Vernissage: 11 July 2014 | 6 p.m.
Special guest: Michał Rusinek – Head of Wisława Szymborska Foundation
Related event – Concert of balladry: Krystyna Stańko with band
Exhibition: 12.07 – 31.08.2014
Curator: Marta Wróblewska
Venue: Günter Grass City Gallery (4G) | Szeroka 34/35, 36, 37, Grobla I 1/2
Organiser: Gdańsk City Gallery
Partners: City of Gdańsk | Wisława Szymborska Fundation | Biuro Literackie Publishing House | MKiDN | Consulate General of Germany | Hanser Verlag | CSW Łaźnia
The exhibition was subsidised by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Consulate General of Germany.
Lyrics are the most precise tool to examine and measure oneself – Günter Grass used to say. It was lyrics that also inspired the two Noble Prize winners: Wisława Szyborska and Herta Müller to create the exceptional collages, that are going to be displayed at the Günter Grass’ City Gallery.
PRACOWNIA in Piwnica pod Baranami (Kraków) was the first host to showcase the cut-outs by Wisława Szymborska in February 2013. It was one of the events commemorating the first anniversary of her death. In 2013 the exhibition travelled to Rome, Madrid, Nurnberg, Kórnik and Makau. In 2014 it will be shown in Kraków, Sofia, Budapest, on Sardinia and in Gdańsk. The display of Herta Müller’s collages, which have so far only been known from their printed versions, will provide the first chance to see them in Poland.
RELATED EVENTS:
- Krystyna Stańko with a band – a concert inspired mainly by the album „Krople słowa” / „Drops of words” published in 2012, which was – in the author’s own words – a tribute paid to poets. The CD includes, among the other things, several pieces composed to the poetry of Wisława Szymborska.
- Natalia Grzebała in concert – drawing from her own CD “Piórko” / “Feather” with pieces inspired by the young poet from Gdańsk – Barbara Piórkowska;
- Poetry evening – women poets and actresses will deliver performative readings of their own poetry as well as pieces by Wisława Szymborska and Herta Müller. Featuring: Barbara Piórkowska, Ewa Miłek, Magdalena Gałkowska, Ewelina Jasicka, Iwona Prusko and Monika Milewska;
- Films: „Chwilami życie bywa znośne”/ „Life only happens to be bearable” a documentary on Wisława Szymborska by Katarzyna Kolenda-Zaleska and a documentary by Angelika Kellhammer on Herta Müller;
- Symposium on the literary Nobel Prize winners/ master dialogue: Wisława Szymborska, Herta Müller and Günter Grass – talks around the works of the authors and various inextricable contexts in which they came into being. Participants in the forum: Urszula Usakowska-Wolff, Leszek Szaruga, prof. Leszek Żyliński, prof. Stanisław Rosiek;
- Workshops: artistic and literary, for kids and adults hosted by: Aleksandra Perzyńska, Barbara Piórkowska and the Prulla duet
Wisława Szymborska (1923-2012) was one of the most superior and recognised Polish poets – her poems have been translated into over 40 languages , an winner of numerous prizes and honours, including most prominently: the Noble Prize for Literature (1996) and the Order of the White Eagle (2011). She was also a translator and author of amusing columns about books, a collector of old postcards, a lover of literary games, an author of collages and a mastermind of famous raffles, that abounded in peculiar oddities. She lived in Kraków since 1931. Between 1945 and 1948 she studied Polish philology and sociology at the Jagiellonian University. In March 1945 she debuted with the poem Szukam słowa / Looking for a Word published in a supplement to the daily paper “Dziennik Polski”. Between 1953 and 1981 she was on the staff of the Kraków-based weekly „Życie Literackie” /”Literary Life” where she ran the poetry department and her own column Lektury nadobowiązkowe/Non-compulsory reading; a collection of these essays has seen several republications in book form.
Szymborska published 13 volumes of poetry: That’s Why We Are Alive (1952), Questioning Yourself (1954), Calling Out to Yeti (1957), Salt (1962), No End of Fun (1967), Could Have (1972), A Large Number (1976), People on the Bridge (1986), The End and the Beginning (1993, 1996), Moment (2002), Colon (2005), Here (2009) and a posthumous, unfinished volume Enough (2012). Szymborska also translated foreign poetry – mostly French and German – into Polish.
Collages are obviously pieces of art. They are also Wisława Szymborska’s signature. It’s worth focusing on their crucial meaning, though: they are a trace of friendship and a call to it.
Prof. Leonard Neuger
Herta Müller (1953 – ) was born in the German-speaking village of Nițchidorf in Romania. Between 1973 and 1976 she studied German and Romanian philology in Timisoara. Her first book Niederungen/ Nadirs was kept unpublished for 4 years before finally being issued in a radically modified form in 1982. In 1984 the book was published in Germany and after that Herta Müller was forbidden to publish in Romania and fell prey to constant questioning and threats from the Romanian secret police Securitate. In 1987 she moved to Germany and worked as a visiting professor at Universities in the UK, the USA, Germany and Switzerland. Her international recognition is confirmed by numerous translations into foreign languages, prizes and honours – with the Nobel Prize and the Großes Verdienstkreuz of the German Federal Republic in 2010 being the most prominent ones. So far the Carl Hanser publishing house has published: The King Bows and Kills (2003), The Pale Gentlemen with their Espresso Cups (2005), The Land of Green Plums (2007), Even Back Then, the Fox was a Hunter (2009), Swinging Breath (2009), The Appointment (2009), Nadirs (2010), Travelling on One Leg (2010), Immer deselbe Shnee und immer deselbe Onkel (2011), Father is Calling the Flies (2012).
Working on a collage is sensual and resembles real life a lot: words meet by coincidence, the size of a sheet of paper limits the capacity of the content and once has been glued, it cannot be changed.
Herta Müller
