a house for swallows??

Lately I have been traveling a lot. At the moment I’m in Katowice. Last week I was in Rzeszów, and just before I had been in Olsztyn. I returned from Olsztyn by train. I had to change the trains in Iława, which is small, provincial town. I didn’t expect there anything more than a cup of tea in station’s canteen, but lucky me. The joy is doubled when you find something interesting. The station building is amazing. It was built in neo-Gothic style in 1900. It is made of red bricks and it has a wooden ceiling and stained glass windows. In the nooks of the station live swallows. And of course there was tea in the canteen.

thanks to renovations...

A few months ago, when an Englishman organizing a meeting had asked me what we would like to see, I answered: the Rossylyn Chapel. It was just after reading the book by Dan Brown so I knew that it was close to Edinburgh (we had planned to go there). I didn’t know any other interesting places, so my choice was not very well thought out. The Englishman was surprised, but he did what I had wanted, and he took us to the Chapel full of “searchers” of the Holy Grail. The Chapel was amazing. It was decorated by sculptures looking like lace. I remember for example death dances done on one of the ribs of vault. Thanks to renovations which are in progress now, we could climb up the scaffolding and see the pinnacles and flying buttress. I had never expected that it could be possible for me to see them.

Hadrian's wall

I’m a lucky person this month: I’ve seen a lot of ancient Roman ruins. Three weeks ago I was in Pafos where I could see ancient mosaics. Last week I was in Scotland where, remaining roman wall and fortifications are preserved. Romans soldiers probably suffered very much from the weather there… I was exhausted by the wind, even though the Sun was shining, temperature was quite high and there was no rain (my English friend used to say: No rain? Wait a minute…). For no reason my attention was attracted by the remnants of a kind of floor heating: stones supporting the floor, between which hot air flowed. We went for a short walk on Hadrians wall. On the right there was a precipice (Scotland I suppose), on the left a meadow with thousands of sheep.

Night in Newcastle

I went to Newcastle Museum again last month. I remember a part of exhibition of Yoko Ono: a room with soldier’s helmets from Second World War. Helmets were hanging upside down on thin, white threads like nests. Helmet and nest… Protection? I hadn’t wanted to disturb the atmosphere of the room so I didn’t come in – I was standing on the doorstep. Unfortunately two women came. Sounds of their conversation were annoying for me. It also disturbed the sound of singing birds which was presented in the background. It destroyed the atmosphere, so I finally decided to go among the helmets. I was walking all around. It was a better perspective indeed… I was really stupid standing alone outside.

smiling oval

When I was trying to find The Museum of Modern Art it was raining very hard. It was cold, dark, wet… I almost surrounded, when I saw the building. I got in and went to café to have some tea firstly. Then I bought a ticket and started to look for something interesting for me. In second room I saw a picture of Jean Miro with a smile especially for me in it. There was an white oval, like a head, with a smile. Background was brown with black lines symbolizing a corner of a room. It was beautifully balance for this terrible weather, like a bicycle in the picture taken on a street in San Francisco. Beautiful, but it is a pity for me that I can’t understand an inscription.

My dentist said that I look like Olga Tokarczuk who is a writer. This comparison amused me, because it was very simple association: my hair is as short as hers and I like similar clothes as she wears. It was funny but I didn’t ignore this remark. The same taste in small things might mean closeness in more serious things. Seating on the dentists chair I said to myself that it is highest time to read her book. I heard a lot good opinion about her writing, more over this year she got a very important literary prize. When I was going home from the dentist I bought the rewarded book Bieguni. This the book about travelling. It is really for me, isn’t it? I travel a lot and I really don’t know what made me tired more: being on the way or waiting for another travel.
In the photo: travelling – Iceland.

Równia

This time my stay in the Bieszczady Mountains was connected with my work. I was on a project workshop there. It was difficult for me to accept all obligation and responsibilities. All those views and smells of clean air I associate with freedom and rest. It was of course some nice things besides work. For example I could see again the orthodox church in Równia, which I consider as the most beautiful between wooden churches of this region.

Rose made out of crêpe paper

In the Polish Peoples Republic for Labour Day there were prepared flowers made out of crêpe paper. After collapsing of the Polish Peoples Republic the tradition celebrating the Labour Day vanished. I was thinking that with the Labour Day also disappeared the tradition of making flowers made out of crêpe paper, so I was really surprised when I saw a crêpe paper rose. It was in Bieszczady mountains in an art gallery. To be honest that was not only one rose… there was a lot of such roses in different colors. They are smaller and more precise then those from behind the time. What more, they are registered as a local product. An artist, someone who can make beautiful things from nothing, saved this technique in such a beautiful way.

the cros and the cros

In Edinborough, I of course found some time for searching for my favorite showpiece. This time I chose a bronze figure of Christ from a 13th Century crucifix. In that time, it was probably attached to a wooden cross. Today, the medieval very simplified sculpture, looked very modern on a white, plastic replacement. It remained me a figure from one of Cracovian museums. It was made later, probably at the end of the 15th century. It is much more naturalistic. Every detail was made very precisely. Even the back side, directed at the cross (when the cross had existed). So many faces of art… I like it.

a torso and a horseman

I’m going to have a new computer very soon, so I continue an effort of organizing document in order to not to waist time for copying useless files. It is very nice work. I find many forget files. For example those two pictures I publish above. I found them in a garden of some museum. I didn’t visit it, just took pictures from behind a fence. I like them both very much. The first one I call just A torso, the second one Don Quixote. It was my first impression. Why? It is just a horseman…

an old public garden

I went to my home city to visit my parents. Because of bad weather I decided to leave my car and take a train. When I was a student it was going there very often by train. Till today I remember old Cracovian tenements along the train line. I was surprised that a lot of them were rebuild. Equally surprising was that many of them are still in very bad state. It’s a paradox… I should have been expecting that it will be like this.
In Rzeszów I was walking a lot. I went for example to a public garden, where I spent a lot of time during my childhood. With my grandmother I was walking there, I was sledging and I was gathering chestnuts. In the photo: a wall of Scholl of Art next to the garden. I was dreaming about studying in the School till the moment when I understood that some talent is required in order to do that.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.