In 2026, the Museum received a donation of 289 objects from a private collector, Krzysztof Findziński.

A key turning point in the development of his Asian collection was his trip to Vietnam and China in 1962. It was from this trip that the first objects—which became the nucleus of the collection—originated, including a saber and a sword, an openwork ivory ball and dice, a portable altar, and chopsticks and a knife. The collection has grown over the decades and continues to expand to this day.

Nine selected objects are on display in the central section of the exhibition. Each is accompanied by the collector’s account of its history. These are supplemented by curatorial commentaries that shed light on the cultural context and the functions of the objects in their places of origin.

It is a space where craftsmanship meets biography, and objects become a tangible record of the collector’s life journey. They evoke memories, stir a longing for distant places, and spark the imagination. They are tangible traces of encounters with other cultures, but also starting points for creating one’s own stories.

What about you? Do you collect anything?

Events accompanying the exhibition

This publication accompanies the exhibition held at the Asia and Pacific Museum in 2026, showcasing nearly 500 Asian artefacts donated to the Museum by the collector Krzysztof Findziński.

Conceived as a ‘Cabinet of Memories’, both the exhibition and the catalogue shift the focus from purely material culture to the intangible stories, emotions, and memories bound up with the objects. Through close collaboration between the curator and the collector, the publication offers a unique, dual perspective: combining an anthropological insight into the cultural meanings of the artefacts with personal, vivid recollections of the collector himself.

The structure of the catalogue reflects the visitor’s route through the exhibition and is divided into several sections:

• The Protagonist and his Roots: An introduction to Krzysztof Findziński (b. 1948) and his parents, diplomat Tadeusz Findziński and pianist Krystyna Findzińska, whose own passions and art collections shaped his sensibility.

• Childhood and Adolescence: A look into his formative years spent in Romania, the Netherlands, and Vietnam, supplemented by extensive excerpts from an interview with the collector.

• The Nucleus of the Collection: The story of Findziński’s milestone journey to Vietnam and China in 1962, where he acquired his very first Asian objects.

• Objects and Histories: The most extensive section, featuring ten selected objects accompanied by the collector’s memories and expert curatorial commentaries on their cultural contexts.

• The Collector’s Room: A presentation of more than 170 objects displayed in a space faithfully reconstructed from photographs of Krzysztof Findziński’s original apartment.

More than just a presentation of an intriguing collection, this catalogue is an invitation to reflect on the practice of collecting and the role objects play in our lives. It aims to foster openness, tolerance, and curiosity towards less familiar Asian traditions, beliefs, and aesthetics.

Text author: Maria Szymańska-Ilnata, PhD
Curatorial collaboration: Krzysztof Findziński
Consultants: Barbara Banasik, PhD; Magdalena Ginter-Frołow, PhD; Joanna Karmasz; Krzysztof Morawski, PhD; Izabella Wichniarz
Object conservators: Agnieszka Kalbarczyk; Ewa Soszko-Dziwisińska; Jacek Tomaszewski, PhD; Aleksandra Trochimowicz, PhD; Magdalena Żero
Project coordinator: Zofia Modzelewska
Copyediting: Anna Kaniewska
English translations: Tomasz Zymer
Catalogue graphic design and typesetting: Studio Temperówka
Object photographs: Łukasz Brodowicz
Archival materials digitisation: Syaiful Bahri

Publisher: The Andrzej Wawrzyniak Asia and Pacific Museum in Warsaw

Click to download (.pdf)

The Polish-language version is available for purchase at the museum gift shop Tuesday-Sunday, 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

Exhibition development team:

Curator: dra Maria Szymańska-Ilnata

Curatorial collaboration: Krzysztof Findziński

Project coordinator: Zofia Modzelewska

Set design: dra hab. Anna Skołożyńska-Cieciera ASC STUDIO

Object conservators: Agnieszka Kalbarczyk, Ewa Soszko-Dziwisińska, Magdalena Żero, dr Jacek Tomaszewski

Consultants: dra Barbara Banasik, dra Magdalena Ginter-Frołow, Joanna Karmasz, Karolina Krzywicka, dr Krzysztof Morawski, Izabella Wichniarz, dra Elisabetta Cola

Educational and interactive elements: Zuzanna Jakóbowska

Accessibility coordination: Jagoda Cerkiewnik

Preparation of accessibility materials: Elżbieta Kucharska, Dominika Lewicka-Klucznik, Emilka Szuchniewicz, dra Maria Szymańska-Ilnata, Pola Zygmunt

Comic and archival materials digitisation: Syaiful Bahri

Catalogue graphic design and typesetting: Maria Bukowska, Studio Temperówka

Promotional materials design: dra hab. Anna Skołożyńska-Cieciera ASC STUDIO

Copyediting: Anna Kaniewska

English translations: Tomasz Zymer

Object photographs: Łukasz Brodowicz

Promotion and communication: Adam Błonowski

Video and sound editing: dra Maria Szymańska-Ilnata, Łukasz Brodowicz

Set production and installation: Tomasz Marzec and the Asia and Pacific Museum team – Marek Czeremuszkin, Maciej Gacyk, Rafał Gorczyca, Bogusława Milczarczyk, Paweł Prange, Jakub Racki, Krzysztof Ruść

Educational panel production: D-POS

The animations were created by students of the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology under the supervision of Anna Eichler DFA: Natalia Ciupka, Illia Kryzhovskyi, Anastasiia Pupyrina, Jo Swiezawska, Polina Tertyshna, Viet Tong, Vasilisa Yeliseyeva

Audioguide recording: Klara Ilnata, dra Maria Szymańska-Ilnata

Museum team:

Józef Zalewski, PhD – Dyrektor

Halina Boroń, Antonina Dukowicz, Beata Gutowska, Rafał Kornacki, Anna Kowalewska, Joanna Kuc, Marta Kurek, Julia Lach, Aleksandra Lipińska, Tomasz Madej, Marzena Mazek, Paulina Niemirska, Gabriela Ogrodnik, Maria Ostrowska, Karolina Pantak, Dorota Pasek, Beata Paszkiewicz, Paulina Pikulska, Radosław Rasiński, Natalia Sańko, Krzysztof Socik, Anna Soczewka, Ewa Soszko-Dziwisińska, Patryk Strojny, Łukasz Szmaja, Maja Zacheja, Małgorzata Zakrzewska, Zofia Zyblewska.

The music used in the exhibition, composed by Arcangelo Corelli, was performed by the orchestra The English Concert under the direction of Trevor Pinnock.

The audio description recordings were made as part of the scholarship „Improvement of Skills in the Comprehensive Production of Audio Description Recordings for Museum Objects”. The scholarship was funded by the European Union under NextGenerationEU.

PLIKI DO POBRANIA:

Wystawa czasowa “Kolekcja Krzysztofa Findzińskiego. Gabinet wspomnień. Azja”

• Informacja prasowa [.pdf]
• Kolekcja Krzysztofa Findzińskiego [grafiki .zip]
• Plakat [.pdf]

Plakat

BUILDING ACCESSIBILITY

The museum building is adapted to the needs of people with mobility impairments. The visitor areas are located on the ground floor. There are no stairs to climb to enter the building. There are no high thresholds. The minimum width of interior doors is 90 cm. The building has a restroom accessible to people with disabilities.

There is a parking lot in front of the museum (municipal paid parking zone). The parking lot has two designated spaces for people with disabilities. Both parking spaces are 3.6 m wide and have lowered curbs.

We strive to design all exhibitions so that the exhibits and their captions are clearly visible to people in wheelchairs and people of short stature. For technical reasons, some objects may be placed quite high.

The Museum does not yet have a permanently installed induction loop. During guided tours, the guide may use a tour guide system equipped with an induction loop. If you would like the guide to have a tour guide system with them, please let us know no later than one business day before your scheduled visit. To request the use of a tour guide system, please send an email to the accessibility coordinator: dostepnosc@muzeumazji.pl.

At the exhibition, we have prepared the following (in Polish):

• Easy-to-read and easy-to-understand texts (ETR) – Easy-to-read and easy-to-understand text (ETR) (.doc)
• Texts adapted for people with dyslexia – Text adapted for people with dyslexia (.pdf)
• Texts in large print

Opening of the temporary exhibition, June 25, 2026, Museum of Asia and the Pacific in Warsaw

Photo by Łukasz Brodowicz, MAiP.

These short animated films, created by students at the Faculty of New Media Arts at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology (PJAIT), are original interpretations of two of Krzysztof Findziński’s childhood memories. It was precisely these memories that served as one of the impulses that set him on the path of collecting.

In this context, the animations by PJAIT students serve as a contemporary commentary on the theme of memory. They translate childhood memories, objects, and a fascination with Asia into the language of moving images, new media, and visual experimentation.

The animations constitute an artistic interpretation of the childhood memories of the protagonist of the exhibition “Krzysztof Findziński’s Collection. The Cabinet of Memories. Asia,” which can be viewed at the Museum of Asia and the Pacific from June 26 to October 31, 2026.

Project details:

• Supervisor: The animations were created in the PJAIT Visual Narrative Studio under the supervision of Anna Eichler, PhD.
• Animation creators: Anastasiia Pupyrina, Illia Kryzhovskyi, Jo Swiezawska, Natalia Ciupka, Polina Tertyshna, Vasilisa Yeliseyeva, Viet Tong.

Anastasiia Pupyrina

Illia Kryzhovskyi

Jo Swiezawska

Natalia Ciupka

Polina Tertyshna

Vasilisa Yeliseyeva

Viet Tong

A project presented as part of the temporary exhibition “The Krzysztof Findziński Collection. A Cabinet of Memories. Asia.”

Jak rodzi się pasja, która trwa przez całe życie? Czy jeden przedmiot może zmienić wszystko? Zapraszamy do obejrzenia cyklu filmowego towarzyszącego wystawie czasowej „Kolekcja Krzysztofa Findzińskiego. Gabinet wspomnień. Azja”.

W kolejnych odcinkach zerkamy za kulisy ekspozycji i oddajemy głos samemu kolekcjonerowi oraz kuratorce wystawy. Każdy odcinek to spotkanie z jednym, wybranym obiektem zaprezentowanym z dwóch zupełnie różnych perspektyw: osobistych wspomnień z podróży oraz kuratorskiego komentarza (dra Maria Szymańska-Ilnata, MAiP).

Odcinek 1: Rower za wietnamski miecz i szablę

W pierwszym filmie cofamy się do 1962 roku. Trzynastoletni wówczas Krzysztof Findziński wyrusza do Hanoi, gdzie w zakurzonym antykwariacie dostrzega ukryte przy ołtarzu przodków niezwykłe eksponaty. Aby je zdobyć, za namową ojca, decyduje się na odważny krok i sprzedaje własny rower.

Odcinek 2: Tybetańska trąba z pchlego targu?

W drugim filmie poznajemy historię rytualnych trąb świątynnych i dowiadujemy się, jak wielkie marzenie o posiadaniu autentycznego instrumentu używanego przez mnichów zaprowadziło kolekcjonera na polskie pchle targi. Dowiecie się również, do czego tak właściwie służyły.