Kukuczka. The Power of Dreams

I did not conquer a mountain or the weather, but above all myself, my weakness and my fear.

The exhibition “Kukuczka. The Power of Dreams” focuses on the last decade of Jerzy Kukuczka’s life – the period of his greatest mountaineering achievements. These were years of great challenges, through which he became permanently inscribed in the history of Himalayan mountaineering. He was the second person in the world to complete the Crown of the Himalayas and Karakoram. Of the 14 eight-thousanders, he climbed 11 by new routes, three peaks he was the first to climb in winter, 13 without supplemental oxygen, seven in alpine style, and one solo.

Poland in the 1980s was a country of queues, food ration coupons and empty shelves in shops. Meat, sugar or toilet paper were almost luxury goods, and inflation effectively emptied people’s wallets. Under these conditions Jerzy Kukuczka consistently pursued his desire to climb the highest peaks in the world, organising food, hard currency and equipment, building a network of contacts, and sometimes – quite literally – hanging with colleagues from industrial chimneys to earn money for the next expedition. From the determination of Kukuczka and people like him, the golden era of Polish mountaineering was born.

For Jerzy Kukuczka, the mountains were far more than sport – they were a space of freedom and constant overcoming of his own limits. Kukuczka questioned the use of oxygen apparatus; instead of classic ascents and simple routes, he chose unclimbed walls.

I agree to routes pursued at the limit of endurance. I agree to the struggle. The reward I receive for these hardships is immeasurably great. It is the joy of life.

After completing the Crown of the Himalayas and Karakoram in 1987 and Messner’s famous words: “You are not second. You are GREAT”, Jerzy Kukuczka devoted himself to Lhotse. In autumn 1989 he returned to its south face – a monumental, more than three-kilometre barrier of rock and ice, called “the last great problem of the Himalayas”. It was there, on 24 October 1989, that after a rope broke on a sharp rock edge, his earthly journey came to an end.

The exhibition “Kukuczka. The Power of Dreams” is the first such extensive and modern display devoted to one of the most outstanding mountaineers in Poland and in the world. In the gallery we present photographs, documents and personal objects combined with multimedia, taking visitors on a multi-threaded journey through Kukuczka’s biography towards the highest peaks of the world. The special significance of the exhibition is underlined by the fact that the legacy of Jerzy Kukuczka presented here was inscribed in 2024 on UNESCO’s prestigious Memory of the World list.

This is the second exhibition at the Silesian Museum devoted to Polish mountaineers. At the turn of 2023 and 2024 we presented an exhibition of archival photographs taken by Wanda Rutkiewicz during her expeditions.