to him, if the Jews reclaim Jesus, the world will gain a chance for the coming of the Messiah, Kozyra recalls – Jesus was handed over to Pilate by the Jewish priests, but it was Rome, through Pilate, that condemned him to death. He thus found himself outside the community and its laws. What is interesting today about this story is the question: is it still possible to go back to that moment and understand it? I want to find out using a new tool for me — theater.

Jesus Christ’s Retrial is the first collaboration of its kind in Poland between a visual artist and a national cultural institution.

A weekend with Kozyra: theater and contemporary art

The premiere is one of the key events of a weekend during which Kraków will become a place for an intensive conversation about Katarzyna Kozyra’s work.
The day before, on June 6, an exhibition dedicated to the artist’s achievements will open at the MuFo Museum of Photography. On June 7, in cooperation with the Kraków Bunkier Sztuki, we are organizing as part of the “We, the Nation, Europe” series a discussion with Anda Rottenberg, an art historian and critic. The conversation, focusing on how to depict Jesus in art today — in Poland and Europe — without falling into ideology, banality, or pathos, will be moderated by Michał Nogaś.

Premiere: June 7, 2025, New Stage

Photo: HaWA