- 15-04-2023, Saturday, at 5:00 pm - Ticketed event
We invite you warmly to a meeting promoting the album Rafał Wojaczek. Byłem, jestem [Rafał Wojaczek. I Was, I Am] (publ. The Mikołów Institute, 2021).
Events | Debate, Spotkanie
Ikony kultury
Rafał Wojaczek
We invite you warmly to a meeting promoting the album Rafał Wojaczek. Byłem, jestem [Rafał Wojaczek. I Was, I Am] (publ. The Mikołów Institute, 2021).
The event will take place on 15th April 2023 at 5 p.m. The discussion panel will consist of authors of texts published in the book: Dariusz Pawelec, PhD, Habil. – Professor of the University of Silesia, Konrad Wojtyła, PhD – the book’s editor, and Maciej Melecki – head of the Rafał Wojaczek Mikołów Institute. The meeting with these eminent experts on Wojaczek’s writings will be chaired by Paulina Zaremba (NiUS Radio).
The event will be accompanied by an exhibition titled I Was, I Am, dedicated to poet and prose writer Rafał Wojaczek, one of the most legendary artists of the 20th century. The exhibition presents, among others, Wojaczek’s manuscripts and dedications, his correspondence, volumes of poetry containing his autographs, as well as some photographs that he took himself.
About the book:
The publication Rafał Wojaczek. I Was, I Am , directly marking the fiftieth anniversary of the poet’s death on 11th May 1971, comprises a collection of facsimiles related to Wojaczek’s life and work selected from the Mikołów Institute’s archive and collected uninterruptedly from the moment of the Institute’s inception. For twenty years (1999 – 2019), the Institute was housed in the poet’s family apartment.
Apart from mementos preserved by his parents which later became the property of the Institute, more Wojaczek-related artefacts have surfaced over the years as a result of either donations or purchase. They have become part of a large collection that includes, among others, nine photographs of Mikołów taken in January 1962, press and magazine cuttings containing Wojaczek’s poems and reviews of his publications, printed in his lifetime or shortly after his death, dedications and handwritten corrections in copies of printed poetry volumes, Wojaczek’s two letters to Professor Edward Balcerzan, his school notebooks, his book collection featuring his autographs, the file in which he kept the typescripts of his writings, as well as the poet’s unknown and unpublished photograph taken in 1968. The most valuable part of the Wojaczek archive consists of two collections.
The first, purchased by the City of Mikołów, comes from Stanisław Chaciński. It comprises 50 items, including: letters from and to Wojaczek , autographs of his poems (two of which were previously unknown and remained unpublished), postcards, variant tables of contents for his debut poetry volume Season, as well as dedications in the poet’s volumes of poetry and autographs of poems removed by censors from the original versions of those volumes, and unique copies of Odra magazine containing Wojaczek’s printed poems with dates of composition added by the author in his own hand.
The second collection is a donation from German columnist and Wojaczek researcher Sylvio Godon, who had received those items as a gift from the poet’s brother Andrzej Wojaczek. The collection comprises 32 manuscripts of Wojaczek’s poems from the time of his work on what is now the canon of his poetry, the volumes Another Tale and Unfinished Crusade, three priceless original photos of the poet (including one unknown version of the self-portrait in a white shirt), photographs of his parents, as well as others taken in 1982, showing the key places from his life in Mikołów and Wrocław. The above-mentioned manuscripts include an autograph of the poem Metamorphosis, unpublished to date, which was intended for print in two variants of Unfinished Crusade and the original makeup of Another Tale but was eventually left out of these two volumes. This poem is also absent from the section dedicated to ‘scattered poems’ in Wojaczek’s Collected Works of 1976 but was listed in the afterword written by that publication’s editor Bogusław Kierc among the contents of variant versions of Wojaczek’s poetry volumes. It was only thanks to its presence in the various tables of contents prepared by the poet that scholars became aware of the poem’s existence. The majority of Rafał Wojaczek’s literary output is now kept at the Manuscripts Department of Wrocław’s Ossolineum library, but this poem is missing from the Ossolineum collection, either.
The book we present comprises reproductions of selected items which, in a literary-biographical context, add up to a vast panorama of Wojaczek’s intense activity, reflecting (in chronological order) the process of gradually attaining uniqueness in poetry: his individual language and tone of expression, as well as rich and rapacious imagination rooted in a constant need transgressively to create new poetic worlds contained in sweeping visions. Reproductions are accompanied by studies and interpretations written by eminent experts on Wojaczek’s life and work: Bogusław Kierc, Romuald Cudak, Joanna Dembińska – Pawelec, Dariusz Pawelec, Konrad Wojtyła, as well as staff members of the Mikołów Institute: Maciej Melecki and Krzysztof Siwczyk.
In form and character, the book is a collage in which reproductions of Wojaczek’s autograph poems are presented side by side with original photos that he took himself, colourful dedications, original letters, excerpts from typescripts of prose, first editions of poems, etc. Successive sets of reproductions are separated by texts written by the above-listed critics, which will no doubt enhance the impact of this publication, presenting selected fragments of Rafał Wojaczek’s literary heritage.
(Maciej Melecki, Director of the Rafał Wojaczek Mikołów Institute)
The book cover: Courtesy of the Rafał Wojaczek Mikołów Institute.
OUR GUESTS:
Dariusz Pawelec, PhD, Habil., professor of literary studies at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Silesia, head of the Scientific Information Centre and Academic Library (CINiBA) in Katowice. He focuses on genological studies, hermeneutics of poetic forms, and editing as a form of literary criticism. He is the author of the first monograph of Stanisław Barańczak’s oeuvre (The Poetry of Stanisław Barańczak: Rules and Contexts, 1992) as well as the book The World Is You. Polish Poetry and Its Addressee in the 2nd Half of the 20th Century (2003). He has also published numerous papers on the ‘Nowa Fala’ (‘Polish New Wave’) school of poetry, the very first anthology of that school’s writings (Tell the Truth. An Anthology of Generation ’68 Poetry, 1990), and a monographic selection of polemics and manifestos (‘It Should Be Distrust’. The New Wave Polemic Concerning Poetry, 2020). Pawelec wrote a book on the poetry of Witold Wirpsza (2013) and edited his works, including previously unknown texts discovered in the archives of Rapperswil, Berlin, and Szczecin: the novel Innocence Alone (2017), the drama Dying Resort (2019), Letters from the Oflag (2015), and others.
Konrad Wojtyła, PhD – poet, literary critic, holding a doctorate in literary studies; head of the University of Szczecin Centre of Media Education and Interactivity; deputy president of the Sławomir Mrożek Foundation. Author of seven volumes of poetry, including Beyond-Question Mark (2017) and Under-Red. 111 Poems (2019), as well as The Reverse. Conversations on Literature (2014). Co-editor of Rafał Wojaczek’s Not from This Time: Unknown Pieces (2016). Author of the monograph Anti-Antichrist? A Religious Wojaczek (2021). Editor of the present album Rafał Wojaczek. I Was, I Am (2021). His writings have been translated into English, German, Czech, Ukrainian, Russian, and Slovenian. His accolades include the Lubusz Province Literary Laurels (2010), Otoczak Poetry Award (2017), and a scholarship from the Minister of Culture, National Heritage, and Sport (2021).
Maciej Melecki – poet and screenwriter, director of the Rafał Wojaczek Mikołów Institute. Author of poetry volumes: These Things (1995), Dangerously Close (1996), Mid-May Cold Spell (1999), Cases and Inflections (2001), Bermuda Tales (2005), Always Elsewhere Everywhere – Selected Poems (2008), Overload (2009), A Series of Breakups (2011), Fields of Progression (2013), Inversions (2016), Prask (selected poems in Czech, 2017), No Ground (2019), Threshold Itinerary – Selected Poems (2020), as well as prose: Here and There (2017) and Nowhere Else (2021). Recipient of the Otoczak Poetry Award for the best poetry volume (2010) and the Four Pillars Literary Award (2010).
The event will be accompanied by an exhibition titled I Was, I Am, dedicated to poet and prose writer Rafał Wojaczek, one of the most legendary artists of the 20th century. The exhibition presents, among others, Wojaczek’s manuscripts and dedications, his correspondence, volumes of poetry containing his autographs, as well as some photographs that he took himself.
About the book:
The publication Rafał Wojaczek. I Was, I Am , directly marking the fiftieth anniversary of the poet’s death on 11th May 1971, comprises a collection of facsimiles related to Wojaczek’s life and work selected from the Mikołów Institute’s archive and collected uninterruptedly from the moment of the Institute’s inception. For twenty years (1999 – 2019), the Institute was housed in the poet’s family apartment.
Apart from mementos preserved by his parents which later became the property of the Institute, more Wojaczek-related artefacts have surfaced over the years as a result of either donations or purchase. They have become part of a large collection that includes, among others, nine photographs of Mikołów taken in January 1962, press and magazine cuttings containing Wojaczek’s poems and reviews of his publications, printed in his lifetime or shortly after his death, dedications and handwritten corrections in copies of printed poetry volumes, Wojaczek’s two letters to Professor Edward Balcerzan, his school notebooks, his book collection featuring his autographs, the file in which he kept the typescripts of his writings, as well as the poet’s unknown and unpublished photograph taken in 1968. The most valuable part of the Wojaczek archive consists of two collections.
The first, purchased by the City of Mikołów, comes from Stanisław Chaciński. It comprises 50 items, including: letters from and to Wojaczek , autographs of his poems (two of which were previously unknown and remained unpublished), postcards, variant tables of contents for his debut poetry volume Season, as well as dedications in the poet’s volumes of poetry and autographs of poems removed by censors from the original versions of those volumes, and unique copies of Odra magazine containing Wojaczek’s printed poems with dates of composition added by the author in his own hand.
The second collection is a donation from German columnist and Wojaczek researcher Sylvio Godon, who had received those items as a gift from the poet’s brother Andrzej Wojaczek. The collection comprises 32 manuscripts of Wojaczek’s poems from the time of his work on what is now the canon of his poetry, the volumes Another Tale and Unfinished Crusade, three priceless original photos of the poet (including one unknown version of the self-portrait in a white shirt), photographs of his parents, as well as others taken in 1982, showing the key places from his life in Mikołów and Wrocław. The above-mentioned manuscripts include an autograph of the poem Metamorphosis, unpublished to date, which was intended for print in two variants of Unfinished Crusade and the original makeup of Another Tale but was eventually left out of these two volumes. This poem is also absent from the section dedicated to ‘scattered poems’ in Wojaczek’s Collected Works of 1976 but was listed in the afterword written by that publication’s editor Bogusław Kierc among the contents of variant versions of Wojaczek’s poetry volumes. It was only thanks to its presence in the various tables of contents prepared by the poet that scholars became aware of the poem’s existence. The majority of Rafał Wojaczek’s literary output is now kept at the Manuscripts Department of Wrocław’s Ossolineum library, but this poem is missing from the Ossolineum collection, either.
The book we present comprises reproductions of selected items which, in a literary-biographical context, add up to a vast panorama of Wojaczek’s intense activity, reflecting (in chronological order) the process of gradually attaining uniqueness in poetry: his individual language and tone of expression, as well as rich and rapacious imagination rooted in a constant need transgressively to create new poetic worlds contained in sweeping visions. Reproductions are accompanied by studies and interpretations written by eminent experts on Wojaczek’s life and work: Bogusław Kierc, Romuald Cudak, Joanna Dembińska – Pawelec, Dariusz Pawelec, Konrad Wojtyła, as well as staff members of the Mikołów Institute: Maciej Melecki and Krzysztof Siwczyk.
In form and character, the book is a collage in which reproductions of Wojaczek’s autograph poems are presented side by side with original photos that he took himself, colourful dedications, original letters, excerpts from typescripts of prose, first editions of poems, etc. Successive sets of reproductions are separated by texts written by the above-listed critics, which will no doubt enhance the impact of this publication, presenting selected fragments of Rafał Wojaczek’s literary heritage.
(Maciej Melecki, Director of the Rafał Wojaczek Mikołów Institute)
The book cover: Courtesy of the Rafał Wojaczek Mikołów Institute.
OUR GUESTS:
Dariusz Pawelec, PhD, Habil., professor of literary studies at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Silesia, head of the Scientific Information Centre and Academic Library (CINiBA) in Katowice. He focuses on genological studies, hermeneutics of poetic forms, and editing as a form of literary criticism. He is the author of the first monograph of Stanisław Barańczak’s oeuvre (The Poetry of Stanisław Barańczak: Rules and Contexts, 1992) as well as the book The World Is You. Polish Poetry and Its Addressee in the 2nd Half of the 20th Century (2003). He has also published numerous papers on the ‘Nowa Fala’ (‘Polish New Wave’) school of poetry, the very first anthology of that school’s writings (Tell the Truth. An Anthology of Generation ’68 Poetry, 1990), and a monographic selection of polemics and manifestos (‘It Should Be Distrust’. The New Wave Polemic Concerning Poetry, 2020). Pawelec wrote a book on the poetry of Witold Wirpsza (2013) and edited his works, including previously unknown texts discovered in the archives of Rapperswil, Berlin, and Szczecin: the novel Innocence Alone (2017), the drama Dying Resort (2019), Letters from the Oflag (2015), and others.
Konrad Wojtyła, PhD – poet, literary critic, holding a doctorate in literary studies; head of the University of Szczecin Centre of Media Education and Interactivity; deputy president of the Sławomir Mrożek Foundation. Author of seven volumes of poetry, including Beyond-Question Mark (2017) and Under-Red. 111 Poems (2019), as well as The Reverse. Conversations on Literature (2014). Co-editor of Rafał Wojaczek’s Not from This Time: Unknown Pieces (2016). Author of the monograph Anti-Antichrist? A Religious Wojaczek (2021). Editor of the present album Rafał Wojaczek. I Was, I Am (2021). His writings have been translated into English, German, Czech, Ukrainian, Russian, and Slovenian. His accolades include the Lubusz Province Literary Laurels (2010), Otoczak Poetry Award (2017), and a scholarship from the Minister of Culture, National Heritage, and Sport (2021).
Maciej Melecki – poet and screenwriter, director of the Rafał Wojaczek Mikołów Institute. Author of poetry volumes: These Things (1995), Dangerously Close (1996), Mid-May Cold Spell (1999), Cases and Inflections (2001), Bermuda Tales (2005), Always Elsewhere Everywhere – Selected Poems (2008), Overload (2009), A Series of Breakups (2011), Fields of Progression (2013), Inversions (2016), Prask (selected poems in Czech, 2017), No Ground (2019), Threshold Itinerary – Selected Poems (2020), as well as prose: Here and There (2017) and Nowhere Else (2021). Recipient of the Otoczak Poetry Award for the best poetry volume (2010) and the Four Pillars Literary Award (2010).
Bios
Ikony Kultury - Rafał Wojaczek
