Mornung

One day when was in Aarhus, I escaped from our group to The Aarhus Museum. I wandered around the building having been able to find the exhibition I was interested the most. Finally I found the floor with an inscription “Contemporary art”, but still I couldn’t find the door into it. And suddenly a glass wall opened especially for me. It scared me. I know, that was stupid. Please don’t thing that I’m afraid of the doors in supermarkets or I’ve never been in a museum. There was something else: like invitation to a treasures. It erased a question: “Really can I get in?” First two pictures were by Preben Mornung. That was the treasures of the museum for me. My favorites colors: blue, white, black, brawn. My favorite stile: a bit similar to Joanna Rajkowska’s paintings when she was at The Academy.
I had a cup of coffee at Copenhagen airport. Usually it is not very nice, it is just practical. This time I found a very marvelous place – with a view to an apron. I observed machines serving aircrafts, which looked like spiders attacking a victim ;). I like aircrafts very much, so two MD and an Airbus were heroes for the evening for me.
In the picture: a wheel of the Havilland Q400 (from Aarhus to Copenhagen in June this year).

Camaldolite

The Camaldolite monastery is in Bielany near to Kraków. This is a strict monastic rule. Monks live in isolated monastery. They get up at 4 o’clock every day. They work hardly and pray a lot. They don’t meet people. It is not allowed to women to visit the monastery during whole year with the exception for 12 days. One of them is Christmas. I'm not religious but decided to go to the monastery for the Watching Service.
We left our car somewhere in the forest (there was probably the first parking place, in the way to the monastery). We were walking to the church very slowly in a group of other people for about 15 minutes. Frost, snow, darkness, silence… Much closer to Christmas then usual commercialized space… In the church: monks, a lot of
People singing… They don’t use any instruments, just human voices. It is very exceptional.

supermarket

I have a new washing machine. I’m very happy of it. This is big effort to buy something before Christmas… You can’t imagine how many stupid question about an ordinary TV set can a person ask and how many people wants to buy such a thing just before Christmas. My old washing machine was not enough kind to wait with its technical extinction for few weeks more and it sentenced me of observing it and being in that crowd.
In the photo: another angel. There is a lot of such angels in Kraków now. Much more suits to Christmas then a supermarket, isn’t it?

An Angel

The time of angles is coming.
In the photo: It is not Christmas Angel. I’ve found it in my hometown Rzeszów. It looks a bit ghostly, doesn’t it?

A Chinese pencil box

When I was a child it was very up-to-date and modern to have a Chinese pencil box. At that time it was really difficult to buy such a thing. My parents were not adjusted for living in our communistic country and didn’t have skills to organize anything illegally, how it used to be in those times. Because of that, my pencil box was reminding a dream. One day, in my favorite stationary shop I found such a pencil box with squirrels. It was hidden under the desk. I asked my father to buy it for me. He, who new the reality of the time, didn’t believe me, that it was available, but finally he decided to go with me there. Unfortunately, a shop attendant said that she had the pencil box, but it wasn’t for sale. I got depressed. But my father said to the shop attendant to show him a book for making complains (that was funny but useful in that strange reality). She got scared and decided to sell this pencil box. I thought then, that my father was the bravest man in the world.

Aarhus some month ago

Everything everywhere here is simple and modest. Buildings and furniture is perfectly adjusted to a user need. Beauty comes form this simplicity. Simple walls made of bricks are covered by grapevine. When you look through the window whilst working at university, you can see the green space which looks like an endless meadow. It is useful, isn’t it? You can have a while of rest. It improves your concentration on the work if you can look at green surface for a moment. I like art around us. On the hotel walls hang pictures with dishes in abstract form. On streets there are sculptures showing scenes of everyday life. Also murals are simple and close to the people. I love this flower in a flowers pot.

llull

According to my private tradition I went to The Aboa Vetus & Ars Nowa Museum to look again for my favorite showpiece. This time it was a graphic of Antoni Tapies, from the series “Llull”. It was generally white. On cardboard there was embossed big rectangle like a frame. In corners of the rectangle there were small squares each one with a dot in the middle. Those squares were painted with gray color. There was a cross or a plus sign in the middle of the composition. It was also white, however shadows were underlined by black. It was nice, but after all I preferred the museum itself. It was like a Russian Matrioszka: in one doll there is a second doll, and so on and so on… The remains of medieval city – an archeological exhibition was like the smallest one doll. The medium doll was the main building of the museum. It protected the remains and other exhibitions halls. The building was buddle up by gardens and patios with additional things like shop and restaurant. So sitting in the restaurant you could, being inside, look for the museums wall from outside.
In the photo: a mural on the on the most external wall, probably referring to medieval part of the exhibition.

to breake ice

So we are in Turku now. The first meeting we had yesterday morning. It took place in the old part of the University. In a meeting room we spotted a big technical construction – some kind of device. We of course were curious what it was, but we didn’t ask. We started to talk about, usual in such situation, things: what is common for us, where we are coming from and what we would like to do during the meeting. The question about the device was asked in the end.
The host smiled and said to as that we had been very patient. Usually a conversation about the device breaks ice between strange people and helps to start a conversation. So what it was? It was an electron microscope. It was left in that place when a university museum was moved to a new place. It also will be taken there one day. Today it is extravagant decoration of usual university office. In the photo: Helsinki… last look at the city…

black, black and white

I was observing a woman during today’s meeting. She was wearing white shirt, black waistcoat with pearl bottoms, black skirt with plants motives in ecru color and a black pullover. In her ears she had silver earrings in modern style. I think she was doing during the meeting some notes not on a subject. I usually do the same during boring meetings. Her notes were not very important I think: she was earising them very quickly after making them.
Around me there are things I like so much in northern countries: modest and comfortable things. I like this stile so much. In the photo: bathroom in my hotel… black and white… black and white…

Filifionka and clouds

I have a cold so I was really afraid of this journey. Consequences of changing pressure in a plain are always terrible for my ears when I’m ill even a bit. Thanks God I’ve survived. I can hear almost normal now, so I can tell that I fill very well. A terrible headache is nothing in comparison to problems I was expecting today morning.
I’m in some hotel somewhere in Helsinki. It seems to be dark and magic place – this opinion comes form the first impression I have been arriving here. When my plane was landing I was observing a view form a window. There was a lot of small clouds above airport and it was raining. I saw the clouds and drops of rain in lights of the plane. The lights made them ominous and mysterious. It was like the world from the visions of Filifionka from Tove Janson books.
Unfortunately I don’t know how we call in English this female Troll. She was very lonely, she was always tiding everything up and she was afraid of everything. In her imagination the world was full of terrible beings. Each of them very dangerous for her.

the Witcher

I have never played any RPG games. I’m afraid that this is the highest time to buy the first such game and to play it. This is The Witcher, based on the idea of A. Sapkowski with marvelous graphic of T. Bagiński. The story of the game is lasting after the time of novels. I very curious what would happened later on. Of course I have my own imagination and I can think about that in different ways, but it is very exciting to compare your conception with the truth which in this case is the conception of the writer. For example I have my own pictures of the death in my mind, but the death described by A. Sapkowski in one novel is really attractive. The death is a young lady in linen dress, who is coming to a person and taking him to a fog. She is sent to people to be with them, because nobody could be alone in this difficult moment.

a ladle

Joan gave me a CD for my birthday. There was the CD I rally had dreamed about, so when I took it out from a bag with colorful tulips, I was really happy. Joan was happy too. She smiled and gave me her best regards. She didn’t show me any sign that there is something more in the bag. I think she didn’t know that there was something in there. It was a very, very small ladle. I think that the ladle was lost by former owner of the bag… Maybe Joan got a present from someone in the bag and missed a part of it? How do you think, should I tell Joan that I discovered the bag’s secret and give her back the ladle? The ladle is not mine, but if I do that Joan will be so ashamed… I’m not going to make her sad… the colorful bag with tulips is not a very serious thing as well as the ladle…

a ghost? a cat?

I went to the Office on Saturday, because I had some work I hadn’t done during previous week. The University building was completely empty. I went to my room and I opened one side of a window. When I was looking through documents I felt that someone is staring at me. It was a cat. He was sitting behind a window (this closed part). He looked as a sculpture. He was gray, classical alley cat. I decided not to move, because I didn’t want to scare him and I went back to my work. After about 10 minutes I looked at the window again. The cat sat in the same position but he moved to a part of the window which was opened. He was observing me rally carefully. It provoke a question "WHY wasn’t the cat afraid of me?". The answer might be, for example that, in a body of the cat there was incarnated a soul of some student from middle ages, who illegally was playing dice whilst studying at University… And his goal was to threaten a university employee… I decided not to take this line of thought. I’m not afraid of cats or ghosts. My irrational fears are much more sophisticated (and funny: fortunately for my friends and unfortunately for me). I’m afraid of aliens sitting in bushes at night… After half an hour the cat disappeared, leaving me with my bureaucracy. The cat was really beautiful. He didn’t look as a homeless cat. I think that it was a kind of rascal looking for adventures in his safe live in some good family.

a sculpture

On the Wszystkich Świętych Square (All Saints Square), in front of the Pavilion of Stanisław Wyspiański appeared a sculpture (first in Kraków !!!) showing a plan of nearest streets prepared especially for blind people (with description in Braille). It is very similar to the sculpture I saw in Cambridge. It is even more interesting because beside buildings and streets existing till today it shows The All Saints church which was demolished in the end of 19th century. To be honest I didn’t know about the church. Of course I could have been more smart. There are two big monastic churches in this square and non of them is named All Saints: neither The Dominicans nor The Franciscans…
I don’t know what it is: a sculpture, a plan? What?

The Guide of Wroclaw

I’ve seen the exhibition The Guide of Wroclaw by blind people. I got to know about the exhibition from the article in Gazeta Wyobrcza. Information was misleading – they said that the exhibition had been done based, on the guide (a book) for blind people. It was not the truth. The exhibition and the book was prepared by blind people and photographers for everyone who likes photography as the art. Photographers made photos of places which had been chosen and described by people who hadn’t been able to see (in the most practical sense) those places. For the society based on "pictures culture", this point of view could be rally interesting. Photographers didn’t care of classical rules of compositions very much. They were concentrated on details pointed out by those who had told stories. The best photo I’ve seen on the exhibition showed a traffic island in the middle of the crosswords. A girl said about this place: when I’m on this traffic island, everywhere cars are around me, everywhere. I’m afraid of them and I don’t understand why such place like the island exists here. The photographer was able to catch this filling of fear. I think, that without the story, he wouldn't considered this place as a good subject for a photo.
A visitor of the exhibition can also listen to recorded sounds from the place and look at the information about the picture printed in brail.

Cats

I like graffiti very much. It is important to me to take photos of nice graffiti because it disappears very quickly. Those cats were painted on the wall of a place for dustbins on September. I was passing by it everyday whilst walking with my dog. I used to see it. Yesterday the wall was repainted. It is clean and white now, but it isn’t as beautiful it was the day before yesterday. Fortunately I have the photo of cats. The picture of cats on the wall of dustbins show an intelligence an sense of humor of the author. Cats always brawls in rubbish even they have good families and safe home.

Rose and snow

It’s first snow of the season. I like it, however generally I don’t like winter. First day of winter is always beautiful. The snow is clean and surprising for nature. It covers autumn leafs, berries and flowers which haven’t drop yet. Dogs are very happy, try to play in new surrounding, protect cold paws and look for their everyday smells under the snow.

Andrej Rublow by A.Tarkowski

A few month ago I was talking with my father about the film Andrej Rublow by A. Tarkowski. He was surprised that I hadn’t seen any of A. Tarkowski’s films and he promised to find a copy of the film for me. A few days ago I got a cassette. I don’t have the necessary equipment to play the cassette so I called Joanna and asked her for a " film-watching meeting". She, of course, agreed. The film was about an artist’s doubts about his work and the sense of human life (that is nice generalization, isn’t it? ). We don’t know much about Rublow’s life, so probably that was more the authors imagination abut those problems, than a source of knowledge about the icon painter. Joanna was terrible as always. When she saw ants on the legs of Teofan Grek she said to me: "You didn’t tell me that it would be horror movie!!!"
I think that a grammar construction should be the future in the past… I don’t remember how to do it… so some more explanation is needed. Joanna is afraid of insects. A film with at least one insect is a horror film for her (she likes classical horrors very much). Her reproach was a kind of joke about her most serious fear.
And the film? Very good. Especially for those who treat art seriously.

Aarhus some month ago

Jutland is like a cats fur – smooth and neat… I hear scream of seagulls flying over docks of a seaport… By a window I see a clock tower of The Town Hall. It’s raining. It’s windy. It’s cold. It is as it should be in a cold country ;)

An Angel

I remember Rastafarian’s beads on Maria’s wrist, when she shook my hand first time. I’m not able to divide what I learned from her and what was mine in that time. I’m sure that she has changed me very much. I remember when we seeing of each other home, exchanging letters during boring lessons, walking through mountains (a lot of time for talking and to being silent together)… Her words still rings in my ears: "stones! You keep stones in your bag, don’t you? No? So why is it so heavy?!?", "did anyone promise you, that live would be easy?", "so small bottle of perfume in so small make-up bag… it must be yours?"
As soon as she discovered that I was shy, she got stopped back to let me go thru the door first. That was very nice, funny and a bit effective.
Everything finishes so this friendship has finished. I miss her. In my bedroom, on the wall a picture of an angel made by Maria is hanging. Friends leave prints in one’s soul.

A heart

Whilst I was going to work today, I went to the Coffee Heaven and ordered the Coffee Latte. I was in hurry so I was very disappointed when a girl and a boy were flirting, instead of making my coffee. After few minutes the boy started pouring milk to a mug. The girl was observing it carefully. I guessed that he was teaching her haw to make a picture of coffee on milk cream.
Then he gave me my coffee. There was a beautiful heart on the cream. I’m sure, that the heart was not for me, but for the girl working in the Coffee Heaven.

It’s raining all the time. It is so frustrating. I miss olives groves in Cyprus. I’ve seen them a week ago. It is hardly difficult to believe in it. In the photo: an olives grove.

An old lady and seal

I met an old lady in the hotel’s hall. She was waiting for a lift, without any hope for success. She didn’t know how to call it. She was about 80 years old. She was unbelievable thin, her feet were bare. She wore white pants, strap shirt and straw hat. She was going to the beach I think. I solved her problem very quickly by pressing a bottom a bit harder then she had it done.
I went outside with her. She smiled me and said good bye and went to the beach indeed. I turned left towards an Ancient Museum. After some days I remember well only one thing. It was a kind of cylindrical seal form Bronze Age. It was very small, black with figures on it. In the print could be seen two man: a naked one and dressed in long dress and a helmet. Between them were on one side a spear and on the other side a jug, a ball and a dog like in a childish drawing: with pointed nose protruding ears and rounded tummy

Les Temoins

During festival of The Jewish Culture I went to Schindler Factory to se the exhibition of modern art The memory of this Moment from the Distance of Years. The exhibition was in abandoned and neglected factory halls. Destroyed machines, scrapped walls, specific industrial smell created marvelous space for this kind of art, but in such places there is very difficult to guess what is a piece of art. For example I really don’t know if some crumpled papers and some origami which was lying on a shelf in hall 12 was someone’s work or just some rubbish left by a security guard. I like it. You come into specific space and you must decide what is important for you. And learn something about you. From this point of view I must say that I went to the factory to see a loft in a hall 13 -- Les Temoins by Christian Boltanski. It was prepared specially for the exhibition. The room was very dark. On the floor there were thin floorboards. The light was coming through cracks between them. The light and a dust in it was trembling. The floor seemed to be very brittle and delicate. Everywhere was hanging old coats and jackets. I went into the room, because I wanted so much to be between those thing, however I was afraid that I could fell down from this brittle floor. I felt like wire-walker going into the past.

A flower

I read a book of Ernest Gellner Postmodernism, reason and religion. It helps to understand the tension between religion and contemporary science (can I say it in this way?...). I read it only for broadening my mind about the subject, but previous reader of this copy (I took it from the University Library) had to read it for an exam I suppose… every line is underlined… It is disturbing even for me. I usually like observe what was important for else, whilst reading. Sometimes I read such notices more carefuliy. I also make a lot of exclamation marks in margins. But underlining everything?!?... On 31st page I found something which could be a reward for me: two flowers sketched by this crazy reader. What do you think about it? Beautiful isn’t it?

Black dog

One day, when I was going to the Conference Center, I saw dogs playing on the beach. They were small and had long coat. One was black the other was white. They were running with unbelievable speed. Depending on where they were at the moment, the goal was to run out the water or get into it as quickly as possible.

mime in San Sebastian

I had a cold in San Sebastian. It made my willpower less strong. I escaped from some presentations at The Conference. I went for a walk on a beach but for it I was also to weak. Finally I got in a café. I chose a table with a beautiful view for the sea and mime on the street. For more then half an hour nobody had given her any money. She was dressed in white clothes. Her face was also white. On her hand she had white gloves. Going back to Conference Hall I gave her some change. I had expected some movement, maybe a bow, waving hand… She looked at my eyes and shake my hand. It was so nice.

Helga

Spain, but it’s raining all the time. It’s deny the stereotype telling that Spain is warm and sunny country. For me it is like Bieszczady. Rain, rain rain… One day we went to a Basque restaurant in The Old Seaport. I was observing a waiter. She was fat. Her hands were roughened. Her hair was messy. To be honest she was not very pretty, but I liked her. She hold with iron hand everything in the restaurant. She didn’t make any unnecessary movement. In her free time she was joking, dancing, teased her colleague. She didn’t work, she enjoyed her life. It was beautiful!

Saint Anna

I got to know about the Monastery on Mount Saint Anna, when ecologists were protested against building a new motorway. Ecologists have lost their battle, so I could went back from Germany by this motorway. I turned into the road going to the Monastery for small pause in my trip. I visited the church with a sculpture of Saint Anna (known of its miracles) and Calvary of the Cross.

Ilmenau

I have never been to such a small German city like Ilmenau. We arrived there at night. Of course I couldn’t find my hotel. I stopped my car on some street in the center and got out the car. In the picture you can see the people who I met firstly. Of course somebody else (woman with a dog) showed me the way. I don’t know who made the sculpture, what it symbolize. It helped me to feel better in that night. In the empty city they surprisingly welcomed me.