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Thursday 14 February
The day’s programme began with
10 am meeting at the office of Andrzej Sontag, the Director of the
Lodz Region for the Department of Culture, Education and Sport.
Also present was his colleague and deputy, Marian Labedziv, as well
as Miroslaw Borusiewicz who acted as interpreter. Andrzej Sontag
had visited Edinburgh recently to attend a conference of civic leaders
representing major European cities; he was most impressed by his
experience of Edinburgh and the conference. Marian Labedziv represented
Poland as an Olympic athlete. They showed willingness to support
by plans to celebrate the unique thirty-year-old culture dialogue
between Lodz and Edinburgh initiated by Ryszard Stanislawski.
At 11 am, there was the press conference in the Conference Room
of the Museum Sztuki. This is a room I know well. I have memories
of the many times Ryszard Stanislawski welcomed the expeditions
of artists I brought to Lodz in the seventies and eighties. A Polish
television crew attended as did ten members of the press as well
as senior curators of the Museum Sztuki - Janina Ladnowska and Maria
Morzuch and Magdalena Wicherkiewicz. Also present were Elzbieta
Stepankiewicz and Alicya Cichowice of the Lodz Museum of Cinema
and Photography. I had an opportunity to speak to three members
of the press - to Ilana Eljmont of ‘Metropole’, Dominica
Larionow, who teaches art history at Lodz University, and Blazej
Toranski of the Polish national daily newspaper ‘Rzeczpospolitica’.
At 2 pm, I accompanied Miroslaw Borusiewicz to a one-hour meeting
with Jadwiga Kwasniak, the Director of the Department for Culture,
Arts and the Protection of Monuments for the City of Lodz and her
colleague, Katarzyna Jasinska; again, Miroslaw Boruskiewicz acted
as interpreter. We discussed the need for a cultural dialogue between
Lodz and Edinburgh and linking the Demarco Foundation’s Edinburgh
Festival theatre programme with the Lodz Theatre Festival, and the
need to bring up-to-date the cultural dialogue begun in 1972 between
Lodz and Edinburgh - through the ‘Atelier 72’ exhibition.
At 3.30 pm, I was conducted around the exhibition dedicated to
the life and work of Ryszard Stanislawski as the Director of the
Museum Sztuki inspired by the artworks he had collected for the
Museum Sztuki and including the outstanding gift of 640 art works
donated by Joseph Beuys during the worst period of the Cold War.
Many of the artworks were by British artists shown at the Demarco
Gallery in Edinburgh, such as Ian Hamilton Finlay and Derek Boshier.
At 5 pm, I gave my lecture inspired by the fact that this year
marks the 30th anniversary of the exhibition ‘Atelier 72’
presented by The Demarco Gallery at its premises at Melville Crescent
and at the Forresthill ‘Poorhouse’. Attending the lecture
were three artists who were represented in the exhibition who were,
in 1972, teachers at the Lodz Film School and who were inspired
whilst in Edinburgh to meet Sean Connery. It should be noted that
Sean Connery gave financial support to the ‘Atelier 72’
exhibition through his ‘Scottish International Education Trust’.
The artists were Josef Robakowski, Irenieusz Piersgalski and Wojciech
Bruszewski. The artists are now willing and able to present art
works which would be at the heart of the exhibition I envisage for
this year which could be entitled ‘Atelier 02’. Also present
was Janusz Piwecki, member of the Polish Television crew from Lodz
which made television documentaries of six consecutive Edinburgh
Festivals from 1993 to 1998.
After the lecture, I was interviewed by Anna Bens and Klaudia Kasionski
for ‘Zak’, a student radio station.
I had dinner with Janina Ladnowska, as the guest of Wojciech Bruszewski,
and later saw three of his video films made by him as artistic director
of Info Express - a multi-media film and internet company which
he has set up. One of his films showed his contribution to a programme
in Berlin which involved the British artist, John Latham. Another
was a remarkable video work inspired by the classical structure
of ‘The Sonnet’, using random computerised language.
Friday 15 February
8.15 in the morning I departed Lodz in
bright sunlight with Miroslaw Borusiewicz. Jerzy Kiciak drove us
on the high road to Warsaw, now motorway for half its length which
made the journey well under two hours so that, at 10.30 am I was
at the British Council in the centre of Warsaw after a short visit
to the Ministry of Culture where I introduced myself to Krzystof
Smyk, the Director of the Department of International Relations
and European Interrelation. He arranged for me to meet his deputy,
Janusz Cisek at 3.30 in the afternoon.
The skyline of Warsaw has changed dramatically since I last saw
it. Now the landmark building which the Russians left as a Moscow-style
Palace of Culture no longer dominates. There are now skyscrapers
competing for attention proclaiming Warsaw’s role as a European
capital city, well able to compete with the cities which give Europe
its cultural identity. The tramway system is impressively modern
in the streets and boulevards bustling with fast moving traffic
and purposeful pedestrians.
Krzystof Smyk had been posted to Vancouver as Consul during the
period that Wojciech Tryzinski, Scotland’s recently appointed
Consul General, had been Consul in Toronto. Wojciech Tryzinski had
contacted Krzystof Smyk by telephone to notify him of my plans to
introduce a Polish dimension to the Edinburgh Festival by celebrating
the first full impact of the Polish avant garde led by Ryszard Stanislawski
and Tadeusz Kantor at the 1972 Edinburgh Festival.
Ewa Ayton reminded me when she welcomed me to the British Council
offices that we had last met in Italy at the 1994 Venice Biennale
when she had been an assistant to Milada Slizinska, senior curator
at Ujazodwski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art. They had both
attended the one-day symposium I had organized to coincide with
the exhibition I had presented for the Biennale of the Scottish
artist, Ainslie Yule and the Italian artist, Giancarlo Venuto in
relation to the exhibition of six Austrian and Hungarian artists
chosen by Lorand Hegyi, Director of the Gallery of Modern Art Stiftung
Ludwig at the Palais Lichtenstein in Vienna. Ewa Ayton introduced
me to Anna Palonka, her assistant, who has special responsibility
for literature and the arts. We discussed the British Council symposium
they presented on the subject of the promotion and organization
of modern museums.
I spoke of the exhibition of Sonia Rolak, the Polish artist now
domiciled in Venice, which is to be presented by the Ruskin Museum
at Brantwood in the Lake District in April and how I have invited
Joanna Stachyra, the recently appointed Director of the Polish Cultural
Institute in London, to attend the opening of this exhibition. Ewa
Ayton suggested I contacted Leszek Kolakoski, the Polish philosopher
who teaches at Christ Church at Oxford University. He would probably
know of the influence of Ruskin’s writings on Polish culture,
in consideration of Ruskin’s influence on Tolstoy and Proust.
Ewa Ayton also spoke of the Zedyta Gallery and its curator, Magda
Kardasz, as the personification of the spirit of a new and youthful
generation of Polish artists. She suggested I made contact also
with Agnieska Morawinska, Adam Swimczyk, Andrzy Przywara, Wojciech
Karkowski and Janusz Marek.
I had two separate meetings at the Polish Ministry of Culture in
their palatial offices opposite the British Hotel where I remember
I stayed in 1968 on my first visit to Poland as the guest of the
Union of Polish artists. Now it is a luxury hotel, Warsaw’s
most expensive.
Krzystof Smyk gave me a warm welcome and introduced me to his colleague,
Bosena Sawicka, who has special responsibility for Polish theatre.
Immediately afterwards, I enjoyed a meeting with Luiza Drela, who
has a special responsibility for the development of Poland’s
relations with the countries which constitute the European Union.
At 5 pm, I met Wieslaw Borowski in the Foksal Gallery which he
has directed since its foundation in 1966, the year in which the
Demarco Gallery came into being and the year I began my work as
its Director. Wieslaw Borowski and I have much in common, and most
importantly, we have managed to collaborate over the years so that
there is a considerable number of artists who have exhibited in
both galleries, most significantly, Tadeusz Kantor, Henryk Stazewski,
Edward Krasinski, as well as non-Polish artists David Mach, Ian
McKeever, Tam MacPhail, Roydon Rabinowitch, Ian Hamilton Finlay
and Tom Marioni.
Wieslaw Borowski introduced me to his friend, Mikolaj Smocyniski,
one of Poland’s leading artists who lives in Lublin, as well
as to Ewa Siemienczuk, a Warsaw-based artist who was visiting the
Foksal Gallery to see the current exhibition in the Foksal of an
installation by Stanislaw Drozdz, who is the one outstanding Polish
artist who can be defined as an exponent of ‘posie-concrete’
par excellence. Naturally, he is in contact with Ian Hamilton Finlay,
the most acclaimed artist associated with that area where words
and visual art images are in a meaningful embrace.
Wieslaw Borowski suggested the Demarco Foundation could help present
the Foksal exhibition planned for next May which would bring together
Royden Rabinowitch and Edward Krasinski. Now that is an exhibition
which should also be seen in Edinburgh!
Saturday 16 February
The weather continued to be springlike.
At midday, I met Wojciech Krukowski, the Polish artist who has,
since its foundation in 1990, been the Director of the Centre for
Contemporary Art in the Ujazdowski Castle, situated in the centre
of the Ujazdowski Park on a hill which affords panoramic views of
Warsaw. It is a centre for the creation and documentation of contemporary
art in all its forms. In its physical appearance, it reminded me
of the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin; however, its programme
is more wide-ranging because of its presentations of visual theatre,
concerts of contemporary music and the regular programme of experimental
films. Its educational programme reaches out to over one hundred
and fifty schools. It now has, as part of its collection, a large
room dedicated to the showing of what is called the Foksal Deposit.
This consists of major works of many of the artists who have exhibited
at the Foksal over many years. I was particularly attracted to the
work of Koji Kamoji, the Japanese artist who has lived and worked
in Warsaw for most of his life, as well as works by Lawrence Weiner
and Christian Boltanski which fitted particularly well with the
masterworks by Edward Krasinski and Maria Stangret.
Although Milada Slizinska was suffering from a cold, I was able
to speak to her by telephone about her work as the Senior Exhibition
Curator at the Ujazdowski Castle.
Sunday 17 February
The dawn was heralding another day of blue skies when I left
the Hotel Mercure Frederyk Chopin at 6.30 am and, because of the
early hour and it was a Sunday, I found myself at the airport at
6.50 am. Unfortunately, the plan I had made to meet Jeremy Eyres,
the Director of the British Council, at London airport was to be
foiled by fog at London. This caused the Lot Airlines flight to
London not to depart as I had expected at 7.50 am but one hour and
forty minutes later. Jeremy Eyres was due to catch his flight to
Warsaw at 11.40 am from Heathrow. It, too, was delayed but not enough
for us to find time to meet. However, whilst waiting at Warsaw airport,
I found myself in conversation with two British schoolchildren returning
from their home in Warsaw after a mid-term break. They introduced
themselves as Matt and Ellie Griffiths; when they informed me that
the school that they were returning to was Oakham, I found myself
asking them to make a point of seeing the exhibition I was presenting
at their school which would include a significant section devoted
to the Polish-Scottish dialogue. An hour before, whilst on the drive
to the airport, I had been thinking that I was on a six-day count-down
to my exhibition opening at Oakham School.
Of course, in the few days I was in Poland I found it difficult
to do as much as I would have liked, and it is inevitable that I
am already planning two return visits within the next two months.
The first would involve me in more meetings with artists and with
all those I met on this preliminary visit. The second, which could
be at the end of April, would involve me in leading an expedition
of artists from Edinburgh and London to Lodz via Warsaw. They would
be those artists that I could rely on who already share my respect
for the Polish art world. I would ask them to help me strengthen
and bring up to date the cultural dialogue between Poland and Scotland
encapsulated in the efforts made by Ryszard Stanislawski and his
colleagues in presenting the creative energy of Polish ‘modernism’
at a time when the Edinburgh Festival needed to consider the fact
that Poland was far removed physically from Scotland by the Berlin
Wall.
I left with a feeling of gratitude to all those who had made my
visit possible at impossibly short notice. I am indebted to the
British Council for their support and the comfort of the hotel accommodation
and, of course, to the Museum Sztuki and the authorities in Lodz
for the warmth of their welcome.
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