When does the exhibition start?

The exhibition opens on November 6, 2026, at 10 AM at the Sorbian Museum Cottbus.

How long is the exhibition open?

The exhibition is expected to run until February 21, 2027.

How much is the admission?

The regular admission price is 5 Euros.

Where does the exhibition take place?

The exhibition takes place at the Sorbian Museum Cottbus, Mühlenstraße 12, 03046 Cottbus.

Is the exhibition accessible for people with disabilities?

The Sorbian Museum Cottbus is accessible for people with disabilities.

What themes does the exhibition cover?

It showcases historical photographs from Lower Lusatia featuring motifs from everyday life, fieldwork, market activities, costumes, portraits, and significant life events.

Discover Faces of a Time: Historical Photography and Wendish Culture in the Museum

Name: Denis Galloway – Woblica from a distant house / Faces of a Time
Start: 2026-11-06T10:00:00+01:00
End: 2027-02-21T17:00:00+01:00
Location: Wendisches Museum Cottbus / Serbski muzej

Faces of a Time: Photographic Memories of the Sorbs in the Spreewald

The Sorbian Museum Cottbus presents for the first time a selection of around 200 glass negatives by the Scottish ethnographer, photographer, and artist Denis Galloway. The exhibition opens an impressive access to the Sorbian-Wendish way of life in Lower Lusatia and invites to a photographic journey through the Spreewald region from 1908 to 1914.

An Archive of Glass and Light

Galloway's historical photographs preserve the faces, costumes, working worlds, and rituals of a bygone era. People engaged in fieldwork, in markets, in portraits of children and women, as well as at weddings emerge as individual personalities and bearers of cultural memory. The calm, precise imagery combines ethnographic documentation with an intense appreciation of the work.

Costumes, Everyday Life, and Cultural Identity

The diverse variants of costumes, which are rarely seen today in this authentic form, appear particularly impressive. Clothing, body posture, facial expressions, and social contexts crystallize into a visual testimony of Lower Sorbian and Wendish cultural history. The photographs make visible how closely everyday life, traditions, and regional identity were intertwined.

From Glass Negatives to Museum

The originals arrived at the Ethnographic Museum in Cluj-Napoca in Romania in 1950. They were later digitized and made publicly accessible through the European cultural portal Europeana. The exhibition at the Sorbian Museum now shows Galloway's Lower Lusatia photographs for the first time in printed form and brings digital archive holdings back into an immediate museum exhibition atmosphere.

Cultural Education and Aesthetic Experience

The exhibition connects photo art, ethnography, and regional history. In the concentrated viewing of the black-and-white photographs, a silent art experience emerges that merges historical research and sensory perception. Light, contrast, materiality, and the special presence of the portrayed open up perspectives on photography as cultural memory.

Conclusion: An Intense Journey Through Time in Lusatia

Denis Galloway – Woblica from a distant house / Faces of a Time awaits visitors with rare insights into the lives of the Sorbs in the Spreewald. Those who appreciate historical photography, Sorbian-Wendish cultural history, and careful contemplation of the work will experience an exhibition with great documentary and aesthetic depth. A visit to the Sorbian Museum Cottbus enriches cultural perception and makes history in faces, gestures, and images directly experienceable.