A Belarussian artist in the ICORN residency programme
Andrei Khadanovich graduated from the School of Philology of the Byelorussian State University, where until last year he used to lecture in the history of French literature. He was also a teacher of translation art at the Belarussian PEN Club. Andrei has translated the poetry of Milosz, Mickiewicz, Szymborska, Herbert and Galczynski, although, he does not only limit himself to Polish poets. He has also translated from French (Rimbaud, Apollinaire, Baudelaire), Ukrainian (Zhadan, Andrukitch), English (Dickinson, Auden, Yeats) and Russian (Mandelstam, Mayakovski, Brodsky); he is the author of books of children’s poetry/ nursery rhymes. He had his poetry book “Swięta nowego rocku” ( Pol. New Rocks Eve) published in Poland in 2006 and a year ago, he had his “Zabawy Fantomowe” published by the publishers Wydawnictwa Pogranicze. His poems have been translated by Adam Pomorski, Leszek Engelking and Bogdan Zadura. His poetry has also been translated into English, Czech, Georgian, Spanish, Korean, Lithuanian, German, Slovakian, Slovenian, Russian, Swedish and Ukrainian. Khadanovich also belongs to the Association of Belarussian Writers and Belarussian PEN Club, being the Chairman of the latter in the years 2008-2017. He was honoured with the silver Medal for Merit to Culture Gloria Artis, was a laureate of the Carlos Sherman for the translation of Baudelaire’s poetry into Belarussian, as well as the winner of the Natalia Arsenieva Award for his poetic book “Szkoła trawy” (Pol. The School of Grass) and the Jerzy Giedroyc Award granted by Rzeczpospolita newspaper. For six years, he was a jury member of the International Chapter of the W. Szymborska Awards (2016-2921).
Andrei Khadanovich in Gdansk
As a teacher at a humanities grammar school, which was forbidden in Belarus after underground activity in the early 2000s, he and his pupils were invited to visit Gdansk by the City Mayor Pawel Adamowicz several times. He and his wife, a translator of Pawel Huelle’s writings, visited Gdansk at the invitation of Gdańsk’s Günter Grass Gallery. During his two-week residency, he translated Wislawa Szyborska’s poems into Belorussian. In December 2021, he performer Kaczmarski’s poems in Belarussian within the Gdańsk Remembers celebrations at the European Solidarity Centre, and in 2022 he began his art residency at Gdansk City Gallery.
Gdansk City Gallery within ICORN
ICORN (International Cities of Refugee Network) is an independent association
ICORN (International Cities of Refuge Network) is an idependent association of over 70 towns and cities from all over the world which are committed to the defence of artists and writers persecuted for political reasons. Towns associated in this international framework offer their residents shelter, safety and decent living conditions, along with the possibility of free creation. The organisation promotes freedom of speech, defends democratic values and promotes international solidarity.
In 2017, Gdansk City Gallery joined the ICORN programme as an organisation representing the City of Gdansk. The Gallery became a member of ICORN because of the literary activity of one of its branches – Günter Grass. The Gallery offers an artist social support and assistance with the promotion of his work for one year.
To date, the Gallery has had an opportunity to host three artists in residence: in 2018 the Palestinian poet Sariy Al Hassant, in 2020 the Tajiki journalist Khayrullo Mirsaidov, and in 2021 the Belarussian aritst and activist Lesia Pscholka.
The official site of ICORN: https://icorn.org
