Artists for europe by Robert Poryzała

artists for Europe CZESŁAW czapliński

Concept: © Czesław Czapliński, 2011 Biographical notes: Władysław Serwatowski, PhD Photographs: © Czesław Czapliński, 2011 Photographs in Czesław Czapliński’s biographical note: © Beata Tyszkiewicz All rights reserved. No part of this publication is to be reproduced or used in any form without its authors’ consent. www.PolishArtWorld.com Music: “Baleary-Reggae”, based on Ludwig van Beethoven’s compositions. Performed by “7 Girls”, produced by: Krzesimir Dębski & Si Music Cover illustration and poster project: Rafał Olbiński Design and layout: Robert Poryzała/TartakWyrazow.com Translated and edited in English by: Patrycja Obara Publisher: Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw ul. Agrykoli 1, 00-460 Warsaw ISBN 978-83-928084-5-9 Warsaw 2011 European Union European Economic and Social Committee Brussels December 2011 – January 2012 3

Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930) sculptor Stanisław Barańczak (1946) poet, translator, literary critic Kazimierz Brandys (1916-2000) writer Ewa Braun (1944) set designer, interior decorator Ernest Bryll (1935) poet, writer, songwriter, translator, film critic Roman Cieślewicz (1930-1996) graphic artist, photographer Krzesimir Dębski (1953) composer, conductor Tadeusz Dominik (1928) painter Edward Dwurnik (1943) painter Stasys Eidrigevicius (1949) graphic designer, illustrator, photographer Wojciech Fangor (1922) painter, poster and graphic designer, sculptor Jerzy Ficowski (1924-2006) poet, essayist, songwriter, translator Stefan Gierowski (1925) painter Janusz Głowacki (1938) writer, playwright, columnist Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (1933-2010) composer Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999) director, theatre theorist Adam Hanuszkiewicz (1924) actor, director Edward Hartwig (1909-2003) photographer Julia Hartwig (1921) poet, essayist, translator Jerzy Hoffman (1932) director, screenwriter Agnieszka Holland (1948) director, screenwriter Sławomir Idziak (1945) operator, director, screenwriter Krystyna Janda (1952) actress, prose writer, singer Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) painter, director, set designer, graphic designer Ryszard Kapuściński (1932-2007) writer, reporter Jerzy Kawalerowicz (1922-2007) director Krzysztof Kieślowski (1941-1996) director, screenwriter Wojciech Kilar (1932) pianist, composer, conductor Leszek Kołakowski (1927-2009) philosopher, essayist, publicist, prose writer Tadeusz Konwicki (1926) writer, director Hanna Krall (1937) writer Ewa Kuryluk (1946) painter, poet, writer, art historian Jan Lebenstein (1930-1999) painter, graphic designer Stanisław Lem (1921-2006) writer, essayist, satirist Daniel Libeskind (1946) architect Witold Lutosławski (1913-1994) composer, conductor, pianist Tadeusz Łomnicki (1927-1992) actor

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Olgierd Łukaszewicz (1946) actor Lech Majewski (1953) director, writer, poet, painter Czesław Miłosz (1911-2004) poet, prose writer, essayist, translator Igor Mitoraj (1944) sculptor Czesław Niemen (1939 – 2004) composer, singer, arranger Marek Nowakowski (1935) writer Jerzy Nowosielski (1923-2011) painter Rafał Olbiński (1945) painter, graphic and poster designer Roman Opałka (1931-2011) painter, graphic designer Agnieszka Osiecka (1936-1997) poet, songwriter, writer Krzysztof Penderecki (1933) composer, conductor Jerzy Pilch (1952) writer, publicist, columnist, playwright, screenwriter Roman Polański (1933) director, actor, screenwriter Tadeusz Różewicz (1922) poet, playwright, prose writer, screenwriter Zbigniew Rybczyński (1949) director, multimedia artist Wilhelm Sasnal (1972) painter, film author Andrzej Seweryn (1946) actor, director Jerzy Skolimowski (1938) director, screenwriter, actor, poet, painter Tomasz Stańko (1942) jazz trumpeter Franciszek Starowieyski (1930-2009) painter, graphic and set designer, director, actor Allan Starski (1943) set designer Henryk Stażewski (1894-1988) painter Jerzy Stuhr (1947) actor, director, translator Józef Szajna (1922-2008) painter, set designer, director Wisława Szymborska (1923) poet Leon Tarasewicz (1957) painter Jan Twardowski (1915-2006) poet Leopold Tyrmand (1920-1985) writer, publicist Andrzej Wajda (1926) director Małgorzata Walewska (1965) opera singer (mezzo-soprano) Krzysztof Warlikowski (1962) director Józef Wilkoń (1930) illustrator, painter, art historian Wanda Wiłkomirska (1929) violinist Adam Zagajewski (1945) poet, essayist Krzysztof Zanussi (1939) director, screenwriter, publicist Krystian Zimerman (1956) pianist, conductor Teresa Żylis-Gara (1930) singer (soprano)

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This exhibition, another in ‘The Great Poles’ series, will be held in the Royal Łazienki Park. The series was inaugurated in November 2010 with the ‘Poles in USA - 400 years’ exhibition. Portrait photographs of nearly one hundred prominent artists have been made by Czesław Czapliński. Dr. Władysław Serwatowski, as curator, has prepared an exhibition in a gallery at Aleje Ujazdowskie and in the Cadet School building during the time of Poland’s presidency of the European Union. “I know of no one who can portray a man’s soul like Mr. Czapliński does” -In these words Jerzy Antczak, a prominent theater and film director, described the famous photographer. The people captured within the photographic frame are actors, architects, conductors, film directors, photographers, graphic designers, instrumentalists, composers, painters, musicians, writers, poets, poster artists, directors, sculptors, scene designers and translators. Each of the portrayed individuals associate their artistic achievements and their European prestige with Poland. We also come across people whose stories show that their success was accomplished in relation to other European countries. The artists, whose portraits we see in the exhibition, were born in Poland. Despite the sometimes different circumstances, they did not want to abandon their homeland. Others came back to Poland or chose it as their mother country on the the assumption that after 1989 it had become a country which supported the freedom of creative activity. Many artists refer to Poland during the period of its previous political system as a country of ‘enslavement’. They thought that back then only em-

igration would ensure genuine freedom – freedom not only of the state of mind and personal beliefs, but most importantly, freedom of artistic expression and creative activity not bound by censorship. Today, in the Royal Łazienki Park in Warsaw, we can admire the elegant portraits of these prominent artists, who offer their outstanding talents to both Poland and Europe. The portraits presented at the exhibition are the result of many long years of creative work and the resolute personal choices and decisions of Czesław Czapliński - artist and photographer who originates from Łódź and is based in New York. He has been ‘capturing’ and preserving the scenes of his meetings with distinguished and exceptional people since the 1970’s. The pro-European look on Polish artists, whose great influence on culture and civilisation of modern Europe is still being discovered and recognized, is described in Dr. Władysław Serwatowski’s notes. The artists who are presented in the exhibition have brought abiding and timeless values of aesthetic and intellectual significance to the world’s cultural and artistic heritage. They have marked their names in Polish history. Their names figure predominantly in the history of particular artistic disciplines, but most importantly, they leave unique traces in the contemporary history of Europe – which has, over the centuries, repeatedly assigned the individuality of Polish artists to multinational artistic groups and milieus. As we look at these prominent figures who we know well, let us discover their originality so admired by other cultures and nations. Let us remember the portraits of Poles who have been awarded distinctions and are highly acclaimed in Europe and are now portrayed for Europe by Mr. Czesław Czapliński. I am convinced that the last King of Poland would be proud of having such special people as guests in his Royal Łazienki Residence – people who are widely recognized for their artistic achievements and who continue to build new cultural bonds in Europe Tadeusz Zielniewicz Director of Royal Łazienki Museum, Warsaw

Poster for the Royal Łazienki: Rafał Olbiński

Czaplińsk

Serwatowski

ortrait photography is a form of creation. Yet, it can also be seen as appropriating the image of those portrayed. It happens when the photographer’s name is more media-genic than the name of the person portrayed and when one of the parties has a peculiar sense of self-humor and dignity. In order to avoid such situations, self-portrait tripods and cameras have been invented. Still, apart from experimenters imitating Witkacy’s multiple selfportraits, this kind of artistic activity does not usually result in the desired outcomes. At a global scale, personages and personalities prefer to be portrayed than to self-portray. Freezing a portrait in a photograph is like ceasing the character in time. It is a document of their history. A photographic portrait is not a silent image. It is an artwork that speaks to the viewer’s imagination, awakens their associations and recalls their memories. It is an image with a provoked history elicited by the photographer or subtly enforced and told by the person portrayed. A photographic portrait means

recording one’s story in an irreversible document. We know spontaneous portraits, created by means of professional intuition, and directed portraits, preceded by an agreement between the photographer and the photographed. Every photographic portrait is an individual, historic and complete interpretation of a specific person. A perfect portrait is a challenge for history and for the civilization that it enriches. We cannot step twice into the same river, and we will never come across two identical portrait photographs – leaving aside copies and reproductions. The constant changeability, uncommonness, individuality and provocativeness in the eyes and in the body are photographers’ drivers and a challenge they must face. Every portrait photography authored by Czesław Czapliński – from a civilizational perspective – is like a film that is just being released. But this Czapliński’s film is something much more powerful and precise. It is a frame, or a freeze in the global history and in every individual story. Czapliński’s portraits are pho-

Czaplińsk

tographs of an intimate, psychological nature. They expose, objectify and petrify the photographed subject. The portrayed individual is being perpetuated and their portrait is becoming an important fragment of the photographer’s history. Portrait photography is something much more than an exposal of the select subject’s Rh or DNA. It is a permanent record of temporary synthesis of the relationship between the photographer and the portrayed individual. It is a sign of a covenant, bond and agreement. It is almost a monument. If the portrayed individuals have some expressive qualities, presented in Czapliński’s photographs they constitute a greater value than a series of figurative paintings created during multiple sessions would. Czapliński’s portraits record and expose the truth he notices and preserves in the blink of an eye. His series of portrait photographs immediately become phenomena of culture. Recorded, viewed, restored, multiplied, described and exposed. Czapliński’s portrait photographs are an element of metaculture. They belong to it because they lay in the center of the culture of repetition, culture of renewal, exposure and recollection. The presented selection of Czapliński’s portrait photographs is a collection of elitist and subjective artworks, but also one that is open to its viewers and democratic. His portrait photographs become an element of the media, they expose the characters presented in them and they move with the media. What we recognize and what we can observe in portrait photographs corresponds with the classic definition of the photographic truth, which is that if in a given photography the subject is exposed so and so, it means that at that very moment they were so and so, indeed. Czapliński has an archive and a collection of over fifty thousand photographs of distinctive, outstanding, well known and widely recognized people, referred to in encyclopedias and in literature. They are often heroes of little homelands of the global village, but most of all, they are expressive characters connected with Poland

and having their civilizational input in all continents. He has been photographing subjects that he has picked and that have been suggested to him, for almost 40 years. He shows their faces, sometimes their whole silhouettes, but most of the time he exposes and popularizes the atmosphere, mood and realm of spiritual intimacy. None of the portraits should ever be withdrawn from photographic circulation. And yet, what is surprising is that the people portrayed always agree to this exposure. In Czapliński’s portfolio, this enormous collection of photos stored in Poland and in the United States of America, we can see portraits of people known in each continent. This exhibition includes portraits of select exceptional and outstanding characters - artists that have been and will be the pride of Europe. The intention of the Royal Baths Museum in Warsaw is to present the faces of artists whose names and biographies constitute the cultural capital of modern Europe. The chosen individuals are recognized all over the continent and the world, also in niches. We can view portraits of great artists – often distant, yet close. We feel emotionally attached to their faces, which Czesław Czapliński recorded and preserved for us, who can now see this exhibition. We get to know Czapliński’s photographic portraits, which are of a monumental and universal nature. In many photographs we can see intimate faces that have so far been the photographed individuals’ private domain. When we look at this collection of portraits, this retinue of great artistic individuals, we experience the birth of a new sentiment. This sentiment is becoming a special kind of bond. A bond with the spirit of art. In Europe this individual and universal bond with the beauty, good and truth of art can be perceived as continental solidarity. What is presented in this ARTISTS FOR EUROPE exhibition are photographic images of artists whose works have become an inseparable part of the tenacious foundation of the continental culture. Władysław Serwatowski, PhD

Abakanowicz A

Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930) sculptor

“Art will always be the strangest kind of human activity, which stems from the interminable conflict between dreams and reality, between the mind and the madness inside our skulls... Art, of all realms of human activity – is the least harm-

ful” – said professor Abakanowicz when receiving a honorary doctorate at the Academy of Art in Łódź in 1998. “...I am not a politician, nor a fairy, but I remember how often art was used for the purposes of totalitarian propaganda. When talking about artists’ exceptional sensitivity, one must keep in mind that Hitler was a painter and Stalin wrote sonnets.”

For her outstanding artistic achievements she has been awarded eight honorary doctorates – the highest academic titles. She received the first one from the Royal College of Art in London (1974). She makes large, spatial, figural compositions of fabric, stone, wood and bronze. The originality of works authored by Abakanowicz allowed critics and museum curators add a new

word to the international arts lexicon and call these works in a universally understandable way – Abakans. She won the Grand Prix of the 8th Sao Paulo Art Biennial (1965); she also received: Gottfried von Herder’s Award (Vienna, 1979); Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation’s Award (New York, 1982); Sculpture Center’s Award (New York, 1993); Leonardo da Vinci’s Award (Mex-

BRANDYS

Abakanowicz

Abakanowic ico, 1997) and Visionaries l from the American Craft Museum (New York, 2000). France honored Abakanowicz with the Officier de L’ Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1999) and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2004); she was awarded with the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2000). In 2010 the President of Germany honored the Author of Abakans with the highest German order – Germany’s Grand Cross with Star.

Stanisław Barańczak (1946) poet, writer, translator

In Poland, Shakespeare has an image of a contemporary playwright and comedist. His 25 stage plays came back into theatre circulation in a new masterly translation by Barańczak who has also authored 28 books with essays and poetry. He enriched Polish poetry with his translation of 150 poems by Edward Cummings (1894-1962) – American avant-gardist, poet, playwright and painter, as well as 44 poems by Wystan Hugh Auden, an English poet (1907-1973). Barańczak

experiences music and gives it a poetic form. His “Winter Journey” (Wydawnictwo a5, Poznań, 1994) is a collection of 24 poems written to Schubert’s music. The author wrote: “The poems are original works… the relationship between my poems and Schubert’s music is… intimate and close; my ambition was to write texts that one would be able to sing along a specific melody, but also read without music, as independent poems”. He translated and commented on the literary works of Nobel prize laureates: Thomas Eliot from Britain (1888-1965); Seamus Heaney from Ireland (1939); Josif Brodski from Russia; Vaclav Havel from the Czech Republic (“Letters to Olga”); and Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska from Poland. He selected, translated from English and elaborated monumental anthologies: “From Chaucer to Larkin: 400 Immortal Poems of 125 Poets of the English Language from 8 Centuries” and “From Walt Whitman to Bob Dylan: anthology of American poetry translated by Barańczak”. The products of his literary activity and references to world culture spur their readers’ imagination, inspire reflection and en-

Barańczak Bryll

liven understanding. He enriches the language with neologisms; rows of characters turn into revealing and meaningful literature. He creates phrases that stem from Greek, Latin, English, French, Japanese, German and Russian. His neologisms are perceived and understood as civilizational archaisms and the archaisms he uses seem to be neologisms. Literary works written in his own code appear to be notes and sound like music. Readers are moved to the world of rhythm, sound and its harmonic understanding, as well as metaphorical words and expressions borrowed from other languages. The poet’s literary inclusions increase the dynamics of poems, they are easily understood and remembered. The tiles of his books that can be translated as “Animal listening to confessions”, “Animal Ferocity”, “Total bestiality”, “Purple cow” and “Pegasus fell dumb” are like

Aristotle’s definition of a man. “Biographies” is a retinue of 56 famous and infamous individuals, and its form enables a cultured person to understand and remember what some things are all about... he wrote on the title page. The National Library in Warsaw owns 276 volumes of Barańczak’s works, the British Library has 106 volumes and there are 65 in the Library of Congress in Washington.

Kazimierz Brandys (1916-2000) writer

Honored with the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1993). Lecturer in the field of Slavic literature at the Sorbonne (1970-1971) and at Columbia University. Prose-writer, essayist, film screenwriter. In 1981 he settled permanently

for his lifetime achievement with the Polish Jan Parandowski Pen Club Award (1998).

Ewa Braun (1944) set designer, interior decorator

She won an Academy Award for Interior Decoration for S. Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” (1994). Set designer and interior decorator for over 60 European films. Masterfully building moods and impressions. Asked about color in films, she says: “We sometimes do not know what makes us give in to the magic of the cinema. Film images and narration are not everything. Color is another strong element of perception. Psychological associations with specific colors have already been diagnosed – we know which colors evoke certain emo-

Brandys

in the West, in Paris. He cooperated there with with Zeszyty Literackie, a Polish quarterly on literature and art, edited by Barbara Toruńczyk, in which he regularly published fragments of his new books: “The Art of Conversation” (London: Aneks, 1990) and “Character and writing”, (London: Aneks, 1991) and essays on Wilde, Gide and Paul Léautaud. Independent commentator of Radio Free Europe and Radio France Internationale – after December 13th, 1981; author of novels, such as “How to Be Loved” (1962); underground publications, like “Unreality” – (NOWa, 1978; Instytut Literacki, 1978); the “Months” series (vol. 1 – NOWa, 1981; vol. 2, 3, 4 – Instytut Literacki, 1982, 1984, 1987). Laureate of the International Film Festival (San Francisco, 1963), Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation’s Award (1982), Prato Europa, Ignazio Silone (1986); he was honored

BRAUN

Bryll

tional reactions. Artists seek for solutions which build a specific atmosphere or mood of their films. Analyzing the paths of searching and inspiration followed by filmmakers may be a source of interesting knowledge. It is worth getting to know the reasons why some films bring us down and others make us feel relaxed”. Ewa Braun’s European productions: “Paths in the Night” – a German drama directed by K. Zanussi (1979); interior decoration for a PolishGerman-French co-production, a war film “Europa, Europa” (German Hitlerjunge Salomon) directed by A. Holland (1990) and nominated to an Oscar; set design for a psychological costume drama, “Guilty of innocence” (French Coupable d’innocence au quand la raison dort) – a Polish-French co-production directed by M. Ziębiński (1992).

Bryll’s literary works are available in English, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Estonian, French, Irish, Yiddish, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovakian and Hungarian. Bryll creates with a temperate distance. “We live in a reality in which politics plays a decisive role. … I have been able to keep my common sense, I have managed not to fall into this political whirl. I am more interested in common people than in deciding about the fortunes of the world” – he said in an interview for Newsweek Polska (no. 3, 2007). The author of 32 oratories, musicals, theatre and TV plays, out of which the most famous ones are: “Painted on Glass”, “Kolęda-nocka”, “The November Thing”, “Wieczernik”, “Kto ty jesteś”. The National Library in Warsaw has 130 books by Ernest Bryll, published in many countries of the world.

Ernest Bryll (1935) poet, writer, playwright, songwriter, translator

He was the first Ambassador of Poland in Ireland (1991-1995). In Poland he is a honorary and outstanding ambassador of Irish literature. He received this title for “Miodopój” – selection, translation and commentary on medieval Irish poems (1978). He once confessed: “It is hard to believe that poems which so astonishingly close to contemporary people, perfect in their simplicity and at the same time sophistication, were created in immemorial times, when the countries of Europe were still forming in the turmoil of battles, and hands accustomed to swords were not often laid on books”. He translated love and patriotic Irish poetry dated from the 18th to the 19th century, and published them in the “Irish Dancer” volume. For Slavic people Bryll’s “Eire” is a literary key to poems and other works by contemporary Irish writers (Anthony Cronin, Anne Haverty, Dermot Healy). “The Course of Irish History” by T. Moody and F. X. Martin was translated into Polish by Ernest Bryll and Małgorzata Goraj-Bryll, who enriched the civilization of Europe by creating for Poland.

Roman Cieślewicz (1930-1996) graphic artist, photographer

He spent 33 years of his life in Poland – in Lvov, Cracow and Warsaw, and he spent 33 years in Paris. In the 1960’s he revolutionized the rules of typography by designing the Ty i Ja monthly about literature, art, gastronomy, housing design and dwelling culture, in a very new style. He designed the “moda polska” logo, as well as the layout of Polish and Parisian magazines, like Elle (1964-1969), Vogue (1966), Kitsch (1970-1971), Musique en jeu (1970-1973), Hachette, books like “Andre Malraux”, “Che”, and catalogues for the Georges Pompidou Center: “Paris-Berlin 1900-1930” and “Paris – Mockba 1900-1930”. A poster and photo-graphic artist, photomontage artist and author of photo-like images. A member of the worldwide Alliance Graphique International and Groupe Panique, which he co-founded with Fernando Arrabal and Roland Topor. A laureate of the Grand Prix of the 2nd International Film Poster Exhibition (Karlove Vary, 1964); the first prize at the International Design Biennial (Ljubljana, 1964); the first prize at the 4th International Poster Biennial (Warsaw, 1972).

Cieślewicz

Dębski

Krzesimir Dębski (1953) composer, jazz violinist, conductor

Jose Carreras, Nigel Kennedy, Adam Makowicz, Canadian Brass, Vadim Repin, Jean-Luc Ponty, Mark O’Connor, John Blake, Alberto Iglesias and Jose Cura are one of many who played concerts conducted by Maestro Dębski. Laureate of

the first prize of the International Jazz Contest in Hoeilaart (Belgium, 1983). The leader of the jazz band, String Connection, with which he gave concerts all over Europe, in the United States of America and in Canada. In 1985 the American Down Beat placed Dębski among the top ten jazz violinists. Laureate of the Canadian Film Academy Award – Genie 1988. In Pyros, Greece, at the International Film Festival he received the Philip Award from the International Film Academy for the music he composed to “With Fire and Sword” and “In Desert and Wilderness” – films based on books by Henryk Sienkiewicz, a Nobel Prize laureate. He composed tens of orchestra works (an opera, 4 oratories, religious compositions, 11 instrumental concerts). He makes music for symphonic, string and brass orchestras, as well as for solo instruments, like piano, violin, viola, cello, flute, oboe, clarinet, fagot, horn, trumpets and organs. He has also authored the music that we know from 70 full-length films and TV series.

Dominik

Laureate of the de l’Affiche d’Art (Paris, 1979) – poster for the “Paris – Mockba 1900-1930” exhibition, and at the 4th International Poster Biennial (Denver, Colorado, 1985) as well as other international competitions: Toulouse-Lautrec (Paris, 1964), 10th Poster Biennial (Lahti, 1993), Applied graphic Biennial (Brno, 1994). Laureate of Tadeusz Trepkowski Award (1955). He had over 100 individual exhibitions in Europe and America. Proffesor at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris; author of the film “Change the Climate” (1979).

Dominik D

Tadeusz Dominik (1928) painter

Venice, 1956. There, at the 28th International Biennial he exhibited a cycle of “Mother and child” woodcuts, called Maternita. They were then understood as representing humanity – the value that he remains faithful to. At the Universal Exposition EXPO ‘92 in Seville, whose theme was “The Age of Discovery”, in the Polish Pavilion he presented a novel picture, “Flags of the Earth”, which used an image of a sunny sunflower to allude to the attempts to humanize the universe. In his paintings he combines nature-inspired abstract motifs with the traditions of Polish colorism. Holder of scholarships: awarded by the French government in1958/59 and by Ford Foundation in 1960/61. He exhibited his paintings in many museums: Albertina in Vienna, Guggenheim Museum (1958) and in the MoMA (1961) in New York; in Rio de Janeiro and in Sao Paulo; de Bellas Artes in Caracas and Stedelijk in Amsterdam. First prize winner at the International Festival

of Contemporary Art in Monte Carlo (1964). He revealed the secret of his artistic creations, saying: “My paintings are a result of my being open to nature; they are inspired by nature. I do not illustrate nature – with my paintings I enable the viewer to experience it in their own way”. Polish poets, Zbigniew Herbert and Tadeusz Różewicz, are jut two examples of artists fascinated with Dominik’s paintings and referring to them in their own works. In 1991 Tadeusz Dominik entered the new avant-garde, when in the Studio Gallery in Warsaw he created painting experiments using computer techniques. In 2009 he expanded the area of his activity once more. He painted two labels for Spanish wine (Chardonnay), following in the footsteps of Picasso, Miro, Matisse, Chagall, Dali and Rauschenberg, who designed individually numbered wine labels for the Rotshild family’s French vineyards. Young Spanish wines were offered to connoisseurs of art in bottles with two different labels on which they could see artistic graphic images and the painter’s characteristic signature, DOMINIK.

Edward Dwurnik (1943) painter

Author of over 3000 paintings. Artistically related with Kandinsky, Mondrian, Malewicz and Pollock. An expressive, persistent individualist; a disciplined colorist, inspired by the works of Bernard Buffet. He has painted panoramas of European cities – Vienna and Zurich, Venice, Stockholm, Hanover, Gdansk and Cracow. Poland gave his panoramas of Lisbon and Warsaw to Portugal during EXPO ’92 in Lisbon. He has portrayed writers, Nobel prize laureates. In Dwurnik’s collection there are: Imre Kertesz, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Wole Soyinka – a Nigerian playwright and poet, Elfriede Jelinek – an Austrian writer, and Marguerite Yourcenar – the first woman appointed to the French Academy and laureate of Erasmus of Rotterdam Award

(together with Leszek Kołakowski), Truman Capote, Umberto Eco – awarded the title of doctor honoris causa by the Warsaw Academy of Art, Marguerite Duras, Wiktor Jerofiejew – a Russian writer and author of the libretto to “Life with an idiot”, an opera by A. Sznitke staged in Novosybirsk (directed by H. Baranowski); Kurt Vonnegut – witness of bombarding Dresden in February 1945, Virginia Woolf, Paul Auster – an American writer and film director of Polish origin, Salman Rushdie, Toni Morrison, Stanisław Lem, Margaret Atwood – a Canadian writer and laureate of Booker Award. He exhibited in Alvar Aalto-museo (Jyväskylä), Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven), Benjamin Rhodes Gallery (London), Württembergischer Kunstverein (Stuttgart), Walter Bischoff Galerie (Berlin), XIX Bienal Internacional de Arte (Sao Paulo, 1987), “Hommage a Paul Klee”

Dwurnik

Dwurnik National Museum (Warsaw, 2001), “Olympiad of Art” – Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee (1988). His works can be found in the collections of: S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (Gent), Württembergischer Kunstverein, (Stuttgart), Slovak National Gallery (Bratislava), Alvar Aalto-museo, (Jyväskyla). He received the Cultural Award from the Undeground “Solidarity” Movement and Coutts & Co International Private Banking Contemporary Art Foundation Award, (Zurich). Dwurnik’s works are a visual history of Europe and its contemporary transformations.

Stasys Eidrigevicius (1949) painter, graphic designer, illustrator, photographer

He exhibited in Europe, North America and several Asian countries, where he is also recognized as an actor, photographer, performer, poster artist, director, sculptor, screenwriter and

set designer of authorial and experimental theatre activities. He lived in Lithuania for 31 years and for 31 years now he has lived in Poland. In Lithuania he has been honored with the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas (Vilnius, 2000), he also won a Gold Medal at the 4th International Poster Triennale in Toyama (1994) for his “White Deer” poster, designed for a authorial play. Eight jury members wrote to Stasys from Toyama that seeing the beauty of this provocative picture was an experience of Ex-Stasy for them. He was awarded for his exlibrises – “400 years of the Library of Vilnius University” at the International ExLibris Biennial in Malbork. He created exlibrises for the book collections of: Abakanowicz, Pope John Paul II, Namysłowski, Niemen, Penderecki, Szajna. Laureate of the Gold Plaque at the Biennial of Illustration in Bratislava (1982) for his poster for the International Year of Youth in Bologne (1985), Grand Prix of the International Book Contest in Barcelona (1986), Gold Hugon at the International Film Festival in Chicago (1987),

York. The maker of several authorial books and catalogues published in Spain, France, Japan, Germany, Sweden and Poland. He has had his individual exhibitions in galleries such as: Spicchi Dell Est, Cafe Europa, Muse-

Eidrigevicius

Grand Prix at the Poster Biennial in Lahti (1989). His paintings and “Masks” were exposed at the Universal Exposition of EXPO ’92 in Seville. He took part in the “Decade of European Illustration” exhibition at the Copper-Hewitt Museum in New

Eidrigevicius um Explora (Rome); GGG and Creation (Tokio); Bet Ariela (Tel Aviv); Espace Eiffel-Banly, Centre Pompidou (Paris); Willy Brand House (Berlin); Museum of Western Art (Riga).

Wojciech Fangor (1922) painter, graphic and poster artist, sculptor

Artist painter, perceived as a pillar of many currents in the art of the 20th century. Cubist, socrealist, abstractionist, op-art representative, co-creator of the Polish School of Posters, designer, set designer, graphic artist and cartoonist. Since 1946 he has been creating and teaching in Europe and North America: as an associate professor at the Warsaw Academy of Arts (1946-1963), as a Ford Foundation scholarship holder in West Berlin (1964/65) and as a

Bath Academy of Art professor in Corsham Wiltshire in England (1965/66). He was received at universities of the United States of America (Farleigh Dickinson University, NY and Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., Graduate School of Design) as a visting professor at departments of graphic design, industrial design and architecture (1966-1999). He exhibited “The Responsive Eye” in the MoMA in New York (1965), and at the 34th Biennial of Art in Venice (1968). Fangor is a great and recognized classic of the world’s contemporary art. He is the only Polish artist who has had an individual exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York (1970); he has also exhibited his works at the University Art Museum (Berkeley, 1971), “Zachęta” National Gallery of Art (Warsaw, 1990). In 1989 he passed a collection of 109 of his paintings to Jacek Malczewski Museum in Radom.

Fangor

FANGOR

Fangor

Ficowski

Jerzy Ficowski (1924-2006) poet, essayist, translator and songwriter

He translated literature from official European languages and from the languages of ethnic minorities: French, Spanish, German, Romani (Gypsy), Russian, Romanian, Italian. An outstanding expert on and popularizer of Gypsy folklore – from 1949 he was a member of the English Gypsy Lore Society, specializing in research on Gypsy folklore. Author of the book “Polish Gypsies” (1953) that included illustrations and descriptions of the history and customs of this society. Ficowski’s great contribution to the Gypsies was popularizing the works of a Gypsy poet, Papusza, whose poems he translated and published. He also published a poetry volume on Jewish folklore – “Raisins and Almonds”. He was a recognized and respected connoisseur and popularizer of the works of Brunon Schulz and translator of the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorka. Critically acclaimed author of song lyrics for great stage artists. He was awarded at the International Song Festival in Sopot (1970), Polish Music Festival in Opole (1963) and by the Polish Television (1970). He was also a laureate of Polish Pen Club Award in 1977.

Stefan Gierowski (1925) painter

Uncompromising in his artistic activity. He chose abstract art, which became the central axis of his interests and a message conveyed in his paintings. He eliminated the presentation of forms relating directly to the objects and people observed in reality. The objects of his paintings are universal categories: texture, quality, brightness, color, lines, matter, saturation, surface, space, light and darkness. Gierowski’s artistic output, representing the category of avant-garde, is highly acclaimed by reviewers and critics. His works are intellectually close to great Europe’s painters – Malewicz,

Gierowski

Kandinsky, Rodczenko and El Lissitzky. Their artistic kinship reveals in abstraction that can be recognized by the use of simple geometric elements. What Gierowski has in common with Mondrian and artists of the Dutch “De Stijl” are clear colors and rectangularity. Professor Gierowski’s painting alphabet links to constructivists and stems from a penetrating reflection, similar to Paul Klee’s, Le Corbusier’s, Vasarely’s and Władysław Strzemiński’s. The paintings of professor Gierowski, who has been cooperating with the Warsaw Academy of Arts for half a century, are not often transferred to individual exhibitions round Europe. It is more common that connoisseurs, collectors and European audience come to Warsaw to discover, study and understand Gierowski’s new works. Sometimes works by Master Stefan acquired in Warsaw find their way to Europe’s best collections to become their jewels in the eyes of experts.

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Gierowski

Janusz Głowacki (1938) playwright, filmmaker, prose-writer.

In 1981 the Royal Court Theatre in London staged Głowacki’s “The Cinders”, directed by D. Boyl. The Guardian and the London Times proclaimed this play to be the best production of the year. The play was staged in theatres in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Toronto, London, Marseille, Sydney, Bonn, Prague, Warsaw, Moscow, Petersburg, Dagestan, Seoul and Taipei. “The Cinders” received the award of Argentinean theatre critics – Premio Moliere. Another Głowacki’s play, “Fortynbras got drunk”, written in the United States of America, was staged by theatres in London, Los Angeles, Sarajevo, Moscow, Cracow and the Actors’ Studio in New York. Dianne Wiest – laureate of two Oscars –and Ron Silver played in “Hunting Cockroaches” directed by A. Penn. The French version of the play was starred by Jean Louis Trintignant.

Głowacki’s play was awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Guggenheim Foundation, American Theatre Critics Association in the USA and the Hollywood Drama-Logue Critics. He wrote “Antigone in New York”, commissioned by the Arena Stage in Washington. It was staged in Prague, Petersburg, Bonn, Yale, Atlanta, New York, Mexico City, Croatia, Lithuania, Estonia. In Paris it was recognized with the Le Baladin and Sorbonne Students Award for the play of the year. Głowacki’s “Antigone” has been translated into twenty languages. It was staged or reviewed on five continents. Time, the American weekly – classified “Antigone” among the top ten plays of 1993. Głowacki’s “Fourth Sister” was staged in eight countries. It won the first prize at the International Theatre Festival in Dubrownik. A lecturer at Columbia University, Bennington College, New York Public Theater, Mark Tapper Forum in Los Angeles and the Atlantic

Głowacki

Center for the Arts in Florida. Author of screenplays to “Hunting Flies” (directed by A. Wajda) and “The Cruise” (in cooperation with M. Piwowski). Janusz Głowacki’s works have been translated into English, Chinese, Czech, Estonian, French, Spanish, Korean, German, Russian, Serbian, Slovakian and Hungarian.

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (1933-2010) composer

His Symphony no. 3 led him to world hit lists – and not only in the category of classical music. After recording Symphony no. 3 by Dawn Upshaw, an American singer (soprano) and the London Sinfonietta under David Zinman, and selling one million records, Górecki became internationally famous. His music is still widely appreciated and admired. In London, The Daily Telegraph classified Mikołaj Górecki at the 32nd place among the living geniuses in 2007. The list of Górecki’s achievements includes his composing output (81 compositions), as well as his work as a conductor and teacher. He shared his knowledge, sensitivity and charisma as a professor and rector of the Academy of Music in Katowice. Music lovers were fascinated with how he combined the contrasting techniques of medieval hocket (an exchange of sounds and pauses among individual voices, which gives the impression of sobbing) with atonal dodecaphony in his “Refrain” (1965). He was surprised when this composition was awarded at the UNESCO International Composers Tribune’ (1967). He filled concert halls with untraditional sounds – scratching, squeaking and drumming the cello. Górecki’s music made him an acclaimed representative of the Second Avant-garde Wave. The most important of his compositions are played worldwide: Symphony No. 2, ‘Copernican’, Op. 31 (1972) for soprano and baritone solo, mixed choir and orchestra; Symphony no. 3, ‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’, Op. 36 (1976) for soprano solo and symphonic orchestra, and ‘Beatus Vir’, Op.

38 (1979) for baritone solo, mixed choir and orchestra – ordered by cardinal Karol Wojtyła and dedicated to Pope John Paul II. The composer was honored with many doctorates, awards and decorations. He most appreciated the Ecce Homo Order (2000) and the Order of St. Gregory the Great (2009). Honored with the Order of the White Eagle.

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Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999) actor, director and reformer of contemporary theatre

He believed in the “poor theatre” concept, which he defined and built. He rejected what was redundant for the existence of theatre. He comprehended and created theatre in which there was only the actor and the viewer. He founded and ran the “Laboratory Theatre” in Wroclaw (1965-1984).

“Apocalypsis cum figuris” (1969) was considered to be the most important play in his entire artistic output. In his theatre he carried out research in the fields of anthropology, psychology, religious studies and theatrology. He continued searching for the sources of theatre, organized workshops and international expeditions to Poland, Mexico, India and Haiti. He analyzed archaic dramatic and ritual techniques. He carried out workshops

Grotowski

at Columbia University in New York and at the Drama School of Fine Arts at the University of California in Irvine. In 1986 he founded the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski (Centro di Lavoro di Jerzy Grotowski) in Pontedera in Italy. Near the end of his life Grotowski became a teacher, a Master who took spiritual care of his students. He taught the theory and practice of his theatre at many universities of the world. He was a professor at College de France and Ecole Superieure d’Arts Dramatique in Marseille; Doctor honoris causa of universities in Wrocław, Chicago, Pittsburg. Recognizing his artistic and civilizational achievements, UNESCO pronounced 2009 to be the Year of Jerzy Grotowski.

Adam Hanuszkiewicz (1924) actor, director

“My do Europy, Europa do nas” is a title of a Hanuszkiewicz’s play based on the works of Witold Gombrowicz (2003), who inspired prointegration attitudes. For the first 20 years of his life he was a Lvovian. For the next 61 years he has been Homo theatralis. He lived in theatre and he created theatre as something huge and universal, also in public TV’s studios. He debuted as an actor in Wyspiański’s “The Wedding” at Rzeszów’s stage (1944). The crowning of Hanuszkiewicz’s artistic life was directing the “Gdzie jest pies pogrzebany?” play (2005) based on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by M. Haddon – English writer born when Hanuszkiewicz was staging “Vita Nuova” based on Dante’s works (1962). Hanuszkiewicz – is he a creator or an intellectual provocateur? – asked European reviewers, critics and enchanted viewers. He had an original way of interpreting well-known or long forgotten classic texts, which found a new meaning in theatre. He reached for the radio voice of marshal Piłsudski, recorded in 1924, when he staged “Commentaries on the Improvement of Commonwealth”, with a world premiere in the National Theatre on November 11th 1981, at the time when “Solidarność” was created. In Ger-

Hanuszkiewicz

many he was called the “Polish Father” of German theatre and honored with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2001). He directed Molier’s “Don Juan” in Karslruhe (1975), Różewicz’s “Gone Out” in Münster (1978), Csehov’s “Platonov” in Göttingen (1980), Turgenev’s “A Month in the Country” (1984) and Fredro’s “Husband and Wife” (1987) in Baden-Baden. In Tampere, Finland, he directed Strindberg’s “Miss Julie” (1970), Fredro’s “Husband and Wife” (1971) and Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” (1974). He was invited to stage the plays of the National Theatre on main stages of theatres in the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Lithuania, Germany, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden and Ukraine. He was also enthusiastically welcome there. He was honored with the Gloria Artis Medal in Poland (2005).

Edward Hartwig (1909-2003) photographer

He was entirely European – from the East to the West. Born in Moscow, he was a son of a photographer and owner of a photographic studio. He studied photography in the 1930’s at the Institute of Graphics in Vienna. Asked about artists that have influenced his artistic activity he replied and narrated: “Most of all, impressionists! I love the Orsay Museum in Paris and whenever I visit the city, I go there to bow to the impressionists. The color in their paintings has always been my main inspiration and I have always tried a similar approach in photography – in black and white photography, although it seems to be literally impossible. I spent a lot of time with my friends as their assistant, or to be more precise – a stumbling block. Maybe I would never even start on landscape in photography if I had not spent time with them before... And it got me really involved …”. Versatile as he was, he created realistic photography, experimented with colorful photography and his artistic output also includes abstract photography. The Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique honored Hartwig with their highest title – Honoraire Excellence FIAP. He

Hartwig

was an Olympic medalist. At the Olympic Games in Rome (1960) he won a medal for photography. He was invited to take part in a prestigious presentation in a team of “Ten Photographers of the World”. His photographs of architecture, sport and theatre were exhibited in Japan and the USA; they can be found in the collections of Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne and in the National Museum in Wroclaw, at the Modern Art Center in Warsaw and at the Bibliotheque National in Paris.

Julia Hartwig (1921) poetess, essayist, translator

Edward’s sister, holder of a scholarship awarded by the French government (1947-1950). Participant of the International Writing Program (19701984), and a visiting professor at Drake University, University of Ottawa (1971) and Carleton University in Canada (1973). Her poems and articles were published in Polish magazines: Odrodzenie, Nowa Kultura, Świat, Nowe Książki, Poezja, Tygodnik Powszechny, Twórczość, Kresy, Zeszyty Literackie, Odra, Więź, Kwartalnik Artystyczny. She translated the works of such artists as Guillaume Apollinaire, Allen Ginsberg, Max Jacob, Blaise Cendrars, Pierre Reverdy, Marianne Moore and William Carlos Williams into Polish. Laureate of: ZAiKS Award (1976), Fondation d’Hautvilliers “Prix de Traduction” (France, 1978), Polish Pen Club Award (1979, 1997), Alfred Jurzykowski Award in the field of literature (USA, 1981), Thornton Wilder Prize (USA, 1986), Georg Trakl Award (Austria, 1991), Władysław and Nelli Turzanski Foundation’s Award in Toronto (2004), Jan Parandowski Polish Pen Club Award (2009). She was also honored with the Order of Polonia Restituta (2011).

Jerzy Hoffman (1932) director, screenwriter

“Propagation of intercultural dialogue at the International Film Festival “Rozstaje Europy”

made Jerzy Hoffman the laureate of the Borderland Foundation at the 9th International Days of Documentary Cinema in Lublin. Hoffman’s films were awarded at festivals in Chicago, Gdynia, Florence, Kiev, Cracow, Mannheim, Moscow, Oberhausen and Venice. He screened the trilogy of the Nobel prize laureate – Henryk Sienkiewicz: “With Fire and Sword”, “The Deluge” (Academy

Hartwig Award nomination) and “Fire in the Steppe”. He directed a Polish-English co-production – “After Your Decrees” a war/drama film based on the works of German (Paula Hengge and Art Bernd) and Polish (Bogdan Wojdowski) writers (1983). In 2007 he made the film titled “Ukraine - The Birth of a Nation”, based on the book “Ukraine is not Russia” by president Leonid Kuczma.

As a visionary of future cinema he has declared: “My role model has always been Chaplin, and my most beloved film is Fellini’s La strada. I am a viewer who likes to laugh and cry at the cinema, who likes to be touched. A film is art for the masses, but made for the masses does not mean banal. Important films are also created as art for the masses. Fellini’s La strada or Chaplin’s films

Hoffman

HoFfman

prove that it is possible to create something notable and at the same time targeted at a wide audience... A film should keep its national identity. But identity does not mean insularity and provinciality. It is not about being limited exclusively to internal problems. It is about showing universal values in a way that will allow the films to keep the national identity in the atmosphere, expression and mood of the work. Good and evil are universal and common to all mankind. Love, hate, jealousy and lust for power are also universal. This is what Shakespeare’s universalism is based on. He was a very English playwright but his works are understood globally. The emotions that his characters experience are common to all mankind. This is also what makes Chaplin’s works universal...”.

Agnieszka Holland (1948) film and theatre director, screenwriter and actress

Honored with the title of an Ambassador of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (2008). At the Cannes International Film Festival she received the award of the International Federation of Film Critics FIPRESCI (1980) for her film debut – “Provincial Actors” (1978). She received two Academy Award nominations – in 1985 in the Best Foreign Film category for “Angry Harvest”, and in 1991 in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for “Europa, Europa”. She was awarded for “her lifetime achievement in film” at the International Film Festival in Las Vegas (1999) and for her film “Copying Beethoven” at the 54th International Film Festival in San Sebastian (2006). By the decision of New York Film Critics Circle she was awarded for “Europa, Europa” in the category of Best Foreign Film (1991), and by the verdict of journalists and foreign film critics of Hollywood Foreign Press she received the “Golden Globe” for the Best Foreign Film Shown in the USA in 1991. Since 1981 She has worked in the West – mainly in Germany and France, and since the 1990’s in the United States of America. She has cooperated with Krzysztof Zanussi, Krzysztof Kieślowski and Andrzej Wajda. Holland’s

Holland

film productions can be classified in the current of “the cinema of moral unrest”. Her film characters are confronted with dramatic social, political and religious choices. Agnieszka Holland translated Milan Kundera’s

novel, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” from French into Polish. She was honored with Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for her achievements in the field of developing Polish film art (2011).

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Sławomir Idziak (1945) camera operator, director, screenwriter

Europe’s champion in the film triathlon: composing pictures, creating series of pictures and

presenting motion pictures. Author of pictures to Krzysztof Kieślowski’s films. He was awarded for “Three colors: Blue” (starring Juliette Binoche, Benoît Régent, Florence Pernel) at the International Film Festival in Venice with a Gold Osella

Janda

Krystyna Janda (1952) actress, prose-writer, singer

Her “pro-European attitude to agreement between the East and the West, her artistic output and her involvement in the issues of women’s equal rights” was honored with Charles the Great Medal (2006), the most renowned award in Germany. France honored Janda with the third class Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1991). At the 19th International Fantasy Film Festival in Trieste she was awarded the Silver Asteroid in the best actress category (Piotr Szulkin’s “Golem”, 1981). For her role in Ryszard Bugajski’s “Inter-

Kantor

– for his “input in the development of film technology”. Nominated to the French Film Academy’s Cesar Award. Together with Zanussi he made “The Balance” (1974), “The Constant Factor” (1980), “Imperative” (1982), “The Year of the Quiet Sun” (1984) and theatre plays – Sławomir Mrożek’s “The Slaughterhouse”, Karol Wojtyła’s “Job”, William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”. He cooperated with Wajda on his film “The Wedding”, based on Wyspiański’s play, and in 1979 as the first camera operator when making “The Orchestra Conductor”. At the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography “Plus Camerimage” in Łódź he received Gold Frog statues for his pictures to “Lilian’s story” (1996) and “The Last September” (1999). Idziak’s camera operating artistry was appreciated in the United States of America. He was offered to cooperate on Andrew Niccol’s futuristic film “Gattaca”, starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman (1997) as well as on Taylor Hackford’s “Proof of life” starring Meg Ryan and Russel Crowe (2000). Idziak values his job. He says: “As I see it, a camera operator is someone who should contribute to a film with their own vision of the world. Just as it is in a good orchestra, or any other creative team”. He was nominated to an Academy Award for his pictures to Ridley Scott’s “Black Hawk Down,” based on a screenplay by Ken Nolan.

rogation” she got the Gold Palm at the Cannes International Film Festival; she was also awarded for the best female part at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, and received the Best Actress Award at the 1st Belgrade Film Festival. For her part in Waldemar Krzystek’s “Zwolnieni z życia” she got the Silver Shell at the San Sebastian Festival. For the role of Margaret in the GermanFrench co-produced Helma Sanders-Brahms’ “Laputa” Janda was awarded at the International Film Festival in Montreal. In a survey carried out by the Polish press near the end of the 20th century viewers voted for her as “the greatest Polish actress of the century”, and in 2007 – the best actress of the last 50 years. She debuted as the lead actress in Osborne’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” directed by A. Łapicki, staged at the National Theatre in Warsaw. She has starred in films by Andrzej Wajda: “Man of Marble” (1976), “Rough Treatment” (1978), “The Orchestra Conductor” (1979), “Man of Iron” (1981), “Sweet Flag” (2009); Krzysztof Kieślowski – “A Short Film About Killing” (1987), “The Decalogue II” and “The Decalogue V” (1988); Krzysztof Zanussi, Radosław Piwowarski, Piotr Szulkin and Krzysztof Tchórzewski. She has also played in films by directors like: István Szabó (Hungary) – “Green bird” (Der grüne Vogel, 1980) and “Mefisto” (1981); French director: Jean Chapot (Ce fut un bel été) and Yves Boisset (the role of Anne Gretz w Espion, lève – toi, 1982); Peter Keglevic from Austria (the role of Lena in “Bella Donna”, 1983). She was honored with the Vittorio de Sica medal (1990) and the Gold Gloria Artis Medal. Krystyna Janda’s foundation has its own theatre – Theatre Polonia – in Warsaw.

Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) painter, director, set designer, graphic designer

“Everything I have done in arts has reflected my attitude towards incidents happening around me, the situation in which I lived, my faith in something and not in something else, my lack

Kantor

of faith in what we were supposed to believe in, my skepticism, my hope…” he wrote about himself in “The real I” included in the program of his play, “I Shall Never Return”. Asked about the giants in the history of theatre – “…Sophocles and Shakespeare are the only exemplars for theatre” – he said before rehearsals for Witkacy’s “The Shoemakers” began at Guy Kayat’s Teatre 71 in Malakoff, a sub-Parisian district. Before he died, critics perceived him as a representative of many directions: constructivism, Dadaism, informel painting and surrealism. When Andrzej Wajda made a video clip of an archival recording of “Dead Class”, he was surprised, baffled and disturbed. When he found out that this play would be shown in Bologne at the International Theatre Festival – he beamed with contentment. Over a million people saw the set design elements of the “Dead Class” exposed in Seville at EXPO ’92 in the Polish pavilion. Franco Quadri, a critic from the Italian la Repubblica and French Le Monde wrote about Kantor’s play “Wielopole, Wielopole”, which tells a story of the artist’s family town: “In his presentation of Poland, Kantor managed to combine the Polish microcosm with Christ’s Passion, and Wielopole now belongs to the whole world.” Kantor’s memorial, a sculpture by Krzysztof Brzuzan, is exposed in Wanda Siemaszkowa Theatre in Rzeszów.

Ryszard Kapuściński (1932-2007) writer, reporter

In the Sunday Times’ ranking Kapuściński’s novel, “Cesarz” was proclaimed the Book of the Year 1983, and the Royal Court Theatre in London then staged its adaptation on the main stage. His literary output, comprising his features as a press correspondent, was translated into more than ten languages. Kapuściński wrote 28 books, but in the National Library’s Catalogue 381 volumes, translations and re-editions of the author’s works have been listed. Kapuściński’s books are available in bookstores and libraries in all con-

Kapuściński

tinents. The author was honored with the title of the Journalist of the Century, by the decision of 50 best Polish journalists. The reporter and foreign correspondent’s accurate observations proved helpful to politicians in many countries. For his diagnoses as a reporter and his literary output he was awarded the title of doctor honoris causa by universities in Barcelona, Gdansk, Sofia, Wroclaw and the Jagiellonian University. He received the German Publishers and Booksellers’ Award, Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation Award, the French d’Astrolabe and The Prix Tropiques, the Prince of Asturias Award (Spain); Brunon Kreisky Award (Austria), the Italian – Viareggio Versilia, Feudo di Maida, Creola Prize from Bologna University and Elsa Morante Literary Award in the category of “Europe’s Culture”. In Poland he was awarded the Readers’ NIKE Literary Award for “Travels with Herodotus”. He was honored with the Gold Gloria Artis Medal.

Jerzy Kawalerowicz (1922-2007) director

For Europe – the actors that starred in Kawalerowicz’s film “Mother Joan of the Angels” (Lucyna Winnicka, Anna Ciepielewska, Zygmunt Zintel) got three Tribunascope Awards in Panama, at the International Film Festival (1966). Kawalerowicz was the author of the screenplay and director of the film based on Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s story. The plot of “Mother Joan of the Angels” (1960) was set in the 17th century in a monastery in the Smolensk district. For her title role in this psychological drama, Winnicka won the French Film Academy Award – Crystal Star, and Kawalerowicz received five awards: the Special Jury Award at the Cannes International Film Festival, the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival Award, the Polish Journalists Association’s Film Critics Club’s Warsaw Siren, the First Degree Award of the Minister of Arts and Culture, and the Film monthly’s “Gold Duck”. Kawalerowicz was the founder and artistic supervisor of the Film Team “Kadr” in Łódź. He patronized the

Kawalerowicz making of over a hundred films of Polish directors: Andrzej Munk, Andrzej Wajda (e.g. “Ashes and Diamonds”), Jerzy Antczak (“Nights and Days”), Kazimierz Kutz (“Nobody’s Calling”), Janusz Morgenstern (“Good Bye, Till Tomorrow”), Tadeusz Konwicki (“The Last Day of Sum-

mer”, directed with J. Łomnicki), Juliusz Machulski (“Va Banque”). When the notion of “Polish film school” appeared in the language of global cinema, Kawalerowicz was its pillar and foundation. His most important film achievements were directing and screenwriting: “Pharaoh” (1966),

“Encounter on the Atlantic” (1980), “The Hostage of Europe” (1989) and “Quo vadis” (2002). The director was honored with the title of doctor honoris causa of the Paris Sorbonne University (1998) and the National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź (2001).

Krzysztof Kieślowski (1941-1996) director, screenwriter

For his “extraordinary, creative input in the culture of motion pictures” he was appointed as a honorary member of the British Film Institute. At the International Film Festival in Mannheim his first full-length film, “Personnel” was shown in the competition. It won the main prize. In the history of global cinematography he is an expressive co-creator of a new current, referred to as the “cinema of moral unrest”. Kieślowski’s “The Decalogue” is a cycle of ten films that have been shown on television worldwide. Reliable and enthusiastic reviews of European film critics were one of the reasons why viewing figures were at a record high. The cinema version of “The Decalogue V” – “A Short Film About Killing” was honored with the then established Felix Award, which is now considered to be the most prestigious European film award (1988). The European bibliography with Kieślowski’s name in the title comprises 43 volumes. The screenplay of “The Decalogue” was translated into 10 languages. It was published as a book in Paris (Ed. Balland, 1991), London (Faber & Faber, 1991), Belgrade (Filip Viśnić) and Copenhagen (Rosinante/Munskgaard). Kieślowski was nominated to an Academy Award for the screenplay and directing of “Three Colors: Red”. He was a member of the American Film Academy from 1995. His films starred such direcors as: Juliusz Machulski (“Personnel”), Agnieszka Holland (“The Scar”) and Krzysztof Zanussi (“Camera Buff”). Irène Jacob (France) became internationally famous as a film and theatre actress for her roles in “The Double Life of Véronique” (1991) and “Three colors: Red” (1994). Kieślowski liked to share his experience. He taught direction at the National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź (1993-1996). He staged William Gibson’s “Two for the Seesaw” and Tadeusz Różewicz’s “The Card Index” at the Television Theatre.

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Kilar

Wojciech Kilar (1932) pianist, composer, conductor

Francis Ford Coppola, the director and producer of “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now” asked Kilar to write music to the film “Dracula” (1992), based on Bram Stoker’s book – a film that won three Oscars. Kilar’s music was honored in San Francisco with the ASCAP Award for the best American film score and it was nominated to the award of the The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (1993). He was also awarded for his music to R. Polański’s “Pianist” – he got the France’s Academy of Film Arts and Sciences’ Cesar, which was designed by Cesar Baldaccini (1921-1998), and he was nominated to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ Award. He composed music to Wajda’s “Promised Land” and “Mr Thaddeus”. Kilar found his inspiration in the works of Bartók, Strawiński, Shostakovich and Prokofiev. As a French government’s scholarship holder he was educated under the direction of Nadia Boulanger in Paris. For his ode “Béla Bartók in memoriam” (1960) he was awarded by the Lili Boulanger Foundation from Boston. Together with Penderecki and Górecki he co-created a new direction in contemporary music, called sonorism, and the Polish avant-garde school. He is a composer and conductor of orchestra, chamber, vocal-instrumental and piano music. In 2009 he was honored with the “Per artem ad Deum” medal, awarded by the Pontifical Council for Culture, which he received from the hands of archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi. He was also awarded the Polish Culture Foundation’s Gold Scepter (2000) and the Grand Award of the Culture Foundation (2001).

Leszek Kołakowski (1927-2009) philosopher, essayist, publicist, prose-writer

He was a member of the British Academy, Academie Universelle des Cultures, Polish Academy of Science, Bayerische Akademie der Kunst, Institut

KoĹ&#x201A;akowski

International de Philosphie, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a professor at Oxford. In his correspondence he predicted the philosophy of the future and future of philosophy. “Philosophy cannot overtake the tasks of religious faith, but it also cannot dodge the dangerous contact with its matters, as the question about meaning makes sense in the tradition of philosophy. Philosophy is not perishing and it never will be, because some permanent self-interest of the human mind keeps it alive; our mind wants to understand and to know what ‘truth’ means and how to recognize it; it wants to know what is good and what is evil, or what justice is, or reason, or whether consciousness is a physical phenomenon, or if one can be confident about anything and what real confidence means, or whether our language reflects, or rather creates our world, or why one should be a decent person. Some of these questions are sometimes answered by physicists, biologists or psychologists, but they do not really provide the answers from the position of their scientistic skills, but rather they use their scientistic authority for the purposes of philosophy. It is acceptable, but neither physics, nor biology can provide these answers”. In 1991 he wrote a lapidary history of Poland ordered by EXPO ’92 in Spain. It comprised 1200 characters and was printed in the official catalogues of the Universal Exposition of EXPO ’92 in Seville in eight languages.

Tadeusz Konwicki (1926) writer, director

Władysław Gomułka retracted Poland’s official participation in the Universal Exposition of EXPO ’58 in Brussels. But he did not retract the participation of a talented artist, Tadeusz Konwicki, in this event. With his film, “The Last Day of Summer”, Konwicki won the main prize for experimental cinema in Brusssels and then the Grand Prix at the International Festival of Documentaries and Short Films in San Remo. W 1982 he directed and screened “Issa’s Valley”, based

Konwicki

on a novel by Czesław Miłosz, published in Paris in 1955. It was a psychological film about Lithuanian country in the 1920’s. The greatest value of the film are Konwicki’s pictures envisioned in Miłosz’s poetic world – in landscapes, in the open air, set design and the appearance of characters and supernatural creatures. The maker of: “The Last Day of Summer”, “All Souls’ Day”, “Salto”, “How Far Away, How Near” – awarded at the International Film Festival in San Remo for Konwicki’s screenplay (1973). Co-creator of the “Polish school” in film, noticed and named when he was the literary supervisor of Film Teams “Kadr” (1956-1968), “Kraj” (1970-1972), “Pryzmat” (1972-1977) and “Perspektywy” (1989-1991). He inspired and initiated valuable and important screen projects.

Hanna Krall (1937) writer

Reporter of Polish newspapers and magazines like Polityka, Odra and Gazeta Wyborcza. She cooperated with Krzysztof Kieślowski in the film team “Tor”. Life stories of Polish Jews have been an important topic in her works. She became famous after publishing “Shielding the Flame” about Marek Edelman, one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The book is obligatorily read in Polish high schools. In 1981 the Polish National Theatre staged her “Relations”, inspired by the times of hope and breakthrough. Actors in this show referred to the dramatic political and social events of 1956 in Warsaw, 1976 in Radom and 1980 in Gdansk (including Anna Walentynowicz). “Relations” were staged until December 13th 1981, also at the Polish Social and Cultural Association in London. Hanna Krall has written 14 books about the intricate Polish-Jewish-German relationships. The books have been translated into 16 languages and published in the Czech Republic, Finland, Spain, the Netherlands, Israel, Germany, Romania, Slovakia, the United states of America, Sweden, Hungary and Italy. Her works inspired Krzysztof Warlikowski, the director of

Krall

Krall such plays as “The Dybbuk” and “(A)pollonia”, with opening nights in Warsaw i Avignon (2009). They were co-produced by European theatres and International festivals: Festival d’Avignon, Théâtre National de Chaillot (Paris), Théâtre de la Place de Liège, Comédie de Genève-Centre Dramatique, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie de Bruxelles, and the Old Theatre in Cracow. She received the awards of the Polish Pen Club, the underground “Solidarity” Movement, Pola Mireńska and Jan Karski, Leipzig European Understanding, Gottfried Herder in Vienna and the city of Bremenhaffen.

Ewa Kuryluk (1946) painter, poet, writer, historian of art

Cederic Schiltz, a French screenwriter and camera operator, in his documentary, “Vera Icon, Ewa Kuryluk” (2009) showed the unique artistic faces of Kuryluk with her new installations. She expressed the colors of her artistic palette in “Viennesse Apocalypse. Essays on Viennesse art and literature around 1900”, whose title was changed in the second edition into “Viennesse Apocalypse. Essays on Austrian art and literature in the 20th century”. Her “Apotheosis of ani-

malness” (2005) was nominated to the most important Polish Literary Award – NIKE. In 1976 “Salome, or On Rapture. On the Grotesque in the Oeuvre of Aubrey Beardsley” was published. By this publication she increased the level of knowledge in Poland about the life and works of this cartoonist, illustrator and graphic artist, who contributed to popularizing English secession. She cooperated with Amnesty International and supported its activities. Since 1981 she has been co-creating the literary periodical, Zeszyty Literackie - first in NYC, and now in Paris, where she still is a member of the team of editors. Her books reveal the mysteries of art, inspire and provoke. She wrote “Salome and Judas in the cave of sex. The grotesque: origins, iconography, techniques” (Northwestern University Press, 1987) and “Veronica and her cloth: history, symbolism, and structure of a true image” (B. Blackwell, Oxford–Cambridge, 1991). It was published in Polish in 1989, and translated into Italian (1993) and Portuguese (1994). “On the way to Corinth tracing my art to 1959” (2006) was published in Polish and English. The summary of her lifetime creations was her individual exhibition in Warsaw. in the National Art Gallery “Zachęta”, and the book “Air people: retrospective 1959-2002: installations, photographs, drawings, paintings” (2002).

Jan Lebenstein (1930-1999) painter, graphic artist

His artistic inspiration was Eric Blair (19031930), the English writer known to the world as George Orwell. He illustrated Blair’s “Animal Farm”. He became famous for the original form of figurative painting by including and connecting surrealistic and abstract elements. Laureate of the main prize at the 1st Paris Biennial Exhibition of Young Artists (1959). The importance of this prize made him stay and work in Paris, where in 1971 he assumed French citizenship. He received the special award of the Alfred Ju-

Kuryluk

Lebenstein

rzykowski Foundation in New York (1976); he was a laureate of Jan Cybis Award (1987). He illustrated the Books of the Bible (the Book of Genesis, Book of Jobs and twice the Book of Revelation). First – as a cycle of stained glass images and for the second time – as graphics. His works are perfectly recognizable and col-

lected in many countries. He created city landscapes, poetic transformations of the human figure, expressive fantasticsymbolic compositions with animal motifs. In 1992 the greatest collection of his works was exhibited in Poland in the National Art Gallery “Zachęta” in Warsaw.

Stanisław Lem (1921-2006) writer, essayist, satirist

A literary millionaire. Leader of the world’s science-fiction literature. Co-creator of the narration on cosmic civilization. The name of the writer was given to a planetoid – 3836 Lem, to the first Polish artificial satellite – Lem, and to a regional program of European integration – LEM. Philosopher and futurologist, member of the American Writers Association. His works have been translated into 50 languages, which is incomparable with any other Polish writer. The total issue of his works has exceeded 30 million volumes, exluding the innumerable electronic versions. The catalogue of the National Library in Warsaw classifies 647 titles of Lem’s books. He lived and wrote in Cracow, West Berlin and

Vienna. He wrote Platonic dialogues on cybernetics. A visionary describing foreign civilizations, space shuttles accidents caused by mistakes in navigation and cases of forced landing on foreign planets. In his science-fiction novels – “Solaris”, “Return from the Stars” and the funny “Memoirs Found in a Bathtub” he presented the motifs of contacting another intelligent form of life. He exposes the helplessness of science and men, burdened with subconscious fears caused by thei inability to understand the universe. In his books Lem wrote about the possibility that extraterrestrial civilizations exist, the closeness and dissimilarity of biological and technological evolution, the questions of how phantoms influence the human brain and projects of cyborgization as a reconstruction of the human body.

Lem

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Daniel Libeskind (1946) architect

Born and raised in Łódź, he emigrated to Tel Aviv, where he studied music. As an accordionist he played with the violinist, Itzhak Perlman. He has been American since 1965; he studied technical sciences at Cooper Union in Manhattan and architecture at the English University of Essex. He designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin (1989) and a many facilities in Lower Manhattan after the September 11th 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. He is the author of the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, the Museum of Danish Jews in Copenhagen, the Metropolitan University in London, Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin, a Retail and Housing Center in Las Vegas, the Military History Museum in Dresden, the Creative Media Centre in Hong Kong and the Gold Center in Warsaw. He was awarded at the International Biennial in Venice (1985). He received Goethe’s Medal for his contribution to popularizing the mission of

Goethe’s Institute (2000). Titled the Man of the Year by the Museum of Art in Tel Aviv (2001). Ambassador of Architecture nominated by the USA Department of State (2004). Three times a laureate of the British RIBA Award. He was the first architect honored with the Hiroshima Art Prize for popularizing peace. Since 1996 he has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Witold Lutosławski (1913-1994) composer, conductor, pianist

In the avant-garde of music he was a firm continuator of tradition. A composer who conducted renditions of his compositions in 23 countries. He gave 62 concerts to German music-lovers, 57 to the English ones and 46 in the USA. He conducted Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre Philharmonique de Paris de la Radio France, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, BBC Symphony, The Philharmonic Orchestra of London, Scottish National Orches-

Siemens Award (Munich, 1983), Grawemeyer’s Award (Louisville, 1985), Queen Sophia’s Award (Madrid, 1985) and the Kyoto Prize (1993). He got the Polar Music Prize, funded by Stig Anderson, the manager of ABBA, from the Swedish Music Academy (1993). Since 1990 Warsaw Witold Lutosławski International Composers’ Competition is held in the National Philharmonics in every year.

Tadeusz Łomnicki (1927-1992) actor

He played the roles of Orestes in “Iphigenia in Tauris”, Kordian in Słowacki’s play, the daring Arturo Ui in “The Career of Arturo”, Solony in “Three Sisters”, Captain Edgar in “Play Strindberg”, and

Lutosławski

tra, New York Philharmonic, and Polish Radio and Television Great Symphonic Orchestra. He received the title of doctor honoris causa at universities in Cambridge, Chicago, Durham, Glasgow, Lancaster and McGill in Montreal. His compositions came at top positions in the International Composers’ Tribune, UNESCO (1959, 1962, 1964, 1968), and received three first prizes awarded by Serge Koussevitzky Foundation – Prix Mondial du Disque (1964, 1976, 1986), Grand Prix du Disque de L’Academie Ch. Cross (1965, 1971), the International Record Critic’s Award (Geneva ’79 and London ’86). For his musical output he received: Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation’s Award (New York, 1966), Gottfried Herder Foundation Award (Vienna, 1967), Sonning Award (Copenhagen 1967), Ravel Award (Paris, 1971), Sibelius Prize (Helsinki, 1973),

Łomnicki

Goya in Wajda’s “The Dreams of Reason”, Salieri in Polański’s “Amadeus” and Prysypkin in Swinarski’s “Bug”. One of the most outstanding postwar Polish actors, considered by the readers of Polityka, a Polish weekly, to be the greatest Polish actor of the 20th century (1998). Łomnicki’s film creations in films like Wajda’s “Generation”, “Innocent Sorcerers” and “Man of Marble”, Zanussi’s “The Contract”, Kieślowski’s “Blind Chance” and “The Decalogue 7” as well as Hoffman’s “Fire in the Steppe” and “The Deluge”, where he played colonel Wołodyjowski, were unforgettable. He was a laureate of many prestigious awards, including (twice) Zelwerowicz Prize, awarded by Teatr, a Polish monthly. For the first time he received this prize in 1986 for the role of Krapp in Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape” directed by Libera and he was the first artist to whom it was awarded. The play was staged for almost 7 years (until the actor passed away) and shown at many international festivals, among others in Mi-

lan, Moscow, Palermo, Sofia and Vienna. It was also recorded for the Theatre of Television and is listed in the “Gold 100” of the most outstanding plays of the Theatre of Television. For the second time he received this award posthumously, for the role of Icyk Sager in Gaston Salvatore’s “Stalin”, also recorded for the Theatre of Television. He died of a heart attack, on the stage of the New Theatre in Poznań, during a “King Lear” rehearsal. The New Theatre in Poznań and the Theatre on Wola in Warsaw (Łomnicki founded it in the 1970’s) assumed Tadeusz Łomnicki as their patron.

Olgierd Łukaszewicz (1946) actor

In 1988, after 20 years of film experience with Kieślowski, Konwicki and Wajda, and theatre experience on the stages of Cracow and Warsaw

ŁukAszewicz – Łukaszewicz felt that Europe began maturing for transformation and it would begin to change. He trusted his sensitivity as an actor and decided to become a European actor. He took some time off the Studio Theatre, having played his great part of Franz in Tadeusz Różewicz’s “The Trap”, awarded at the 24th Festival of Polish Contemporary Arts in Wroclaw. He went to Vienna. For 8 years he played on German-speaking stages, including two seasons as a full-time employee of the City Theatre in Bonn. For his achievements in combining artistic quests he was honored with The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2008). These experiences gave him important roles in German films. Łukaszewicz played the role of Karol Wojtyła’s father in “Karol. Man who Became Pope”. The film directed by Giacome Battiato was a French-Canadian-German-Polish-Italian co-production (2004). In Max Färberböck and Catharina Schuchmann’s war drama “Woman in Berlin”, with Zbigniew Preisner’s music, he played the role of Buttermann

(2008). The film was made in two versions – one for the German Television. Apart from playing in theatre and in films, Łukaszewicz, the president of ZASP, initiated public activities of Warsaw’s actors. In front of the National Theatre Polish actors held “The Tent of Covenant” (1999), a happening in the memory of Jews, “Sybir – Last Farewell” (2000) – a tribute to exiles and “Pilgrim’s Night” – a theatre mystery and a tribute to Juliusz Słowacki on unveiling the poet’s monument in the capital of Poland. The president of ZASP has always said that to be an artist – is a kind of vocation. They share their feelings and experiences with the audience, they share the mystery of life, existence, love and curiosity of other people. One is an artist when they touch the most essential problems, philosophical summary, some expression that penetrates to the bone. Being an actor is a kind of service. The aim of an actor’s work is to make art a testimony, to inspire, to provoke reflection, to develop intellectually and to shape attitudes.

Lech Majewski (1953) director, writer

His artistic achievements as a film and theatre director, writer, poet and painter, have become a part of civilization. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the European Film Academy. The prizes and honors he has received are a testimony to the world’s recognition of Europe and Europe’s awards for a Polish artist. For his film “Gospel According to Harry” – a story of how relationships break up, feelings fade and life dehumanizes – he received the Audience Award in Toronto (1994), and the autobiographical opera “The Roe’s Room” won the Jury Prize in Mar del Plata (1997) and at the Venice Biennial in 2001. His magic realistic film “Angelus” won the Audience Award at the Miami Film Festival (2002) and Prix Federico Fellini (2002). “Accident” was awarded with the Silver Prize at the International Film Festival in Houston (1999). Majewski’s first film, “The Knight”, was awarded in Cambridge (1981), and his “The Flight of the Spruce Goose” – based on his novel, “Kasztanaja” and starring Dan O’Shea, Jennifer Runyon, Karen Black and Betsy Blair – won the Directors Fortnight Award (Cannes, 1985). “Basquiat”, based on Majewski’s book – was awarded with the Special Jury Prize (Venice, 1996). His film “Wojaczek” – a story of a Polish contemporary poet – was shown on festivals in Berlin, Jerusalem, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Montreal, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Rotterdam and Sao Paulo. It won 20 awards, including the title of the Best European Independent Film (Barcelona, 2000), the Best European Film in the Latin-American Film Festival in Corato in Italy and the Grand Prix in Klaipeda. Krzysztof Siwczyk, who played the title role of Rafał Wojaczek, was nominated by the European Film Academy in the Best European Actor category. Majewski’s “Garden of Earthly Delights” won the Grand Prix in Rome (2004). Majewski’s autobiographical opera “The Roe’s Room” with poems he had written early in his career, was staged at the Silesian Opera (1996).

The International Theatre Institute included it on the list of 12 best contemporary operas, selected from the 600 titles staged all over the world in the 1990’s, and they awarded the opera in 1998 in Düsseldorf. Polygram Records released a double CD with the music from this opera, performed by the Great Symphony Orchestra of Polish Radio and TV.

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Czesław Miłosz (1911-2004) poet, prose-writer, essayist, translator

He is a laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1980); Neustadt International Prize for Literature, called the “Small Nobel Prize” (1978). He studied Polish and law at the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius. He debuted in 1930 at Alma

Mater Vilnensis with his poems “Composition” and Journey”. He was a member of the “Żagary” poetic group, he worked for the Polish Radio in Vilnius. From 1946 he was Poland’s cultural attaché in the United States of America and France. In 1951 he got political asylum in France after he suddenly decided to go there to visit the editor of Kultura, Jerzy Giedroyć. He lived in the USA from

Majewski

MiĹ&#x201A;osz

Mitoraj

1960. He taught Slavic literature at the University of California, Berkeley and at Harvard. He translated the works of Shakespeare, Milton, Eliot, poetry of Yeats and fragments of the Bible (Book of Psalms, Book of Job, Book of Wistom, Gospel According to Mark, Book of Revelation) into Polish and he translated Polish poetry into English. In 1993 he moved to Poland, to Cracow – “the most similar to Vilnius”. For his book, “Legends of Modernity” he received the Cracow Book of the Month Award. In 1995 for the “Roadside Dog” anthology he received the prestigious NIKE Literary Award.

has several of Mitoraj’s monumental sculptures. The Jesuit Church in Świętojańska street in Warsaw got the “Angel Door” on the occasion of 400th anniversary of the Merciful Mother of God’s Sanctuary; in front of the quarters of the Olympic Center and the Museum of Sports and Tourism in Warsaw one can find the stunning sculpture “Ikaro Alto”, achieved thanks to the help of the Starak Family Foundation. During EXPO ’92 in Seville Poland awarded a bronze medal designed by Mitoraj to 92 outstanding artists from five continents who designed the flag of the Earth as a symbol of Global Solidarity.

In Seville 30 million visitors saw, touched and had photos taken of them with “Thsuki-No-Hikari” (Light of the Moon), a bronze sculpture standing in the open space near Poland’s Pavilion at the Universal Exposition of EXPO ’92. The Japanese have this work of Mitoraj on Hokkaido, and unique, authorial castings of “Thsuki-No-Hikari” can be found in the collections of the British Museum in London, Museum Beelden aan Zee in Hague and in the Old Brewery Center of Art and Business Centrum in Poznań. Mitoraj’s Light of the Moon was bought for Poznań by Grażyna and Jan Kulczyk who admired the sculpture in Seville. Mitoraj adores and glorifies the beauty and vulnerability of the human body in his sculptures. His works add grace to open spaces of Lozanne, Paris and Rome. He makes his monumental sculptures of clay and gypsum and then forms them in foundries and masonry workshops in Pietrasanta in Tuscany, where he lives. He works like his gurus – Michelangelo and Antonio Canova. He debuted in Paris in 1968 with an exhibition of paintings that he studied under the direction of Tadeusz Kantor at the Academy of Art in Cracow and in Ecole Normale des Beaux Arts in Paris. At great authorial exhibitions in Poznań, Cracow and Warsaw (2003-2004) he exhibited 70 sculptures and 36 pictures in the open space. Poland

Czesław Niemen (1939-2004) singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter

He debuted at the Olympia music hall in Paris (1963) as a soloist of the Polish band NiebieskoCzarni . He gave concerts in Hungary, Yugosla-

Niemen

Igor Mitoraj (1944) sculptor

via, France (Rennes Festival), at the Queen Elisabeth Hall in London, in San Remo, Stockholm and New York and in Poland at Sopot Song Festivals and authorial performances. He became famous for his vocal rock and roll, and rock songs resembling the style of the Beatles, as well as lyrical ballads. One of his hits in the early years of his career was a dynamic song, “Czy wiesz?” and the lyrical ballad, “Pod Papugami”. Niemen played with Niebiesko-Czarni in the first part of Marlene Dietrich’s concert in Warszaw. Dietrich heard his spectacular rendition of “Czy mnie jeszcze pamiętasz”. After 10 months, in 1964, Dietrich included this song, with her own lyrics, in her repertoire. It was titled: “Mutter, hast du mir vergeben”. From 1965 Niemen played with another band, Akwarele. “Dziwny jest ten świat” one of his songs, has been considered the best Polish protest-song and hymn of the young at the end of the 1960’s. He performed at the Cannes MIDEM Trade Show (1968); for his album “Sukces” he received a gold record and was commemorated in Marek Piwowski’s documentary. Among European composers and musicians he was one of the first to use computers to make music. He stimulated the fashion in rock music with his own compositions, individual and characteristic, from psychedelic rock, through symphonic progressive rock (the “Niemen Enigmatic” album) with the classic composition, “Bema pamięci żałobny rapsod” based on Norwid’s poem, to avant-garde jazz-rock and electronic music. He combined his work as a composer with authorial recordings of his songs. He used original and novel solutions in the art of sound. In his recording studio at the National Theatre in Warsaw he experimented and created quadraphonic music. He was supported by Stanisław Pawluk, a specialist on theatre sound effects. Niemen used one of his original recordings of such music during a poster exhibition of the National Theatre organized in the Victory Square in Warsaw. It was in 1977. The visitors who approached to the poster released the quadraphonic recording of the music from the National Theatre’s plays as well as workshop and experimental compositions with Nemen’s ef-

fects, which he added as a composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist. Niemen’s music made the visitors of the exhibition stay longer. Gazing at the posters they listened to new instrumentation. His great passion was collecting and reconstructing oak furniture, whose collections he actually saved, when he moved them to his own and his friends’ apartments a couple of days before fire broke out in the National Theatre. Niemen combined his artistic work as a composer with his passion for painting. His computer graphics, paintings and photographs were the covers of analogue records and first CDs.

Niemen

Marek Nowakowski (1935) writer

He became famous and acclaimed in Europe after publishing his “Report on Martial Law” with the foreword by Leszek Kołakowski (London, Harvill Press and Oslo, 1983). He won the hearts of readers with his “Notes from Normality” (1983), “Two Days with an Angel” (1984), “The Wolves are Approaching from all Sides” (1985) and “Grisza, ja tiebia skażu” (1986). The series about new Poland comprises: “Homo Polonicus” (1992), “Greek Divinity” (1993), “Shots in the Motel George” (1997). In his works he courageously presented the country in the late 1980’s and early 90’s. Nowakowski as a prose writer perceives Poland as bazaar – a place where you can buy practically everyone and everything. For his readers he is the creator of perfect realism and the leading representative of Polish post-war literature. Highly valued for his narrative forms, and his knowledge of old Warsaw and its peculiar language. “The Wedding Feast Again” (1974) is perfect as a literary work and cognitively revealing. He combined the motif of a wedding with showing how power is wielded in provincial dependencies and social behaviors that damage the customs, tradition and codes of values. He presented the dilemmas of writing in “Insects” (1968); “The Prince of Night”, (1972) and “The Boy with the Pigeon on his Head”, (1979) – situ-

Nowakowski

Nowosielski ated between the social margin and philosophy of the center in which literature resides. Nowakowski cautiously analyzes the spheres between the authenticity of a carouser, idler and slacker, and the appearance of roles formulated by the official culture, between the florid and pungent language of the underworld and the artificial or dead language of the press or literature. With his literary artistry and colorful narration he sublimated average, banal, belittled, unimportant and disregarded characters. He shows the

meta-everyday life, which his characters protest against. He published “European Stories” in Copenhahen (1976); “Homo Polonicus” illustrated by Andrzej Mleczko (1992); “Carnival and Fasting” in the Literary Institute (Paris, 1988); “The Pronce of Night” in Belgrade; and “Kryptonim Nowy tajemnica mojej esbeckiej teczki” (2007) also in Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich. He received the awards of: the Kościelscy Foundation (1968), the Cultural “Solidarity” (1982), “Puls” (1982), “Freedom” Award of the French Pen Club (1983),

Nowosielski

Jerzy Nowosielski (1923-2011) painter

An Orthodox thinker. In his long artistic evolution he remained faithful to icon theology, allowing him to solve the painter’s dilemma of figuration and abstraction. His paintings attracted the visitors of Biennale di Venezia (1956); Biennale de Sao Paulo, (1959) and at the MoMA NYC (1961); Staedtlische Kunstgalerie, Bochum (1965); The Richard Demarco Gallery in Edinburgh (1972); The Mall Galleries in London (1974); Grand Palais in Paris (1977); the Wiesbaden Museum

in Wiesbaden (1987); MoMA in Oxford (1988); and Pabellon de las Artes at EXPO ‘92 in Seville. He offered the world over 100 individual exhibitions and a demonstration of his artistic skills at 80 exhibitions abroad. He authored polychromes in sacral facilities in Cracow, in churches: St. Mary’s Holy Dormition Orthodox Church; St. Mary’s Holy Dormition Greek Orthodox Church in Lourdes, the Nativity of The Holy Mother of God in Biały Bór and Franciscan Immaculate Conception Church in Azory. He painted intimate pictures, compositions with images of naked girls in characteristic poses. He cultivated the aesthetics of the female body, he created the mysticism of nudity, and he considered femininity to be an element of the sacrum. Tadeusz Kantos, Nowosielski’s professor, said about his works: “…he displayed some Byzantine nostalgia. Nevertheless his nudes were sadistic and apples and pears in his still life looked like the remains of Pompeii after the volcanic eruption...”.

Olbiński

the Polish Writers in Exile Association, Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation (1984) and the Władysław Reymont Literary Award (2003). He authored the screenplays of films: “Przystań” (1970), “The Pursuit”, (1971), “Siedem czerwonych róż, czyli Benek Kwiaciarz o sobie i o innych”, (1972).

Rafał Olbiński (1945) painter, graphic and poster artist

The participation of Poland at EXPO 2000 in Hanover, the Polish Season in France in 2004 and the “Artists for Europe” exhibition in 2011 were announced with impressive posters designed by Olbiński. The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, the Business Week, the New Yorker and the Washington Post regularly publish illustrations, cartoons and painting reproductions signed Olbinski. The New York City Opera, Utah Opera, Pacific Opera in San Francisco and Philadelphia Opera order their repertoire posters, which are an artistic advertisement of opera shows, from the Polish painter. When he graduated from architecture in Warsaw, he was the artistic director of the Jazz Forum magazine, as well as an independent painter and graphic designer. In 2002 he debuted as a set designer for the opera “Don Giovanni” in Philadelphia. Olbiński has received over 1000 awards for his illustrations, posters and paintings. Each of them was meaningful, three were prestigious – first prizes in international competitions: Strasburg (1976) “Human Rights”; Paris (1994) “Prix Savignac” and (1995) in the contest for a poster promoting “New York as the Capital of the World”, with an international jury with the mayor of NYC, Rudolf Giuliani. Olbiński’s paintings, posters and albums can be seen in collections of contemporary art (the Library of Congress, Carnegie Foundation) and in national, public and private museums in Australia, France, Japan, Germany, Poland, Switzerland and Great Britain. Olbiński is an outstanding continuator of the Polish School of Poster, recognized all over the world.

Roman Opałka (1931-2011) painter, graphic artist

Digits and their positions come from India. This is where Arabs came across mathematics. The propagator of Arabic digits, which replaced Roman digits in Europe was the Persian Muham-

Olbiński

Opałka

galleries for Opałka. The world’s artistic critics have been striving to define and name Opałka’s style in art. Unsuccessfully. Their efforts do not result in any desired outcome. Paintings which are recognized and identified with the artist are inscribed in the rule of permanent harmony, with the accurate term – “Digital Painting”. Professor Małgorzata Kitowska-Łysiak from the John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin thinks that Opałka’s artistic output is subordinate in its form to the “idea of progressive counting”. The artist was born in France, studied painting at the Academy of Art in Warsaw. He has lived in France since 1977.

black, fading into grey. In the last 40 years the background has become lighter. Opałka is a multimedia artist – he pronounces every digit written on his canvas and he records his voice. He incorporates the philosophy of recording vanishing and the passing of time into his painting. European and American auction houses are

Osiecka

mad ibn Musa al-Chorezmi. The propagator of digits in Europe was an Italian mathematician, Leonardo Fibonaccio. The greatest propagator of digits in the art of the 20th century is Roman Opałka – a Polish painter and author of paintings which receive the highest auction prices. He is considered to be a representative of conceptual art. He owes the international interest in his artwork and media publicity to his painting cycle called “Opałka 1965 /1 – ∞”. The artist paints lines of digits on canvas with white paint. The content of the work is the outcome of calculations, expressed with digits as graphic characters. The background of his early works was

Agnieszka Osiecka (1936-1997) poetess, songwriter, writer

At the crossroads of Francuska and Obrońców street in Saska Kępa in Warsaw there is a bronze cafe table, and an unlit figure is sitting at it – the figure of Agnieszka Osiecka, the auhor of the

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this play, which was a theatre hit in the 1960’s in Poland, was comparable with the success of the musical “A Hard Day’s Night” by The Beatles (directed by Lester) in Great Britain. Osiecka adapted plays like “The Magician of Lublin”, “Wilki” and “Darcie pierza” based on the works of Isaac Bashevis Singer – laureate of a Nobel Prize in Literature (1978).

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famous Polish Coca Cola advertising slogan: Coca cola – to jest to (Coca Cola – This is it). The sculpture was made by Teresa PastuszkaKowalska and Dariusz Kowalski to honor the poetess. From 1954 Osiecka cooperated with the Students’ Satirical Theatre in Warsaw, for which she wrote 160 songs out of the 2000, which constitute her total artistic output. She cooperated with Bim-Bom theatre, the Theatre of Television as well as Olga Lipińska and Pod Egidą comedy groups. Her songs were published in the following anthologies: “Kolory” (1963), “Wyszłam i nie wróciłam” (1969), “Singing Letters” (1971), “Sztuczny miód” (1977), “Żywa reklama” (1985), “Śpiewające piaski” (1989), “Opisanie szopki” (1991). Some of her hits were: “A ja wolę moją mamę” sung by Majka Jeżowskia; songs from the repertoire of Maryla Rodowicz: “Ballada wagonowa”, “Bossanova do poduszki”, “Damą być”, “Dziś prawdziwych Cyganów już nie ma”, “Małgośka”, “Niech żyje bal”, “Polska Madonna”, “Sing, sing”. Violetta Villas sang: “Kiedy mi przyjdzie zasnąć na dłużej”, “Mechaniczna lalka”, and Krystyna Janda: “Szaloną być”, “Na zakręcie” and “Weselne dzieci”. From 1994 Osiecka wrote theatre plays and songs for the Atelier Theatre in Sopot. Her poetic and musical achievements have been commemorated with the program “Let Us Remember Agnieszka Osiecka”, and the Concert Studio of Channel 3 of the Polish Radio is named after her. Her artistic output has been cultivated by the poetess’ daugter, Agata Passent and the Okularnicy Foundation. The great, 14-volume “Great Songbook of Agnieszka Osieckia” has been published. In 2010 some of her correspondence from the years 1964-1966 was also published. The collection was titled: “Agnieszki Osieckiej i Jeremiego Przybory listy na wyczerpanym papierze”. The agreement of their heirs has made it possible to publish the lyrical correspondence of two people, linked by an incredible feeling. Osiecka authored the screenplay to the musical show “Niech no tylko zakwitną jabłonie”, which received the main prize at the Contemporary Polish Drama Festival (1964). The success of

Krzysztof Penderecki (1933) composer, conductor

He gave concerts in all continents. He is a professor with 28 honorary doctorates. Author of operas: “The Devils of Loudun” ordered by the Opera in Hamburg, (1969), “Paradise Lost”, with the world premiere at the Lyric Opera in Chicago (1978), and European premiere at Teatro La Scala in Milan (1979), “The Black Mask” – the world premiere at the Salzburg Festival (1986) and “King Ubu” – world premiere at the Munich Opera in 1991. He wrote an oratory, a cantata, “Cosmogony”, ordered by the UN. He made his dream

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come true and he built a garden. A labyrinth. In the catalogue accompanying the exhibition of his scores and composer’s graphic sketches at the BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Cracow he wrote: “In the Labyrinth I pursue various musical forms. I look for answers to my questions and doubts. Searching for order and harmony pairs with the feeling of disintegration and apocalypse. The outside world often brutally interferes with my inner life. It makes me compose works like Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, Dies irae, Polish Rquiem. It is an important element of my artistic output. However, the world of music is an ideal world. That is why I am most eager to turn to pure musical form, untouched by the outside. I rumble, I wander – I enter my symbolic labyrinth. This roundabout way leads me to fulfillment. I have also built a labyrinth in my garden in Lusławice. I feel safe there, I can go back and find new ways. I am not eager to leave the labyrinth… In Lusławice I write the music that is closest to my heart: symphonies, which take many years to compose and chamber music – my musica domestica. I escaped here into my intimacy, into a world which is almost silent – and I think I am approaching the very nature of music”.

Jerzy Pilch (1952) writer, publicist, columnist, playwright, screenwriter

He is a fan of Cracovia, the oldest Polish football club, founded in Cracow in 1906. Other fans of this club are Nigel Kennedy (a British violinist and artistic director of the Cracow Philharmonics) and professor Norman Davis (a British historian). Some great Cracovia supporters from the past were the Marshal of Poland, Józef Piłsudski (1921-1935), and between 1946 and 1978 Karol Wojtyła. Pilch has always considered the atmosphere of the football stadium as a source of his literary inspiration and authentic, and sometimes peculiar language. For his anthology, “Confessions of an author of illicit erotic literature” Pilch received prestigious European awards, such as the Swiss Kościelski Foundation Award (1989).

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Polański In London, in Puls he published “List of adulteresses. Travel prose”, (1993) and “Theses on stupidity, drinking and dying” (1997), as well as “A Thousand Peaceful Cities”, the finalist of the NIKE Literary Contest (1998). For his “The irreversible loss of left-handedness” (1998) he re-

ceived the “Polityka” Passport Award and he was the finalist of the NIKE Literary Contest (1999). At the break of the Millennium he published “Christmas Tales” with Olga Tokarczuk and Andrzej Stasiuk. He received the most prestigious and financially beneficial award in Poland – NIKE – for

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“The Mighty Angel” (2000). In the first decade of the 21st century he released: “The Fall of Man in front of the Central Station”(2002), “City of Woe” (2004), “The Holy Father’s Skis” (2004), “My First Suicide” (2006) – a finalist of the NIKE Literary Contest, “The Train to Eternal Life”(2007) – a collection of editorials printed in Polityka between 2002 and 2006, and in Dziennik since June 2006, as well as “March, Polonia” (2008). Alfred Lemp translated “His current woman” into German (Berlin, Verlag Volk & Welt, 2000). The English version was published in Evanston, Ill., Northwestern University Press, translated by B. Johnston. It was also published in Vilnius, titled “Kiti malonumai: erotine Gawenda”. The NIKE laureate, “The mighty angel: a novel”, has been published in Breda, titled “In de sterke Engel” (translated by K. Lesman, 2002) and in Tallinn as “Kange ingli tiiva all” (translated by H. Lindepuu). The English version was published in Rochester and translated by B. Johnston. “The irreversible loss of left-handedness” was also published in Russia (2008).

Roman Polański (1933) director, actor, screenwriter

He directed and played the main part in “Amadeus” in Warsaw’s Theatre on Wola. In the same play Tadeusz Łomnicki admirably played Salieri (1981). The opinions of the director’s acting skills were diverse to the utmost, but he received a warm welcome from the audience and the name POLAŃSKI was written in biggest letters on posters placed all over Warsaw. He survived the war in the Cracow ghetto. He started playing theatre roles in 1948 and in 1953 he debuted in his first film role. He studied directing in Łódź. He worked with Krzysztof Komeda. For his first full-length film, “Knife in the Water” (1962) he received an Academy Award nomination. He went to Western Europe. In Great Britain he made “Repulsion”, starring Catherine Deneuve. In 1968 he moved to Hollywood, where he shot the horror film, “Rosemary’s Baby”, for which he received

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two Academy Award nominations and one Oscar. He shot “Chinatown” with Jack Nicholson playing the main part. The film turned out to be a hit – it got 11 Academy Award nominations and seven nominations for the Golden Globe (and received 4 awards – for the best film, best director, best screenplay and leading male part). Critics and viewers agree that “Chinatown” is one of the greatest films in the history of cin-

Różewicz ema. His other film, “Tess”, won 3 Oscars. The war drama “The Pianist” was awarded with a Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, seven Caesars from the French Film Academy and three Oscars (for best director, best adapted screenplay and best leading male part). In 2010 Polański directed “The Ghostwriter”, for which he won a Silver Bear at the International Film Festival in Berlin and six “European Oscars”

– European Film Academy Awards (including best film, best director and best screenplay).

Tadeusz Różewicz (1922) poet, dramatist, prose writer, screenwriter

In 2011 he received the special award of Polityka – Culture Creator 2010 “for being faithful to

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poetry and to himself. (...) For the testimony he has given to several consecutive eras and questions that allowed to include Polish literature and theatre in the European debate on the most important experiences of a contemporary man”. He wanted to create posters for his play “The Trap”, but in his letter he wrote: “I cannot keep my promise, as I have got ill. I was looking forward to making this poster, but I will not be ale to do it. You will need to content yourself with only one Różewicz… Maybe someday (in the future) – without a strict deadline – I will make a poster, and only then sign a contract – as it would be difficult for me to pay 600 zlotys for each of 100 or 200 days of delay, which would amount for 60 to 120 thousand zlotys!... I liked Fijałkowski’s poster (for “The Trap” at the Studio Theatre), though maybe it would be more appropriate for a poster exhibition than to be posted up in the streets?”. Różewicz’s poetry, close to the traditions of avant-garde, is defined as cubist. In his plays one can sense the bond with Beckett and Ionesco’s avant-garde. Różewicz’s theatre includes many autobiographical elements and references to Polish traditions. It is realistic, poetic, and sometimes filled with absurd. Różewicz has received honorary doctorates of seven Polish universities.

Zbigniew Rybczyński (1949) director, multimedia artist

Laureate of the FIPRESCI Award and the FICC Award at the Oberhausen Film Festival, Grand Prix in Annecy and the First Prize in Tampere. In 1982 he moved from Poland to Austria, where he got political asylum. When he won an Oscar for his film “Tango” (1983), he went with his family to the United States of America. At first in Los Angeles, then in New York, he made his American films – all of them in computer techniques: “Steps” (inspired by the famous scene from Sergei Eisenstein’s “Tha Battleship Potiomkin”), “The Orchestra” (Emmy Award’90 – for special effects), “Manhattan”, “Washington”, “Kafka”. Rybczyński became even more famous when

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he made music videos for Mick Jagger, for John Lennon’s “Imagine”, for Simple Minds, The Art of Noise, Chuck Mangione, Pet Shop Boys, Alan Parsons Project, Yoko Ono, Lou Reed, Supertramp, Rush, Lady Pank (for their song, “Minus Zero”). The Leon Schiller National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź honored him with the title od doctor honoris causa in film arts. It was awarded to him on 5th June 2008, when the school celebrated its 60th anniversary.

Rybczyński

Wilhelm Sasnal (1972) painter, film author

Sasnal makes films and multimedia inspired by literature. The emotional and intellectual part of his painting draws from the expression of contemporary abstraction, choreography, photorealism, history, cubism, art of gesture, minimalism, pop-art and surrealism. He authored the five paintings that constitute the “Maus” cycle (2001) and were created after seeing Art Spiegelman’s comic book. Sasnal’s paintings refer to the history of Spiegelman’s parents, who have survived holocaust. The painter removed human figures from the black and white scenes. The viewer can see an empty landscape, gas chamber door and bunks. Sasnal knows the story of a German artist, Gregor Schneider, who used to visit places where somebody was murdered. He went back there and asked: Is this place burdened with what happened here? Sasnal asks – can his paintings be burdened with such meaning? How should art cross borders? Spiegelman broke the taboo twice: a) he talked about holocaust; b) he did it in a comic book, where he showed nations as animals (Jews as mice, Germans as cats and Polish people as pigs). Sasnal uses an 8 mm video camera. He makes music videos. For the purposes of his art he simulates accidents and fires, the last flight of the Concorde and street life scenes. Sasnal’s stay at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa (Teksas, USA, 2005) inspired him to make films about the plane cemetery. He had individual exhibitions and a significant input into collective exhibitions.

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His works can be seen in the collections of: the Contemporary Art Center at the Ujazdowski Castle, Saatchi Gallery, Tate Modern in London, the Pompidou Center in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum and the Kunsthaus in Zurich. The publishers of “Flash Art”, Giancarlo Politi i Helena Kontova, asked 100 outstanding art critics to list 100 most important, young artists. In both rankings Wilhelm Sasnal came first. Two weeks after this publication he received the Vincent van Gogh Biennial Award for Contemporary Art in Europe (The Vincent Award) awarded by Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Sasnal’s painting “Planes” (1999) from the collection of Charles Saatchi was sold in May 1999 at a contemporary art auction in Christie’s, the auction house in New York, for $396 thousand. It is the highest price in history for a Polish contemporary oil painting. Andrzej Seweryn (1946) actor, director

Born in Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg. Polish film and theatre actor. He has been proclaimed a French Comedian for life at the Comédie Française in Paris. Currently he is the head of the Polish National Theatre in Warsaw. He has played in 57 films and directed four. Laureate of the Silver Bear at the International Film Festival in Berlin for his role in “The Orchestra Conductor” (1980); honored with the Main Actors Award at the International Film Festival in Cairo for his role in “Amok” (1994); laureate of the Polish Television Award at the 25th Polish Film Festival in Gdansk for his role in the film “The Primate” (2000), for which he also received the Golden Duck (2001). For his artistic public activity in 2006 Seweryn received the Gold Gloria Artis Medal, in 1994 – the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France); in 1996 – Stanisław Witkacy Award; w 1997 – the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta; in 1999 – the French Order of Merit; in 2006 – Officier medal of the French Légion d’honneur; in 2008 – the Commander’s Cross of the Order of

Polonia Restituta; in 2009 – he refused to accept the Zbyszek Cybulski Special Award, as he disagreed with the justification of the jury’s verdict. He is a lecturer at l’Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts et Techniques du Theatre in Lyon. During the 2nd Star Festival in Międzyzdroje he left his hand-mark at the Star Promenade (1997), and in Piotrkowska street in Łódź Seweryn’s star was unveiled in the Alley of Stars in Artur Rubinstein passage (1998). He was awarded by Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs for his outstanding contribution to Polish culture in the world (1997).

Jerzy Skolimowski (1938) director, screenwriter, actor, poet, painter

Venice is a lucky city for Skolimowski. His “Essential Killing” – a Polish-Norwegian-Irish-Hun-

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garian co-produced war thriller – won the Special Award of he Venice Film Festival’s Jury (2010). He also received this award in 1985 for “The Lightship”. At the Cannes Film Festival in 1982 Skolimowski’s British-produced drama, “Moonlighting”, was awarded for the best screenplay. His British-produced horror film, “The Shout” won the Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival in 1978. “Start” – a Belgium-produced melodrama directed by Skolimowski and with his screenplay – it was the first film that the Polish artist completed in the West (1967); it won the Golden Bear and the International Film Critic’s Union Award at the Berlinale Festival. “Barrier”, a psychological film, received the Special Jury Award at the Valladolid International Film Festival (1966). Skolimowski was a jury member at international film festivals in: Cannes (1987), San Sebastian (1998) and Venice (2000, 2001).

Tomasz Stańko (1942) jazz trumpeter

Van Gogh and Modigliani’s paintings and the literary works of Faulkner, Joyce and Kafka are Stańko’s non-musical inspirations. He was the first laureate of the European Jazz Award (2003). This outstanding jazz trumpeter is a representative of the world’s free jazz. He recorded the album “Twet” with Edward Vesala, a Finnish drummer, and Peter Warren – on double bass and cello, and he recorded “Balladyna” with Dave Holland, a British composer and double bassist. In the United States he played concerts and recorded albums with Cecil Taylor, a poet and pianist, and Gary Peacock, a double bassist. In India he recorded his solos at Taj Mahal (1980). In 1985 he started playing concerts with Freelectronic, and he experimented with synthetic sound. Stańko cooperated with musicians from Norway: Jon Christensen – drums, Arild Andersen – composer and double bassist (“Bluish” album); Sweden: Bobo Stenson - pianist, Anders Jormin – bassist, and Tony Oxley, a drummer from England (“Bosonossa and other Ballads”). For the last

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ten years he has played concerts and recorded albums for ECM Records with young musicians from the Simple Acoustic Trio. He recorded “Almost Green” at the Love Studio in Helsinki (1978); “Music from Taj Mahal and Karla Caves” in India (1980); “Caoma” at the Taxi Studios in Munich; he recorded his classic hit, “Astigmatic” for the Rainbow Studio, with Krzysztof Komeda, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Gunter Lenz and Rune Carlsson; he also recorded “Meine Süsse Europëische Heimat” for Electrolia and Columbia, and Penderecki’s “Don Cherry” for Phillips. In surveys carried out by the Jazz Forum magazine he was selected as the Musician of the Year and Trumpeter of the Year six times, and four times as the Composer of the Year. Tomasz Stańko Quartet’s “Soul of Things” (2002) “Suspended Night” (2004), and “Lontano” (2006) won the title of the Album of the Year; Tomasz Stańko Quartet was also awarded in the category of Best Acoustic Band. Stańko composes and records film music (“Dziura w ziemi”, “Egzekutor”,

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Franciszek Starowieyski (1930-2009) painter, graphic, director, set designer, actor

“A painting has two functions. One is to be exposed in different museums and keep visitors interested for at least 20 seconds; the other is to become an investment and be hung up someone’s wall as a high denomination banknote” – Starowieyski wrote perversely in his album “Pawilon wyobraźni”. At the beginning of his artistic path (1954) Starowieyski assumed an artistic pseudonym – Jan Byk. It was a political joke of Stalin’s times. “I came up with the most proletariat-like name I could invent” – he said in numerous interviews. He debuted with “Crying Dove of Peace”, which was his way to manifest solidarity with Budapest in 1956. He was not a member of any artistic movement. He celebrated his individuality and exceptionality. His imagination exceeded what was real, he was close to surrealism. He saw beauty where other artists never looked for it – in the bodies of elderly women who became more beautiful in his eyes. He pictured that many times in “Theatre of Drawing”, events that were acts of extreme artistic exhibitionism, in which the audience also participated. He was a virtuoso of drawings. He exhibited his works many times in galleries and museums in Austria, Belgium, Brazil (Biennale Sao Paulo), Czechoslovakia, France, Spain (EXPO ’92), Holland, Italy (Venice Biennale), Canada, West Germany, Switzerland, the United States of America (MOMA NYC). Laureate of international prizes. Filmed in Andrzej Papuziński’s “Glory to Byk” and Jerzy Karpiński’s “Theatre of Drawing”. His painting “Sacra Polo-

nia rapta per Europa profana” (antidated by 300 years, as baroque was Starowieyski’s favourite period in art) can be seen in Brussels, at the Polish Diplomatic Post in the EU. During the artist’s funeral in the baroque interior of the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw (where Chopin’s heart is buried), Marek Starowieyski, a celebrant and Franciszek’s younger brother, said in the homily that “Franek can now talk to Rembrandt in Heaven, and see the universe’s most beautiful watches with the angels” – watches that he had collected and that had been stolen from him.

Allan Starski (1943) set designer

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts considered Starski’s set design to be outstanding and awarded the artist with the high-

Starowieyski

“Pożegnanie z Marią”, “Reich”, “Skaza”, “Trąd”) and theatre music (“Balladyna”, “Nienasycenie”, “Roberto Zucco”, “Wyzwolenie”). He has been honored with the Order of Polonia Restituta and the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta for his “outstanding contribution to the development of national culture and achievements in his artistic activity”.

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Henryk Stażewski (1894-1988) painter

Considered to be an expressionist, formist, cubist, constructivist and suprematist. Connected

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est statutory prize for Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” (1994), filmed in Cracow. The verdict of the American Film Academy was similar – Starski won and Oscar. He received the “Polish Eagles” award for his set design in Wajda’s “Pan Tadeusz” and in 2003 in Polański’s “The Pianist”. Starski was also awarded at the 6th Polish Film Festival in Gdańsk, for his set design in Wajda’s “Panny z wilka”, a Polish-French co-production (1979). This film based on Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s story published in 1932 had four versions of its English title: The Girl from Wilko, The Young Ladies of Wilko, The Maids of Wilko, The Young Girls of Wilko. Starski’s artistic output includes two great film installations – in “Man of Iron”, which won a Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival (1981) and Wajda’s “Danton”, which received an Oscar nomination. He worked with Kieślowski on “No End” – a psychological-political drama (1984), and with Agnieszka Holland on “Europa, Europa” (German Hitlerjunge Salomon), a Polish-German-French co-produced war film (1990). He designed set decorations for Polański’s “Oliver Twist”, a Czech-FrenchBritish-Italian film and adaptation of Dickens’ novel (2005). Starski said about his cooperation with Wajda: “Film staff felt that they co-created the films, but one had to remember that Andrzej has an instinct which allows him to screen, interpret and reject ideas. I will remember forever what he once said: When a director is successful, it is due to the whole team. When they fail, it is their sole responsibility. My work with Wajda enabled me to face Spielberg or Lloyd-Webber without the feeling of inferiority. Wajda thinks with images, he creates great drawings and story-boards. Other directors tell me about their dreams, and he draws them... We understand each other so well”.

Stażewski

with the avant-garde, representative of geometrical abstraction. He exhibited his works in Paris (Musèe d’Art Moderne – 1977, 1982); Centre Georges Pompidou (1983), Stockholm, Amsterdam, Brussels and Geneva (1959), Venice (1959, 1966, 1986), New York (Museum of Modern Art, 1976), Oslo (1961), Essen (1962, 1973), Stuttgart (1962), Chicago (1964, 1966, 1967, 1972), Bochum (1964), Tel Aviv (1965), Tokio (1966), London (Royal Academy – 1970, 1984), Strasburg (1970), Düsseldorf (1974, 1981, 1982), Milan (1974, 1986), Zurich (1974, 1975), Hamburg (1975), Madrid, Berlin and Cologne (1977), Rome (1979) and Los Angeles (1981). The Museum of Art in Łódź organized a retrospective exhibition of Stażewski’s artistic works in 1994. At the 33rd Venice Biennale (1966) he received an honorary award and in 1972 he got the Gottfried Herder Award from the University of Vienna. His artistic output corresponded with many currents and trends in the art of the 20th century. He cooperated with Tadeusz Kantor.

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Jerzy Stuhr (1947) actor, director, translator

Selected by the National Italian Journalists’ Syndicate “Nastro d’Argento” as the Best European Artist; Laureate of the Catholic Robert Besson Award for his “artistically mature testimony of persistence in searching for spirituality in cinema” awarded by the Pontifical Council for Culture (2005). He received the FIPRESCI at the Venice Film Festival; he was awarded at the 3rd International Film Festival in Newport Beach in California. He debuted as a film director with “List of Adulteresses” (1994) based on Jerzy Pilch’s novel. Laureate of the Golden Duck – the oldest Polish film award, which he received from the Film monthly for the best comedy actor of the century. He cooperated with Kieślowski as an actor in his films and co-writer of dialogues to “The Calm” and “Camera Buff”; he dedicated his authorial film, “Love Stories” to Kieślowski. Stuhr has been a screenwriter, director and actor in every role he has played. With Andrzej Wajda he created unforgettable roles at the Old Theatre in Cracow: Porfiry Pietrovich in Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” and AA in Mrożek’s “The Emigrants”. For his role in “The Emigrants” he was awarded at the 19th Theatre Meetings in Kalisz. He played advocate Porębowicz in Wajda’s “Rough Treatment”. Since 1985 he has played the title role in Patrick Süskind’s “Contrabassist” – a play he directed, also in Italian. He was awarded with a Golden Hugon at the 15th International Film Festival in Chicago for his role in Feliks Falk’s “Top Dog”; he also received the Golden Lion at the 6th Polish Film Festival in Gdańsk for his roles of: Filip Mosz in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “Camera Buff” and Zbyszek Ejmont in Feliks Falk’s “Chance”. He received a diploma from Poland’s Foreign Affairs Minister for promoting Polish culture abroad. Professor and perennial Rector of the Ludwik Solski State Theatre School of Cracow. Honored with the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2011). Author of audiobooks with Andersen and Grimm’s tales.

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“Dante”, “Cervantes”, “Witkacy”, “Majakowski” and the autobiographical “Replica” made for the Edinburgh Festival (1972). Szajna’s theatre was consistent with Wyspiański’s message: “at the theatre the viewer first looks and then they listen”. Szajna made his theatre strong with visual narration. He traveled across Europe, South America, Africa and Asia. He experimented in his painting creation. He recorded theatre scenes from the stage on canvas, paper and new kinds of support, as his successive works. On the 50th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation he coordinated the works on an exhibition organized as a tribute to the victims of Nazism.

Józef Szajna (1922-2008) painter, set designer, director

“I do not know my paintings. I do not analyze my plays – they are of no interest to me after the premiere” – said professor Szajna to actors, students and the audience. He was a imprisoned at the Auschwitz German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp. He survived the hell of the concentration camp and the horror of waiting for the end in his death cell. He expressed his traumatic experiences in his art – theatre, set designing, graphics. When he graduated from the Cracow Academy of Art, he made his war and concentration camp experience the power and expression of his creation. As a director and stage designer he raised universal topics. He staged his authorial plays:

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Wisława Szymborska (1923) poetess

Laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1996). In the justification of their decision the Norwegian Nobel Committee wrote: “for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality”. For her literary output she received the award of the Kościelscy Foundation in Geneva. The only Polish poetess honored with Goethepreis der Stadt Frankfurt – a German award for achievements in literature (1991). In 1995 she received the Herder-Preis – awarded to her by Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S. from Hamburg. An important part of the Nobel prize winner’s artistic output are limericks. Szymborska is a member of the Limerick Lodge, as an author and propagator of humorous literary genres.

Leon Tarasewicz (1957) painter

The most important square in Catalonia is the King’s Square in Barcelona. In April and May 2002 it was Leon Tarasewicz’s square. The artist painted 144 paintings there. They were not graffiti or elements of some happening, but proper authorial artworks, colorful and paint-

Szymborska ed directly on unusual support – flagstones. Several thousand Spanish people and tourists witnessed his work every day. It was a spontaneous creation, a great exhibition with perfect art that intrigues, touches and raises interest; it was documented in the catalogue “El nou art de Polònia”. European viewers touched the paintings, photographed them, compared and treaded them. With respect and admiration. Many people wanted to buy his paintings from the Royal Palace. But the city of Barcelona did not sell the Royal Palace flagstones. The paintings went down in history. Have all of them been destroyed? Or not? This was Tarasewicz’s Action Painting, a creative act of abstractionist expressionism involving the audience. The paintings, washed off by the city’s services, remained in

the memory of people and in documents. Tarasewicz, a professor of the Academy of Arts in Warsaw graduated from a course in painting under the direction of Tadeusz Dominik. The central point on his map of the world is Waliły, a village near Białystok. He emphasizes his Belarusian origin and identifies with the Belarusian minority living in Poland. He favors initiatives aimed at enlivening Belarusian culture. One episode in Tarasewicz’s artistic work was figurative painting. He decided to quit this form and he destroyed this collection of paintings. The allusiveness of his works became marginally important. Tarasewicz avoids “literature” and self-comment. He creates, he paints, but he does not give titles to his works. He is the laureate of the Grand Culture’s Foundation Award

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(2006) for “consequently challenging the traditional understanding of painting, as well as any conventional ways of understanding art”. He exhibited his works in: Galerij S65 in Aalst (Belgium), Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Kunsthalle St.

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Annen and the Galerie Mettalinde in Lubeck; Springer & Winckler Galerie in Berlin and Frankfurt, Ujazdowski Castle and Foksal Gallery in Warsaw; Tatintsian Gallery in New York, Gallerie Nordenhake in Stockholm, Galleria del

Tarasewicz Cavallino in Venice; in Seoul – at the Horizons Chosun Ilbo Gallery and Kunstolympiade – National Museum of Contemporary Art.; the Palace of Art in Minsk, Art at the Edge – Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, Polish Realities – Third

Eye Center in Glasgow and the National Art Gallery “Zachęta” in Warsaw. He is the laureate of: Jan Cybis Award (2000), Zofia and Jerzy Nowosielski Foundation’s Award and the Passport of Polityka Award (2000).

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Jan Twardowski (1915-2006) poet and humanist

He knew, created and cultivated contemporary religious lyrics. His “Signs of Trust”, published in 1970 brought him the popularity he had not been striving for. Twardowski’s poetry about God and people was translated into: Albanian, English, Belarusian, Czech, Finnish, Flamand, French, Hebrew, German, Russian, Slovakian, Swedish, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Italian. He frequently uses accurate metaphors and references to nature, and understood as praising creation. Twardowski combined his poems into apostrophes, and by delicate stylistic means, he gave them a more prayerful character (for example: Boże po stokroć święty, Mocny i uśmiechnięty in “Supplications”). He was a cult figure, honored by Pope John Paul II with the title of an honorary prelate of His Holiness. Twardowski’s portrait was made by Czesław Czapliński after many years of their friendship, dating from 1985. It was then that the poet received the Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation Award in New York. He also got the Award of the Capital City of Warsaw, the Robert Graves Literary Award of the Polish Pen Club, Janusz Korczak Medal, the Order of the Smile (1996) and of the Minister of Culture and Art for his literary activity (1997). The poet left behind the Ikar award from 2000 and the Children’s Heart Award, and a year later the Totus Award, called the Catholic Nobel Prize. In 1999 the Catholic University in Lublin awarded Twardowski a honorary doctorate.

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Leopold Tyrmand (1920-1985) writer, publicist

After the war, he worked for a year in Denmark and Norway for the International Red Cross. He was a correspondent of Polpress in Norway and the head of the press office of the Polish legation in Copenhagen. In 1948 during the Intellectuals Congress in Wroclaw, he talked to such people as Pablo Picasso and Julian Huxley. He left Poland in 1965. He was a supporter of conservative values, he objected to leftist tendencies. He had lectures at the State University of New York and Columbia University. His works were censored in Poland and published in France and the USA. He published the following anthologies of poems and press articles: “On the Border of Jazz” (1957); “Notebooks of Dilettante” (1970, pub-

lished in Poland in 1991); “The Rosa Luxemburg Contraceptive Cooperative. A Primer on Communist Civilization” (1972, also published in Poland) and “Here in America. Good Advice for Poles” (1975).

Andrzej Wajda (1926) director

In the 1950’s French film critics introduced and promoted the notion of “Polish Film School”. It referred to cinematography that stemmed from the political transformation of 1956 and probably had as many as 11 founding fathers, all from one decade, born in the 1920’s. Wajda co-created the Polish Film School as a young director of three films: “Kanał” (1957), “Ashes and

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Diamonds” (1958) and “Lotna” (1959). Wajda’s “Kanał” was the first Polish film to be reviewed in Western Europe. World critics watched “Kanał” at the Cannes Film Festival. They appreciated the director’s originality and his novelty was awarded with the Silver Palm, just as Bergman’s “Seventh Seal”. Since his debut, Wajda’s monumental artistic activity has reflected the idea of authorial cinema, drawing from the world’s paintings and Polish literature, as well as European cultural traditions. Wajda created films and pictures touching contemporary issues, based on literary artworks. He is also the author of intimate psychological dramas. As a member of Institut de France – Académie des Beaux-Arts, since 1997 he has belonged to the Circle of the Immortal, due to his artistic output and the memory of many nations. He is the author of 32 film screenplays and he has directed 55 films. The American Film Academy honored him with an Oscar for his lifetime achievement

(2000). His films, “Promised Land”, “The Maids of Wilko”, “Man of Iron” and “Katyń” got Oscar nominations. He was awarded for his artistic output with a Golden Bear at the 56th International Film Festival in Berlin. He got a Golden Palm for his “Man of Iron” at the Cannes Film Festival, the César for “Danton” (1982); and the Kyoto Award (1987); Felix (1990) and FIPRESCI Award (2009). He has cooperated with the Old Theatre in Cracow and Powszechny Theatre. He has directed 38 theatre plays in Berlin, Budapest, Cracow, Moscow, Sofia, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Warsaw and Zurich. He has directed plays inspired by the prose of Dostoyevsky (“The Possessed”, “The Crime and Punishment”, “Nastasja Filipovna” as a version of “The Idiot”). He is the author of the following plays: “Two on a Seesaw”, “A Hatfull of Rain”, “Die Novembernacht”, “The Wedding”, “The Danton Affair”, “The Emigrants”, “Play Strindberg”, “The Dreams of Reason”, “As Years Go By, As Days

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Małgorzata Walewska (1965) opera singer (mezzo-soprano)

Soloist of the Staatsoper in Vienna (1996-1998), Royal Opera House in London (in Verdi’s “Troubadoure”) and the Grand Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw. She has a rare vocal scale, covering contralto, alto and coloratura, lyrical and dramatic mezzo-soprano. She sang with: Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Simon Estes – bass-baritone and the American baritone – Thomas Hampson. Walewska has been invited by opera theatres in Europe and the United States of America, to please music lovers and add splendor to important festivals. When she was still a student of the Academy of Music in Warsaw, she came first in international vocal competitions in Las Palmas and Wroclaw. In 1993 in Madrid, together with Spain’s Radio

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Go By”, “The Dybbuk” and “Antygone”. In 1994 he funded the building of the Museum of Japanese Art and Technique “Manggha” in Cracow. In 2002 in Warsaw he founded Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing. He received the title of doctor honoris causa of the Jagiellonian University, and Universities of Warsaw, Gdansk, Łódź and Opole; he is the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor; he was also honored with the Cyril and Methodius Order (Bulgaria, 1978); Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana (Estonia, 2008); in France: the Commander (2001) and Officer of the Legion of Honor (1982); the Rising Sun Order (Japan, 1995); the third class Order of the Three Stars (Latvia, 2010); Order of Friendship (Russia, 2010); Order of Yaroslav the Wise (Ukraina); the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2006); Order of Danica Hrvatska with the face of Marko Marulić (2010). President Dmitri Medvediev honored him with the Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation (2010), and he received the Order of the White Eagle from the Hands of Poland’s President, Bronisław Komorowski (2011).

and Television’s Symphonic Orchestra and Choir she recorded the famous “Habanere” with El Arreglito’s melodic line, incorporated by Georges Bizet in “Carmen”. In 1999, Time wrote that “Małgorzta Walewska is one of the ten most famous Polish people, she is a star that lights Poland’s way into the next Millenium”. Some of her great creations are: the role in “Carmen” – Georges Bizet’s opera with Henri Meilhac’s and Ludovica Halévy’s libretto; Delilah in “Samson and Delilah” with music by Camille Saint-Saënsa, and libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire; Santuzza – soprano in Pietro Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana” (1890) and Giovannie Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci’s libretto; Amneris in Giuseppe Verdi’s “Aida” with Antonio Ghislanzoni’s libretto (its

world premiere added splendor to the opening of the Suez Canal, 1869). Walewska has also played the role of Ulrika in “Ball-Masquerade”, Fenena (alto) in “Nabucco”; Magdalena (alto) in “Rigoletto” and Paulina (contralto) in “The Queen of Spades” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky; Olga in “Eugen Onegin” and Emillia in “Othello” by Verdi. In the repertoire of symphonic music and oratories she amazes with her roles in Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Magnificat”; Beethoven’s 9th Symphony; Gustav Mahler’s 2nd and 3rd Symphony; Rossini’s “Stabat Mater”; Mozart’s Cmajor Mass, Verdi’s and Mozart’s “Requiem” and Arthur Honegger’s “King David”. In 2008 in the Pearls of the Polish Economy competition she was awarded with the Honorary Pearl for cultivating Polish culture in the world.

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Krzysztof Warlikowski (1962) director

Laureate of the French Theatre Critics’ Association Award for his direction of “Cleansed”, a play by an English playwright, Sarah Kane (19711999). Critics considered it to be the most outstanding foreign language play in the 2002/2003 season in France, and the director was honored with the Chevalier of Culture Order (2004). Warlikowski is an outstanding European director, invited to direct plays, such as: Tennessee Williams’ “Streetcar Named Desire” at the OdéonThéâtre de l’Europe (2010); Karol Szymanowski’s “King Roger” at the Opera of Paris (2009); Leosz Janaczek’s “The Makropulos Case” (2007); Christoph Willibald Gluck’s “Iphigenia in Tauris” (2006); Yukio Mishima’s “Madame de Sade” at the Tonnel Groep in Amsterdam (2006); Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” at the Staatstheater in Hanover (2004); Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Théâtre National in Nice (2003); In Search of Lost Time” based on Marcel Proust’s novel, at Schauspiel in Bonn (2002); Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” at Staat-

stheater in Stuttgart (2000); Shakespeare’s “Pericles” at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan (1998). At the Grand Theatre in Warsaw he directed Giuseppe Verdi’s “Don Carlos” (2000), Paweł Mykietyn’s “An Ignoramus and a Madman” (2001), Krzysztof Penderecki’s “Ubu Rex” (2003) and Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck” (2006). He has graduated from the Direction Department of the State Theatre School in Cracow (1989–1993). He also studied history, philosophy and Romance philology at the Jagiellonian University, and Greek theatre history at École Pratique des Hautes Études at Sorbonne. He perfected his artistry as a director working with Peter Brook (1925) on “Impressions de Pélleas, a play based on Claude Debussy’s opera, “Peleas and Melisanda”, at the Parisian Bouffes du Nord with Ingmar Bergman and Giorgio Strehler. For his artistic contribution to Poland’s image in the world, in 2003 he received Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs’ Diploma. The Teatr monthly honored Warlikowski with Konrad Swinarski Award for the best director of the 2006/2007 season for Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” at Rozmaitości Theatre in Warsaw.

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Józef Wilkoń (1930) illustrator, painter, historian of art

Józef Wilkoń is one of the many artists who contributed to the founding of the European Child Friendship Center in Świdnica. With his artistic work he helps ill, disabled and mutilated children. He took part in the international charity event “Polish Fine Artists for Children” that helped raise money for building the Child Friendship Center. Wilkoń creates for children just like he does for demanding adults. Since 1959 Wilkoń’s works have received many European and Asian awards. The Gold Medal at the International Book Art Fair (Leipzig, 1959); Deutscher Jugendbuchpreis für Graphische Gestaltung (Düsseldorf, 1966); Gold Medal at the Illustration Biennial in Bratislava (1969, 1973); Premio Europeo (Padua, 1975); Premio Grafico at the International Children’s Book Fair (Bologne – 1980, 1991); The Owl Prize (Tokyo, 1984); Grand Prix (Montreuil, 1991); Andersen Premio (Geneva, 1998); Graine de Lecteurs 2000 (Arles, 2000); he was nominated to Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award by the Internationale Jugendbibliothek (2009). He was awarded by the Polish Book Publishers’ Association for his outstanding illustrations to Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle Book”; he received the Polish Culture’s Foundation’s Golden Scepter (2010). He exhibited his book graphics and illustrations in: Aachen, Augsburg, Berlin, Bohum, Bratislava, Chicago, Dortmund, Cologne, Manchester, Munich, Paris, Rome, Taipei, Tokyo, Toyama, Warsaw, Vienna and Vilnius. In his interviews Wilkoń emphasizes that his paintings and illustrations are not a journey to his childhood and when he creates, he is not trying to appeal to anyone’s imaginary tastes. Wilkoń trusts himself, as he thinks that this is the only way to prevent enlarging the level of the world’s infantilism when creating visual art.

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Wanda Wiłkomirska (1929) violinist

In the musical environment she is considered to be the leading violinist of the 20th century. After finishing her music studies, in 1949 she started practicing under the direction of Ede Zathureczky at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and Henryk Szeryng in Paris. Laureate of international competitions: Geneva (1946), Budapest (1949), Bach competition in Leipzig (1950) and Wieniawski competition in Poznań (1952). A wonderful debut in America (1961) with the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra was the beginning of Wiłkomirska’s international career. Since 1983 she has been the professor of Hochschule für Musik Mannheim. Soloist at the opening concert of Barbican Hall in London and the first post-war concert of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at Sydney Opera House. She has a class at the Sydney Conservatory of Music. She has played concerts in five continents, she has given recitals, chamber music with Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Gidon Kremer and Mischa Maiski; she has played with orchestras led by: Barbirolli, Bernstein, Boulez, Giulini, Jochum, Klemperer, Leinsdorf, Masur, Mehta, Rowicki and Sawallisch. Every year she gives concerts in the United States of America, in Europe, Japan, New Zealand and South America. She has become world-famous for her masterly music courses and as a jury member at international violin competitions: Karl Flesch in London, Jacques Thibaud in Paris, Pyotr Tchaikovsky in Moscow, ARD in Munich, Henryk Wieniawski in Poznań, Hanover and Tokyo. Wiłkomirska was the first violinist to play compositions dedicated to her by Australian, German and Polish composers. She has recorded for EMI, Hungaroton Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Polskie Nagrania. Her violin is signed Petrus Guarnerius, Wenecja 1734.

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Adam Zagajewski (1945) poet

Chopin, Bach, Shostakovich and Mahler are Zagajewski’s favorite composers. He has been involved with Cracow’s poetic New Wave and the program of “Teraz” Group from Cracow. In 1975, after signing the letter of 59 Polish intellectuals (a protest against the changes in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Poland and including the leading role of the Polish United Workers’ Party and perpetual union with the USSR) a printing ban was imposed on him. Lecturer of Houston University. He lived in Paris from 1981 and in 2002 he came back to Cracow. He writes blank verses and free poetry. Zagajewski defines poetry as the art of processing and ordering mental expressions. In opposition to postmodernism, he thinks that it is meaning, and not language work, that is the most important quality of poetry. His works have been translated into French by Maja Wodecka, the poet’s wife; she was awarded for her translation with the Jean Malrieu Award (1990). Zagajewski’s literary output has been awarded with Kościelscy Foundation’s Award (Geneva, 1975); Kurta Tucholsky Award (Stockholm, 1985); Andrzej Kijowski Award (Warsaw,1986); Prix de la Liberté (Paris, 1987); Tomas Tranströmer Award (Sweden, 2001); Horst Bienek Award in Lyric Poetry, awarded by the Bawarian Academy of Fine Arts (2002); Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s Literary Award for his lifetime achievement (2002), the title of the Cracow’s Book of the Month for “Powrót” (2003); the Neustadt International Literary Award called the “Small Nobel Prize” (2004); Czesław Miłosz Award from the American Embassy in Poland for his contribution to building the Polish and American agreement (2008) and the European Poetic Award from the Cassamarca Foundation in Treviso (2010). Zagajewski’s poetry has been translated into several languages and published in: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belgrade, Bratislava, Buda-

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pest, Hamburg, Hoganas (Sweden), Cologne, London, together with Zbigniew Herbert’s poems in Laiuse (Estonia), Lvov, Munich, New York, Oslo, Paris, Prishtine (Albania), Stockholm, Tel Aviv, Valencia and Vilnius.

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Krzysztof Zanussi (1939) director, screenwriter, publicist

He enriched the European civilization by directing 40 films, out of which 19 were interna-

tionally co-produced. Before 1990 he directed 10 television films for foreign, censorship-free channels. Some of these productions were: the American-German “The Catamount Killing”; Polish-British-Italian “From a Distant Country”;

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Polish-German-French “Imperative”; PolishAmerican-German “Year of the Quiet Sun”; Polish-Italian-German “Our God’s Brother”; Polish-Italian “Black Sun”; Polish-Ukrainian “And a Warm Heart”. Zanussi’s film screenplays have proved attractive to American, British, Dutch, French, German, Russian, Ukrainian and Italian cinematography. He produced his television films with international teams, without the influence of Polish cinematography. An advantage of Zanussi’s artistic work is comprehensively and penetratingly showing moral issues with deepened psychological analysis. Carefully selected teams of actors and producers helped the demanding director release artistic, aesthetic and intellectual qualities. Zanussi has reconciled his duties as the director of the “Tor” Film Studio and his mission-based activity since 1987 – membership in the Cinematography Committee. Zanussi is a valued European film authority, invited to be a jury member in competitions. He is also an author of books on film theory and with film screenplays. Since 2002 he has been the Vice-president of the National Creativity Centre Foundation’s Board. Professor Zanussi shares his knowledge and artistic experience with students of the Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Radio and Television Department at the Silesian University, Collegium Civitas in Warsaw and the Journalism and Political Sciences Department of the University of Warsaw. Laureate of the Journalists Award (Rotterdam, 1978). Krzysztof Zanussi’s artistic achievement has been commemorated with plaques in the public space of Łódź, Międzyzdroje and Zamość.

Krystian Zimerman (1956) pianist, conductor

Zimerman’s victory at the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in 1975 made him world-famous. In 1977 he debuted in Salzburg and London. He played with great conductors – Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, sir Simon Rattle. Witold

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Lutosławski dedicated his only piano concert to Zimerman – Zimerman first performed in on 19 August 1988 in Salzburg. Since 1996 he has taught at the conservatory in Basle. In 1999 he founded a festival orchestra, with which he plays both Chopin’s piano concerts, as a pianist and as a conductor. He played them in Aachen, Amsterdam, Basle, Birmingham, Bremen, Brussels, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Cologne, Lille, Locarno, London, Lucerne, Mannheim, Nuremberg, New York, Paris, Princeton, Salzburg, Stuttgart, Washington, Wiesbaden and Zurich. His interpretation of Chopin’s Concerts was recorded in Lingatto near Turin in August 1999. He has an artistic-musical contract with Deutsche Grammophon.

Teresa Żylis-Gara (1930) opera singer (soprano)

Her 3rd Award at the International Music Competition in Munich opened the opera stages in Dortmund, Düsseldorf and Oberhausen for her. A breakthrough in her career was her performance in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” in Paris. The role of Donna Elvira made the artist famous. In 1968 she performed at the Mozart Festival in Salzburg, lead by Herbert von Karajan. She played Violetta in Verdi’s “Traviata” at the Covent Garden in London, and at San Francisco opera she played Donna Elvira again. Between 1968 and 1984 she sang at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in opera theatres of Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, at La Scala and Wiener Staatsoper. She has created over 20 roles in operas by Verdi, Strauss, Puccini and Mozart, with stage soloists – Carreras, Corelli, Cossotto, Domingo, Giaurov, Pavarotti and Raimondi. Her vocal repertoire performed at the world’s stages includes Chopin, Moniuszko and Szymanowski’s compositions. She is a professor of vocal art, she teaches master courses in Europe and America. She has been honored by the Senate of the Music Academy in Wroclaw with a honorary doctorate.

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Czesław Czapliński – artist photographer, journalist and author of documentaries

Born in 1953 in Lodz. Since 1979 lives in New York and Warsaw. He is an author and co-author of 30 albums and books, among others: “Saga rodu Styków” (1989), “Twarzą w twarz” (1991), “Jerzy Kosiński twarz i maski” (1992), “Pasje Jerzego Kosińskiego” (1993), “Życie po śmierci Jerzego Kosińskiego” (1993), “Kariery w Ameryce” (1994), “Portrety” (1995), “Moja HIStoria czyli jak fotografowałem króla” (1999), “Twórcy końca wieku” (2000), “Śmierć & Życie” (2001), “Nowy Jork – Przed i po 11 września 2001” (2002), “Lekarze w walce o zdrowie” (Vol.1/2002, vol.2/2003, vol.3/2004), “Wszechświat ks. Jana Twardowskiego” (2002), “Wizytki – Hortus Conclusus” (2003), “Adwokaci w walce o sprawiedliwość” (2004), “Sztuka fotografii – Portret fotograficzny” (2004), “Fotografie prawdziwe, bo już niepodobne” (2005), “Kolekcje sztuki polskiej w Ameryce” (2005), “Artyści” (2007), “Michael Jackson” (2009), “Śladami Chopina w Warszawie i na Mazowszu” (2010), “Przejścia nie ma” (2010), “Kolekcjoner” (2010), “J.B.Dorys - Kazimierz nad Wisłą 1931-32” and “Poles in America – 400 Years” (2010), some of which were bestsellers. During more than 30 years of his career he photographed some of the most well known celebrities of bussiness, culture, politics, sport, among others: Muhammad Ali, Maurice Bejart, Leonard Bernstein, Bernardo Bertolucci, Cindy Crawford, Oscar de la Renta, Guy de Rothschild, Alain Delon, Catherine Deneuve, Placido Domingo, Umberto Eco, Jane Fonda, Malcolm Forbes, Joseph Heller, Charlton Heston, David Hockney, Vladimir Horowitz, Lee Iacocca, Michael Jackson, Henry Kissinger, Calvin Klein, Jerzy Kosiński, Estée Lauder, Shirley MacLaine, Norman Mailer, Liza Minnelli, Roger Moore, Alberto Moravia, Willie Nelson, Richard Nixon, Luciano Pavarotti, Gregory Peck, Paloma Picasso, Roman Polański, Isabella Rossellini, Omar Sharif, Brooke Shields, Isaac Singer, Susan Sontag, William Styron, Tina Turner, John Updike, Peter Ustinov, Diane von Furstenberg, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Andy Warhol. Czesława Czapliński’s works were published all over the world, among others: in “The New York Times”, “TIME”, “Vanity Fair”, “The Washington Post”, “Newsweek”, “Twój Styl”, “Viva”, “Rzeczpospolita”, “Wprost”, “Sztuka”. Apart from being a photographer, he has been also for many years a journalist, and he’s an author of couple of hundreds of articles and reportages printed in America and in Poland. Photo: ©Beata Tyszkiewicz

He had more than 100 photographic exhibitions, among others: in the National Art Galery Zacheta in Warsaaw (1989, 1991), Art Museum in Lodz (1992), National Museum in Warsaw (1995, 2002, 2007), Ma-

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zowieckie Museum in Plock (2002, 2006, 2008, 2010), National Library in Warsaw (2000, 2001, 2005), Museum Łazienki Królewskie in Warsaw (2010), and also in New York (1981, 2002, 2003, 2010), Chicago (1998), Nice (2000), Moscow (1997), London (2003) and Munich (2010). There are several films about Czesław Czapliński and his work: “Wernisaż”, “Fotograf”, “Twarze”, “Twarzą w twarz”, “Arystokrata kwiatów”, “Czarne i białe w kolorze”. These days he makes his own documentaries, such as: “Kolekcjoner”, “Życie jak w bajce”, “Optymista mimo woli”. Czapliński’s works can be found in the Library of Congress collection in Washington, D.C., New York Public Library, National Museum in Warsaw and Breslau, Art Museum in Lodz, Naional Library in Warsaw and in many private collections all over the world. He was repeatedly awarded, among others: with Medal “Zasłużony Kulturze Gloria Artis“, Gold Medal of Association of Photography in Lodz, Ring of “Honorary Award of Polish Collectioners Hetman”, Gold Medal “For Photographic Work” Polish Republic Photoclub. Czapliński’s portaits were widely commented: Great photograph – Joseph Brodski, poet The best photo I have ever had taken and reflecting me the most favorably – William Styron, writer ….you managed to see a face not many people see... at a thoughtful, almost sad moment. So many photographers forget to try and catch a person’s true soul – Linda D. Blair, actress You have mastered the ability to photograph simplicity. It is the most difficult. Your portraits are completely special effect-free. It is what I value most of all and what can be achieved after many years of practice – Jerzy Benedykt Dorys, photographer

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When I look at my photos, I feel as if I was listening to a recording of my own voice. I understand that it is me, but my feelings and instinct tell me that no, that it must be someone else. Maybe a cousin, as he resembles my father or aunt. It happens because we have ourselves, we hear and see ourselves from the inside. We experience everyone else from the outside. When the sound and rhythm of our voice is recorded, nothing can be done. But in a portrait there is always some intervention of an intermediary. The quality of the picture depends on how much the artist managed to attach and bring near the inside and outside experience. When I look at my portrait by Czesław Czapliński I get the impression that he managed to reduce the dichotomy of these contradictory feelings to the minimum – Wojciech Fangor, painter To Czesław – the Master of Photography and Mood – Janusz Głowacki, writer I happen to be one of the most frequently photographed private people in Poland – to which my huge nose has greatly contributed. But in this galaxy of photos the portrait you have made is the best. A photographer can try to pursue two goals: to record their model’s physical appearance most adequately and – a more ambitious goal – to reflect their psychophysical personality to the photograph. You managed to do both perfectly – Jerzy Waldorff, writer When I watch photos – any photos – I think most of all about the passing of time. About how much older I have become since the last photo was taken. I don’t think there is anyone who does not think this way. But when I look at Czesław Czapliński’s photos, I see much more: I see myself in a landscape, I see isolation or confidence in the landscape, or even admiration. Mood in a landscape: in Warsaw’s marketplace. Walking along the Vistula. Once I even applaud the landscape, or so it seems. The other thing: in these photos I can sometimes see the attitude of the ‘object’ towards the photographer. There is some connection.

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Fondness. And it can be sensed by those, who then look at photos of us: press readers, exhibition viewers, ones we know and ones we do not. It is important – Agnieszka Osiecka, writer I do not know anyone who can portray people’s souls like Czapliński. Norwid said about Chopin’s music that he could pick meadow flowers without shaking off fluff or dew... I would like to dedicate these Norwid’s words to you and to your great art – Jerzy Antczak, director Your art is magic, as it greatly exceeds the sensitivity of five senses. We sometimes refer to some indefinite sixth sense of talented people. In the case of the art of photography, a seventh sense is also needed – the sense of this fraction of a second in which people, animals, objects, elements show their uniqueness. This time-seizing happened in an eye blink, it is inimitable and unimprovable, unlike other forms of art. It is an artistic documentation of our and future times, born in the 19th century. It really enriches our history and our historical imagination. As a UN annalist I am especially fond of this domain of art. Edmund J. Osmańczyk, journalist Maciej Maciejewski “Dziennik Łódzki“ (1991): “…Czesław Czapliński fits into the tradition of great American portraitists, although he is not even close to cynical “skinning”, like Richard Avedon’s. Unlike Yousuf Karsh, he odes not arrange the light, he does not “play studio” and as opposed to Arnold Newman he does not overestimate the role of a prompt…“.

Hanna Faryna-Paszkiewicz „Gazeta Wyborcza“ (11-12 IV 1992): “…A facial expression photographed at a wrong time, our eyes or profile exposed in an imperfect way, to expressive wrinkles, complexion which would not be used in an advertisement of cosmetics – we do not accept such portraits. We hide them from the world and ourselves. So how should we perceive objective, often

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soulless picture, reflecting what the camera sees? What is the point of Czesław Czapliński – the artist photographer, when he deals with the object so openly, even ruthlessly? He only presents faces: one hundred portraits in big close-ups, unmasking, ugly and compelling at the same time. Czapliński surprises for a couple of reasons: he deprives the people he portrays of narcissism, but gives them much more in return: he reveals the truth of their image, he reaches for layers which are usually invisible. He is far from idealizing although the people he portrays are always outstanding – but does it mean free of self-criticism and inhibition? Czapliński is not Zofia Nasierowska. He tries to reach the nooks of the soul of the model – the dark ones, and thus tempting the artist and the person portrayed. The images of widely recognized women and men – closest to their psychological portray, masterfully framed…”. Ryszard Kapuściński, in his introduction to the catalogue accompanying Czesław Czapliński’s individual exhibition at the National Art Gallery “Zachęta”, titled “Twarzą w twarz” (1989 r.): “What I most appreciate about the artistic work of Czesław Czapliński is its focused, concentrated, reflexive seriousness. Art needs to be treated seriously, the rules of art need to be respected – Czaplińskis unusual, original artistic works are a confirmation of this eternal truth. We met in January 1986 in New York, during the World’s Writers Convention organized by the American Pen Club. There was a discussion in progress, when a man with a camera came to me (it was Czapliński) and said that he would like to take a couple of photos of me. Tens of people have taken photos of me, so I avoid such situations like a plague, which is why my first answer was – no. But at the very same moment something about this man with a camera in his hand attracted my attention – the fact that when he was talking to me, he was already constructing the portrait he wanted to make, he was planning its expression, tone and form. So in the next sentence I said – ok.

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And immediately, in the same building, in the corridor, we started working (it was then that Czapliński created my portrait that circulated the world). Working with Czapliński is a source of real pleasure and satisfaction. There are photographers who think that a portrait must be “vivid” and that it can be achieved through mobility of facial features, restless sight, surprising gestures. When these photographers are working, they entertain their model with a conversation, they tell, jokes, keep asking them about something – in a word, they keep distracting them, not allowing them for concentration or insight (which is always a difficult psychological process, requiring time and peace of mind). Of course such a portrait can be vivid, bout there will not be any depth in it, it will not reveal what theatre actors call “the inside”. One has to reach this inside, push their way through to it, and this can only be achieved by means of serious, joint effort of the artist and their model. And this is how Czesław Czapliński works – and I consciously want to use the word: creates. He is a painter and a psychologist. He is a careful and sensitive artist. He is talented and the fruits of his talent have the qualities of Earth’s real fruit – freshness, juiciness and color”. Jerzy Kosiński’s essay titled. “How photogenic must I be?” from his album “Face to Face” (Wydawnictwo Reprint, 1991): “Every generation has a definition of man that they deserve – Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote in “Who is Man?” (1965). It can be paraphrased: every generation deserves their portrait. I am sitting still – and I will say it again: still, not stiff or lifeless – waiting to be photographed by Czesław Czapliński, one of the portrait artists that have become famous in the last decade for photographing all the well know, famous and most interesting faces in the world: beautiful Catherine Deneuve and thoughtful Avedon, smiling Joseph Brodsky and reflexive Liberace. It so happened – and it is not incidental, but a result of a conscious philosophical intention

ładysław Serwatowski (1949) popularizer of culture;

Bound with the international art market since 1973. Graduated from philosophy at the John Paul II Catholic University In Lublin and Journalism and Political Sciences at Warsaw University, where he also received the PhD degree. His thesis was titled “Poland’s Participation in the Universal Exposition EXPO ‘92 in Seville and its meaning for creating the country’s international image”. A member and Third Vice-president of ORDINEX, Geneva/ Paris (1995-2001); founder of the Earth’s Flag Center (1978). Commissioner, scriptwriter or advisor of 200 Polish contemporary art exhibitions in 30 countries: MoMA NYC, Circulo de Bellas Artes (Madrid), Centro Cultural (Caracas), MoMA (SF, Ca), SFB (Berlin), Centre d’Animation Culturel Theatre 71 (Paris), European Parliament (Brussels), Muesum of Art (Lvov), Striped House Museum (Tokyo), Kulturhuset (Stockholm), Set Design Quadriennale (Prague), Cathedral Museum (Barcelona), Shaffy Theater (Amsterdam), Cursaal Casino (Ostenda), Castle (Lacko, Sweden), Centre Culturel (Tunis). Representative of Poland in Ars Baltica (1989-1991). General commissioner of Poland at EXPO ’92 in Seville. Coordinator of the Year of Poland 2002 in Spain; he has presided international congresses of science in Poland: posterology (1994) and vexillology at the 700th anniversary of the White Eagle (1995). Lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw; at CC and Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology; a visiting professor at Warsaw University, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin and Universities in Beijing, Bologne, Bordeaux, Caracas, Heidelberg,

Huanggang, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Quebec, Wuhan. Jury member at art competitions in China, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Switzerland and Sweden. Book author; he published his texts on culture in press in 20 countries and in international catalogues. Holder of the scholarship of the government of Spain (1981); Great Britain (1984, 1996), and USA (1985 and 1987). Experience in marketing gained in Paris and Montreal (The Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games’76). He speaks English, French, Spanish, Russian and Italian.

Serwatowski

that Czapliński is (probably) the only photographer who concentrates on the expression of a human face, who is still aware that a framed also reflects himself.

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