Polish Cultural Institute

Rondo by Kazimierz Brandys

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:24:00 +0100

Rondo
By Kazimierz Brandys
Translated by Jarosław Anders
Publisher: Europa Editions (reprint edition)
Publishing date: 8 March 2012
£11.99
Buy online ...real men need a woman-saint. The dream of the Great Leader belongs to those who are not their own masters. Can a game, an innocent falsehood, become reality? Can a man who is ordinary in every way except for his abiding love of a woman change history? In Rondo, Kazimierz Brandys eloquently explores many of the obsessions of contemporary literature - politcs, war, art, and personal exile - against the backdrop of a touching, enthralling love story. One of the previous century's great literary figures, Brandys "quickened the conscience and enriched the writing of the 20th century" (Time). Rondo is his masterpiece. In his own words, Tom is an insignificant man, powerless to effect changes even in himself let alone in others. He is pathologically normal, with "something of Buster Keaton" to him. Yet an initially harmless fabrication motivated by his love for Tola, and actress of the Warsaw stage, will move him to center stage in one of the 20th century's most infamous conflicts and will ultimately change the course of history. Following the Nazi occupation of Warsaw at the outset of WWII, Tola wants to enlist in the Polish Resistance. To protect her, Tom conscripts her into an imaginary political cadre, "Rondo." The idea is innocent at first, little more than a flight of Tom's fantasy, but through its own comic momentum, Rondo unexpectedly becomes a major player in the Polish underground. When Tom is drawn into the internal politics of the real Resistance, the results are not only highly entertaining but telling of the eternal follies of war. Kazimierz Brandys was born in Poland in 1916. In addition to Rondo, he is the author of A Question of Reality (Scribner, 1980) and A Warsaw Diary: 1978-1981 (Random House, 1988). Brandys was awarded the Jurzykowski (1982), Prato-Europa (1986) and Ignazio Silone (1986) Prizes and was made a member of the French Order of Fine Arts and Literature in 1993. He died in France in 2000. Jarosław Anders was an editor, writer and producer for Voice of America for many years, and is currently a policy officer for the US Department of State. His translations include Hanna Krall's The Subtenant.

Zygmunt Miłoszewski at KINOTEKA 10th Polish Film Festival

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:24:00 +0100

Kinoteka 10th Polish Film Festival
New Polish Cinema series Saturday 10 March, 8pm
Riverside Studios
Crisp Road, Hammersmith
London W6 9RL
£9.50
Book online Entanglement (15)
Uwikłanie
Directed by Jacek Bromski
Poland, 2011, thriller, 128 min subtitles Q&A Session
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Jacek Bromski and a novelist Zygmunt Miłoszewski In this adaptation of Zygmunt Miłoszewski's best-selling novel, the cynical lieutenant Smolar (Marek Bukowski) and stubborn prosecutor Agata Szacka (Maja Ostaszewska) are on the trail of an uncanny assasin. Szacka, investigating the most complicated case in her career so far, will come face to face with a story that has become almost a myth, a story that no one believed could ever be proven. Do once hidden secrets - political and criminal - come to light by accident, or is someone orchestrating them? This latest film by Polish veteran director and producer Jacek Bromski is a suspense thriller, constantly shifting our expectations as we go deeper and deeper into the intricacies of the central mystery. Zygmunt Miłoszewski (b. 1976) is a Polish novelist, journalist, and scriptwriter. His first novel, a horror story called The Intercom, was published in 2005 to high acclaim. In 2006, his novel for teenagers, The Adder Mountains, appeared, and in 2007, his first crime novel, Entanglement, gained him a popular following in Poland and abroad. This year, a sequel called A Grain of Truth was published and became an instant bestseller. On the strength of this novel, Miłoszewski was nominated for the prestigious "Passport Polityka" award given annually to writers under the age of 40. An English translation is forthcoming in August 2012. In 2011, a film based on the novel Entanglement was released with the same title. Miłoszewski is now writing the third and final part of the trilogy. He is also a screen writer (mainly for television), and is planning to write sci-fi in the future. Jacek Bromski (b. 1946) is a director of hugely popular classics 80's Kill Me Cop and The Art of Love. Brmski's following films - Chidren and Fishes and In Heaven as is on Earth - turned out to be hugely popular comedies in Poland's new reality after 1989. Bromski's latest film is a critically acclaimed Entanglement.

Cold Sea Stories by Paweł Huelle

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:41:00 +0100

Cold Sea Stories
By Paweł Huelle
Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Publisher: Comma Press
Publishing date: March 2011
£7.99
Buy online One of Poland's most accomplished modern writers
-- Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
Cold Sea Stories sees the much-loved Polish author at the peak of his powers, tackling the big themes of life, politics, loss and love, with wit, wisdom and supreme artistry. The stories are unified by a common theme - each features a book, from works of major religious significance, such as the Bible, the Torah, or the I-Ching, to the catalogue issued by a toy shop. In 1980s Gdansk, a young student couriers bulletins from the Solidarity strike between dockyard and factory, while his aging mentor prepares the definitive work of criticism on the Aeneid... ...When mysterious lights at sea destroy both German and Soviet ships, local fishermen share the dark secrets of the Baltic coast... ...As the first plane hits the twin towers, a man follows his obsession with an ancient Chinese book describing the fate of individuals, countries and entire galaxies... Incorporating the history and mythology of the Baltic Coast with contemporary political events, Huelle weaves a delightful imaginative landscape in which monumental historical upheavals and the personal crisis of his characters carry equal weight. Paweł Huelle (b. 1957) is a Polish prose writer, author of numerous novels, short stories and essays. He studied philology at Gdańsk University and later became a journalist. He worked for the press service of Solidarity during the fall of the Communist regime. He has also taught literature, philosophy, and history. His books have been widely translated, also into English: Who was David Weiser (Bloomsbury, 1991), Moving House and Other Stories (Bloomsbury, 1996), Mercedes Benz (Serpent's Tail, 2005), Castorp (Serpent's Tail, 2007), The Last Supper (Serpent's Tail, 2008). He has been 3 times shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (in 1992 for Who was David Weiser, 2006 for Mercedes Benz, and 2008 for Castorp). Antonia Lloyd-Jones is a translator of Polish literature. Her published translations include fiction by several of Poland's leading contemporary novelists, including The Last Supper by Paweł Huelle, for which she won the Found in Translation Award 2008. Her translations of non-fiction include reportage, literary biographies and essays. She also translates poetry and books for children, including illustrated books, novels and verse. The translation has been subsidised by the Polish Book Institute in Kraków

The Wolf Man by Richard Appignanesi and Slawa Harasymowicz

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:28:00 +0100

The Wolf Man
'Graphic Freud' series
Adapted by Richard Appignanesi
Illustrated by Slawa Harasymowicz
Publisher: SelfMadeHero
Publication date: March 2012
Price: £14.99
Buy online I was terrified to see that some white wolves were sitting on the big walnut tree in front of the window.

Vienna 1910. Russian aristocrat Sergei Pankejeff asks for Sigmund Freud’s help. During analysis, Freud focuses on Pankejeff’s dream of a walnut tree full of white wolves. His interpretation of this dream would earn Pankejeff the enduring sobriquet ‘the Wolf Man’. We follow Pankejeff’s life as Freud and other analysts attempt to unravel the source of his crippling neurosis.

We follow this Russian aristocrat’s life as Freud and other analysts unravel the source of his neurosis. This case study, re-interpreted in this stunning graphic novel, became a cornerstone of psychoanalysis. This special edition is published in collaboration with the Freud Estate. Richard Appignanesi graduated with a doctorate in classical art history. He was a founder and co-director of the Writers & Readers Publishing Cooperative and Icon Books, where he originated the internationally acclaimed Introducing series. His own best-selling titles written for that series include Freud, Postmodernism and Existentialism. He is the author of the fiction trilogy Italia Perversa (Stalin's Orphans, The Mosque and Destroying America) and the novel Yukio Mishima's Report to the Emperor. He has served as a curator of art exhibitions, university lecturer and conference organiser for the British Council. He is currently associate editor of the art and culture journal Third Text and reviews editor of the policy and futures studies journal Futures. What do Existentialists Believe? in the new Granta series, 2006, is his most recent book. Sława Harasymowicz is a London-based Polish artist who works with drawing, printmaking and photography to explore themes of identity and personal narrative. A graduate of the Royal College of Art in 2006 she has exhibited at a number of solo and group shows in the UK and abroad. Winner of two prestigious awards for illustration from the V&A, she was a jury member at the V&A Awards 2010.
She is currently working on The Wolf Man, the first in SelfMadeHero's forthcoming 'Graphic Freud' series.

New Polish Cinema

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:48:00 +0100

9 - 13 March
Riverside Studios
Crisp Road
London W6 9RL
Tickets: £9.50 (£8.50 concessions) SPECIAL OFFER - BOOK 2 for £14, 3 for £18 or 4 for £24,
Box office: 020 8237 1111
Book online
15 March
Prince Charles Cinema
7 Leicester Place
London WC2H 7BY
Tickets: £10 (£7.50 concessions)
Box office: 0870 811 2559
Book online www.kinoteka.org.uk

New Polish Cinema presents internationally acclaimed features, animations and documentaries of the last twelve months including debut filmmakers, new works from illustrious auteurs and award-winning screen performances. Five days of features and shorts are opened and closed by two gala screenings — Greg Zglinski's Courage and Agnieszka Holland's Oscar nominated In Darkenss — in what will be a bonanza of the best in contemporary Polish film.

Kinoteka Opening Gala
Thursday 8 March/ 6.30pm/ at Curzon Soho BOOK ONLINE
ELLES
Dir. Małgorzata Szumowska/ 2011/ Poland, Germany/ 143min

Follow the link for more details

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Friday 9 March/ 8.40pm/ at Riverside Studios/ BOOK ONLINE
COURAGE (WYMYK)
Dir. Greg Zgliński/ Poland/ Drama/2011/ 85 min

A modern-day take on the story of Cain and Abel, the film tells a story of two brothers, Alfred and Jerzy, who while travelling on a train witness a girl being mugged by a few hoodlums. Jerzy, stands up for her, while Alfred reacts too late and passively observes the tragedy of his brother who is thrown out of a speeding train.

Followed by a Q&A with leading actor Robert Więckiewicz

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Saturday 10 March/ 4.30pm/ at Riverside Studios/ BOOK ONLINE
BLACK THURSDAY (Czarny czwartek, Janek Wiśniewski padł)
Dir. Antoni Krauze/ Poland/ Drama/ 2011/ 105 min

This film is dedicated to the workers' strikes that swept over Polish coastal cities in December of 1970, only to be brutally crushed by the communist authorities. Black Thursday focuses on the story of the family of Gdynia shipyard worker Brunon Drywa, who was shot dead during riots at a train station in Gdynia on December 17, 1970.

Screened with:
VIOLATED LETTERS (Cudze listy)
Dir. Maciej Drygas/Poland/Documentary/ 2011/55 min

This black and white film is a mosaic of never shown archival footage, letters read by carefully chosen voices and Secret Service internal messages that reveal this Orwellian organisation in action between 1945-1989.

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Saturday 10 March/ 8 pm/ at Riverside Studios/ BOOK ONLINE
ENTANGELMENT (Uwikłanie)
Dir. Jacek Bromski/ Poland/ Thriller/ 2011/ 128 min

In this adaptation of Zygmunt Miłoszewski's best-selling novel, the cynical lieutenant Smolar and stubborn prosecutor Agata Szacka are on the trail of an uncanny assassin. Szacka, investigating the most complicated case in her career so far, will come face to face with a story that has become almost a myth, a story that no one believed could ever be proven.

Followed by a Q&A with director, Jacek Bromski and a novelist Zygmunt Miłoszewski

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Sunday 11 March/ 6 pm/ at Riverside Studios/ BOOK ONLINE
FEAR OF FALLING (Lęk Wysokości)
Dir. Bartosz Konopka/ Poland/ Drama/ 2011/ 90 min

The director of the Oscar nominated documentary Rabbit a la Berlin, returns with his first feature for which, he was awarded Best Directorial Debiut Award at the 2011 Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. Young TV reporter Tomek leads a peaceful life. When his father ends up at a psychiatric hospital, Tomek must take care of him. As he enters into the world of mental disease, he learns the truth about himself.

Screened with:
PATHS OF HATE  Dir. Damian Nenow/Poland/Animation/2010/10 min
A short tale of beasts, which lie dormant deep in the human soul and push them into the abyss of blind hatred, rage and anger. A chasm that leads to the inevitable destruction and annihilation. Long-listed for the 2012 Academy Awards.

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Sunday 11 March/ 5 pm/ at Barbican Centre SOLD OUT
IN DARKNESS
Dir. Agnieszka Holland/ 2010/ Poland, Germany/ Drama/143min

In Darkness tells the true story of Leopold Socha, a sewer worker and petty thief in Nazi-occupied Lvov, Poland. Stumbling upon a group of Jews in the sewers, he agrees to hide them for a price. What starts out as a straightforward business arrangement becomes something unexpected, as they all try to outwit certain death during 14 months of intense danger. The film will be released across the UK by Metrodome on 16th March.

Followed by a Q&A with lead actor Robert Więckiewicz
The screening is organised in partnership with the UK Jewish Film

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Sunday 10 March/ 8pm/ at Riverside Studios BOOK ONLINE
THE MOLE (Kret)
Dir. Rafael Lewandowski/ Poland/ Drama/ 2010/ 108 min

The Mole is a suspense-filled story of Paweł whose family life is suddenly disrupted when one day an article slandering the good name of Paweł's father is published in a paper. To what lengths is Paweł ready to go to protect his nearest and dearest? The Mole is an intense and gripping story about a family, a movement, and a stirred nation.

Screened with
PAPARAZZI  dir. Piotr Bernaś/ Poland/ Documentary/ 2011/ 33 min
Using techniques such as time-lapse filming, this documentary charts the nerve-racking daily existence of a Polish paparazzi. The photographer is aware that being a member of the paparazzi means you're on a slippery slope: "Becoming a motherfucker is a process you go through consciously."

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Monday 12 March/ 8.30pm/ at Riverside Studios
MY NAME IS KI (Ki)
Dir. Leszek Dawid/ Poland/ Drama/ 2011/ 90 min

Full length feature debut telling a story of Ki (Roma Gąsiorowska) a young woman who refuses to play the part of a tired single mother. She wants to live a fast-paced and colourful life. Will her difficult relationships with men help her become mature enough to embrace love and responsibility for herself and her son?

Screened with
FROZEN STORIES (Opowieści z chłodni)  Dir Grzegorz Jaroszuk/ Poland/Comedy /2011/26 min
A tongue-in-cheek story about a young man and woman who work at the same supermarket. When they're dubbed the company's worst employees, they need to find a new purpose and start a better, more valuable life in just two days.

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Thursday 15 March/ 8.30 pm/ at Prince Charles Cinema
SUICIDE ROOM (Sala Samobójców)
Dir. Jan Komasa/Poland/ Thriller/Animation/ 2011/ 110 min

Dominik is a seemingly ordinary teenage boy. He has many friends, dates the most beautiful girl in a school, rich parents, money to spare, expensive gadgets and is always invited to parties. However one kiss changes everything… “She” has trapped him inside the internet. “She” is intriguing, dangerous, crafty. “She” has introduced him into "the suicide room", a place from which there is no escape. Dominik, trapped within his own feelings, caught in a deadly intrigue, slowly loses touch with what is the most valuable in life…

Entanglement  by Zygmunt Miłoszewski

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:26:00 +0100

Entanglement
By Zygmunt Miłoszewski
Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press 2010
Related event
Saturday 10 March, 8pm
Riverside Studios
Crisp Road Hammersmith, London W6 9RL
£9.50
Book online Screening of Entanglement as part of KINOTEKA 10th Polish Film Festival
dir. Jacek Bromski / Poland / Thriller / 2011 / 128 min Followed by a Q&A with director Jacek Bromski and a novelist Zygmunt Miłoszewski Flinty, quirky crime writing from Poland with a pungent sense of locale.
-- Crime Time Zygmunt Miloszewski's Entanglement, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones and published by Bitter Lemon Press, is part procedural, part puzzle, part secret-police intrigue, and in the end, a coherent whole that's funny, engaging, and even profound.
-- Glenn Harper, International Noir Fiction Entanglement is an exceptionally fine combination of crime story and psychological thriller. The morning after a gruelling psychotherapy session in a central Warsaw monastery, Henryk Telak is found dead, a roasting spit stuck in one eye. The case lands on the desk of State Prosecutor Teodor Szacki. World-weary, suffering from bureaucratic exhaustion and marital ennui, Szacki feels that life has passed him by, but this case changes everything. He must steer his way through a gallery of colourful characters: a flirtatious young journalist, an eccentric psychiatrist, a lecherous police colleague and a paranoid historian. Szacki's search for the killer unearths another murder that took place twenty years earlier, before the fall of Communism. The trail leads to facts that, for his own safety, he'd be better off not knowing. Zygmunt Miłoszewski (b. 1976) is a Polish novelist, journalist, and scriptwriter. His first novel, a horror story called The Intercom, was published in 2005 to high acclaim. In 2006, his novel for teenagers, The Adder Mountains, appeared, and in 2007, his first crime novel, Entanglement, gained him a popular following in Poland and abroad. This year, a sequel called A Grain of Truth was published and became an instant bestseller. On the strength of this novel, Miłoszewski was nominated for the prestigious "Passport Polityka" award given annually to writers under the age of 40. An English translation is forthcoming in August 2012. In 2011, a film based on the novel Entanglement was released with the same title. Miłoszewski is now writing the third and final part of the trilogy. He is also a screen writer (mainly for television), and is planning to write sci-fi in the future. Antonia Lloyd-Jones is one of the leading translators of Polish literature into English. Having studied Russian and Ancient Greek at Oxford University, she has translated many works of Polish literature into English, among them House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk, The Other by Ryszard Kapuściński, and Pawel Huelle's Mercedes-Benz and Castorp. She is the recipient of the 2009 Found in Translation Award for her translation of Pawel Huelle's The Last Supper. She lives in London.

10 X 10 X 10 Retrospective as part of the 10th KINOTEKA

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:52:00 +0100

9 - 13 March
Riverside Studios
Crisp Road
London W6 9RL
Tickets: £9.50 (£8.50 concessions) SPECIAL OFFER - BOOK 2 for £14, 3 for £18 or 4 for £24,
Box office: 020 8237 1111
Book online
15 March
Prince Charles Cinema
7 Leicester Place
London WC2H 7BY
Tickets: £10 (£7.50 concessions)
Box office: 0870 811 2559
Book online www.kinoteka.org.uk
In celebration of Kinoteka’s 10th ‘Birthday’, 10 world renowned British and Polish filmmakers have been invited to choose their personal favourite Polish films; marking 10 milestones of Polish Cinema, spanning fiction features and documentaries. Friday, 9 March, at 6.20pm at Riverside Studios, BOOK ONLINE
Ken Loach’s Favourite
ASHES AND DIAMONDS (Popiół i Diament)
Dir. Andrzej Wajda, Poland, Drama,1958, 103 min
‘The Polish films I remember best are the ones made by Andrzej Wajda many years ago. Even then, my memory is a bit hazy! But images from Kanal and Ashes and Diamonds stay in my mind.. If I must choose one, I guess it would be Ashes and Diamonds’. Ken Loach

Screened with:
Andrzej Wajda’s favourite
ARTICLE ZERO (Pargraf Zero)
Dir. Włodzimierz Borowik, 1957, Poland, Documentary,16 min.
Borowik’s documentary reveals the existance of prostitution, kept secret from the official point of view and non existant from the legal point of view.

Saturday, 10th March, at 2.30pm at Riverside Studios, BOOK ONLINE
Michael Nyman favourite
NOTHING (Nic)
Dir. Dorota Kędzierzawska, Poland, Drama,1998, 80 min
Hela loves her husband even though he beats her; he blames their three children for the poverty in which the family is forced to live. When she gets pregnant once again, Hela has no choice but to go down a road from which there is no return.

Screened with:
Quay Brothers favoutite
CHIPS (Odpryski)
Dir. Jerzy Kucia, Poland, Animation,1984, 10 min
A study of loneliness and passing away. The memories of years that passed a long time ago become alive again in the mind of a woman doing her chores. The winner of Ottawa International Animation Festival.

Sunday, 11th March, at 3.30pm at Riverside Studios, BOOK ONLINE
Paweł Pawlikowski’s favourite
THE SALT OF BLACK EARTH (Sól Ziemi Czarnej)
Dir. Kazimierz Kutz, Poland, Drama, 1970, 99 min
The film recounts the story of the first, ultimately failed, Silesian uprising of 1920 through the actions of the seven Basista brothers, all of whom enlist with the rebel force and end up fighting in a single unit.

Screened with:
Jerzy Skolimowski’s favourite
OLYMPICS (Olimpiada)
Dir. Bogdan Dziworski, Poland, Documentary, 1978, 17 min
Film shot during skiing competition for children in Zakopane. First sport experiences, taste of victory and taste of defeat.

Monday, 12th March, at 7.00pm at Riverside Studios, BOOK ONLINE
Nicolas Roeg favourite
KNIFE IN THE WATER (Nóż w wodzie)
Dir. Roman Polański, Poland, Drama, 1963, 94 min
A husband and wife meet a strange man on their way to a holiday on their yacht, and take him with them. Strongly criticised for being too cosmopolitan, too pointless, it has won numerous awards at various international festivals and opened the door of the Western world to Polański.

Monday, 12th March, at 7.00pm at Riverside Studios, BOOK ONLINE
Mirosław Balka’s favourite
KANAŁ
Dir. Andrzej Wajda, Poland, Drama, 1957, 91 min
“Watch them closely, for these are the last hours of their lives,” announces a narrator, foretelling the tragedy that unfolds as a war-ravaged company of Home Army resistance fighters tries to escape the Nazi onslaught through the sewers of Warsaw. Based on true events, Kanal was the first film ever made about the Warsaw Uprising and won Andrzej Wajda the Special Jury Prize in Cannes in 1957.

Tuesday, 13th March, at 6.40pm at Riverside Studios, BOOK ONLINE
Mike Leigh’s favourite
SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING (Krótki Film o Zabijaniu)
Dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski, Poland, Drama, 1988, 84 min
Subverting the binary roles of victim and murder, the film tells a story of the disaffected twenty-year-old Jacek, who murders a taxi driver. "Tough, real and ironic, 'A Short Film About Killing' pulls no punches and never lets you off the hook. An uncompromising attack on capital punishment, it is a minor masterpiece." Mike Leigh.

Thursday 15 March/ 8.30 pm/ at Prince Charles Cinema , BOOK ONLINE
Andrzej Żuławski’s favourite
SUICIDE ROOM (Sala Samobójców)
Dir. Jan Komasa/Poland/ Thriller/Animation/ 2011/ 110 min
Dominik is a seemingly ordinary teenage boy. He has many friends, dates the most beautiful girl in a school, rich parents, money to spare, expensive gadgets and is always invited to parties. However one kiss changes everything… “She” has trapped him inside the internet. “She” is intriguing, dangerous, crafty. “She” has introduced him into "the suicide room", a place from which there is no escape. Dominik, trapped within his own feelings, caught in a deadly intrigue, slowly loses touch with what is the most valuable in life…

Splatter and Rafał Mazur perform in London

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:09:00 +0100

16 March, 8.00pm
T Chances
399 High Road Tottenham
London N17 6Q
FREE
'Polski Splatter':

Anna Kaluza - alto sax
Noel Taylor - clarinets
Pedro Velasco - guitar
Tom Greenhalgh - drums
with
Rafal Mazur - acoustic bass guitar
Plus supporting set from Polish sound artist, Kacper Ziemianin.

Splatter might be considered an indiscriminating bunch - their music is liable to lurch off into sudden changes of style and direction, casting off fragments of noise, melody and rhythm like a deranged DJ sampling the radio airwaves, yet perversely held together by an illusive logic of its own. So it might be a surprise that such apparent tasteless-ness might appeal to the entirely discriminating Polish musician, Rafał Mazur. Mazur has performed jazz and improvised music in clubs and festivals across Poland and Europe, and in China, South Korea and Israel. His love affair with Splatter began when he played with three members of the band at the Solvay Dom Kultury Podgórze in Kraków. It became fully consummated when he joined with the band to play at Cafe Oto as part of the 'Exploratory Music from Poland' event held there last October. On that occasion Splatter joyously transformed into 'Polski Splatter', kick-starting the evening to a wildly enthusiastic audience.

Rafal Mazur's involvement with music began in his youth with violoncello studies in Krakow. He switched to bass guitar in the late 1980's. Since 2000 he has played an acoustic bass guitar built to his own specifications by luthier Jerzy Wysocki. He has developed an advanced and individual approach to his instrument, and to improvisation in general, in which sonority, extended technique and gesture combine effortlessly in performance.

He has taken an important role in Kraków to support young artists and improvised music. A founder of the ImproArt studio of improvisation, he has performed jazz and improvised music in clubs and festivals across Poland and Europe, and in China, South Korea and Israel. In recent years he has collaborated with Lisa Ullen, Frederic Blondy, Charlotta Hug, Raymond Strid, Keir Neuringer, Zsolt Sores and Attila Dóra and others. His current focus is the trio Ensemble 56. He is an organizer of the Laboratory of Intuition, a series of spontaneous art presentations in Kraków.

Mazur's main field of interest and activity is collective and solo free/spontaneous improvisation. In his practice as an improvising musician and on his way to mastery he studys Chinese philosophy (Jagiellonian University). He regards Taoism as a strong base for the enrichment of the improviser's attitude, and to this end he practices the Taoist's martial art TaiJi Quan Chen. For Mazur, following the masters of Chinese philosophy and martial arts is crucial in the development of a state of mind prepared for the unexpected situations an improviser encounters in the act of collective free improvisation.

Found in Translation 2012

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:30:00 +0100

Deadline: 15 March 2012 The Polish Book Institute, Polish Cultural Institute in London, Polish Cultural Institute in New York and W.A.B. Publishing House in Warsaw announce the FOUND IN TRANSLATION Award 2012.

The FOUND IN TRANSLATION Award is to be presented annually to the translator or translators of the best translation of the best translation into English of a work of Polish literature published as a book in the previous calendar year.

The Award consists of a three-month placement in Krakow, with accommodation, a grant of 2,000 PLN per month, a return airline ticket to Krakow funded by the Polish Book Institute and a financial award of 10,000 PLN funded by the W.A.B. Publishing House. Candidates for the Award can be nominated by both private persons and institutions in Poland and abroad.

Nominations should be emailed to biuro@instytutksiazki.pl with the subject-heading FOUND IN TRANSLATION.

The nomination must include the book title, the name of the author, the name of the translator, the publisher, and the reasons for the nomination. More: www.bookinstitute.pl --- Previously awarded: 2008 - Bill Johnston for his translation of New Poems by Tadeusz Różewicz (Archipelago Books, 2007)
2009 - Antonia Lloyd-Jones for her translation of The Last Supper by Paweł Huelle (Serpent's Tail, 2008)
2010 - Danuta Borchardt for her translation of Pornografia by Witold Gombrowicz (Grove Press, 2009)
2011 - Clare Cavanagh and Stanisław Barańczak for their translation of Here by Wisława Szymborska (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010)

Smena's Memory by Wioletta Grzegorzewska

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:49:00 +0100

Pamięć Smieny / Smena's Memory
By Wioletta Grzegorzewska
Translated by Marek Kazmierski
Published by OFF_Press in 2011
Buy online

This first collection from one of Poland’s most promising poets spans the course of an already rich publishing career, covering her childhood and the experience of growing up in post-Communist Poland to her most recent struggles with life in England and the continuation of her existence as a woman of letters on foreign soil. This is the first time her work has been published in English, representing an important moment for contemporary poetry produced outside of Poland.

The book also contains the poems in the original Polish. --- Related event
On Friday 16 March, 7pm, Wioletta Grzegorzewska will be a special guest of an evening of Polish poetry and readings What You Will Never Say Again hosted by Marek Kazmierski and organised by Calvert 22 in association with OFF_Press as part of the project The Forgetting of Proper Names. --- Wioletta Grzegorzewska – born in 1974 in southern Poland. Her poetry volumes include Wyobraźnia kontrolowana (Częstochowa 1998), Parantele (Częstochowa 2003), Orinoko (Tychy 2008) and Inne obroty (Toronto – Rzeszów 2010). Her poems have been published in the following literary journals: Arterie, Arkusz, OFF_Press, Studium, Tygiel Kultury and Zeszyty Literackie. She won the Tyska Zima Poetycka competition for the publication of a volume of post-debut poetry. Her poems have been translated into English. In 2006, she left Poland and moved to the UK, where she currently resides in the town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight. OFF_ is a UK-based independent press, promoting contemporary creative writing in English and Polish translations, using multimedia and live events to celebrate reading and storytelling in different languages/genres around the world. Both the publication and the event with Wioletta Grzegorzewska at Calvert 22 have been supported by the Polish Cultural Institute in London.