About the exhibition
The presentation comprises two solo shows of Małgorzata Lazarek and Przemysław Dunaj. The starting point of a proposed narration is their meeting at Satyrykon in 1999. The exhibition follows two directions, and it shows their works from that period. The course of time has been marked by graphic means – a dotted line with vectors. This timeline of a kind refers to two decades of the authors’ lives. The whole show consists of cartoons and drawings, illustrations but also some other forms of artistic work by Lazarek and Dunaj.
The artists wish the audience, except for the very viewing of the exhibition, to reflect on a few general issues: inevitability of the time passing by, rightness of our choices, victories and defeats, and last but not least, the power of friendship which was the founding concept of the show.
High in magnesium
Małgorzata Lazarek:
I was born close to the Warta River sources. I think that the time and place of my birth were of crucial significance for my future. Jurassic water, which comes out of the Warta springs, is minerilised and high in magnesium. It is widely acclaimed that magnesium has positive effects on good mood and optimistic worldview. Similar effects may be obtained by eating chocolate. The theory of Jurassic water impact on origins of sense of humour was discovered by well-known satirist, Robert Szecówka who comes from Polish Jurassic Highland. It has already been established as common truth, and proved empirically. Seven is a magical number, and I was born on the seventh of April? A coincidence? I don’t think so.
Przemysław Dunaj:
To comprehend an impact of the place where one comes from, it may be good to go somewhere afar, not necessarily to the end of the world. I was born and I grew up in Kalisz, but what it means, and what may result of it, I realised standing in the queue at the grocer’s, quite probably in Gdańsk. It was a school excursion. I was standing there, trying to work out a clear message I was about to come up with in front of the shop assistant. Suddenly, I felt afraid as I realised I cannot remember popular Polish name for ‘szneka’ [regional name for a bun]. The word was used at my neighbours’ place where I used to have spent a lot of time. The closer the counter I got, the name ‘drożdżówka’ [Polish for a bun] went deeper and deeper into the well of oblivion. Eventually I asked for ‘ciastko’ [Polish for a cake], which saved me in this awkward situation at least to some extent.
Drawings, stories and other flowers
Małgorzata Lazarek:
The first attempts at painting and graphic arts took place in my early childhood when I cut out flowers on the surface of a new TV set enclosure with a skewer. Unfortunately this work met no applause from my Parents’ side. In the elementary school the reaction to my artistic activity was of two kinds. The unexpected discovery of the teachers’ caricatures drawn by me resulted in lower grades and at the same time huge popularity among my schoolmates. My drawings were bought in huge numbers in the school kiosk, and the money, earned on the ‘black market’ I would spend on doughnuts and chocolates. I realised then that artistic activity is a good way to achieve a social financial success. It seemed perfect regarding how easy drawing actually was for me.
Przemysław Dunaj:
From my own childhood, which happened in the time of famed Flower Power, I hardly remember any colours. Well, actually I can remember red fire engines and blue lights of warszawa cars of emergency or militia… And apart from those, almost all shades of grey. That’s the way I remember this, and that’s how it looks like in my drawings miraculously preserved from those times: an outline drawn with a ball pen, no colours. The colours of childhood will not be given back by photo either, as they are all black and white. Wedding ceremonies and parties, picnics, a pier, an excursion from work… My Father in a uniform, my Mum with her friends in front of the school, this one died, the other went crazy, yet another went to Australia… The girl in a Krakovian vest will take care of a German pensioner lady, the one with a ribbon will fight unsuccessfully for her marriage. The boy does not know yet what will happen in the future. Golly, it was supposed to be fun…
Małgorzata Lazarek:
The first piece of art I was admiring was a painting with a presentation of a ship on the rough sea. My Mum received it as a gift from a deaf-mute neighbour tenant’s cohabitee. This lady made it in prison when she was sentenced for pouring hydrochloric acid over her untruthful fiance. Her current fiance, the mute guy, was suspected for some time to be the notorious vampire who attacked women in those days. That was why a militia detective officer lived at our place then. Nevertheless, it was not the mute guy who became the hero of our house. The real hero turned to be a neighbour from the first floor. In attack of a white fever he smashed all the doors in our tenement house with an axe, and he pierced a window of our bedroom with a telegraph pole. It was right then when coming back from school I noticed a crowd of bystanders and a group of militia men chasing the naked neighbour with white fever. Mrs. Irenka, the insane’s neighbour from the first floor, owned a big shoe as one of her legs was much shorter, decided not to leave her flat sooner as two days after the events. That’s what my childhood was like. It is obvious that I had no choice, as to run away somewhere colourful, to the land of imagination. I graduated from the secondary school of arts, the Academy of Fine Arts, I got a medal, I got married, I had children, and… I stopped creating.
Przemysław Dunaj:
I used to draw and make notes in my sketchbooks for quite a long time. I started doing this during my studies, mainly because I did not want to lose the skills I had elaborated with time. Nevertheless, I realised soon enough that drawing means something more, that it carries a story with it. A window is a mere rectangular composed better or worse within a façade. A window frame, glass, geranium… But as soon as you place someone in this window, let it be my friend, Stefan’s granddad, who from this viewpoint, would count people going out of church every Sunday, and this number would multiply by 2 zloty, then it becomes a totally different window. And on the top of that you can add a woman just from the opposite, who once found a chick on an empty market place, and bred a hen out of it only to become her walking companion in the park. Perhaps a few more apparently ordinary people, and what you get is something about us, or in other words, something about an ordinary, sad-and-funny life.
At some time in the early 1990s I worked out a method of drawing with the use of squashed pieces of paper. A cycle of portraits depicting 20th-century history was made that way. They turned into a few shows. I even received an award for these portraits. Surely, I do not treat my manual skills as a particular gift. If providence had put all that extra power in my legs instead of hands, I would have been a retired football player today. Who knows, perhaps even a rich and famous one, and the reality is… It’s not worth talking.
No earlier than yesterday
Małgorzata Lazarek:
Satyrykon happened in my life by an accident. I sent in my works not knowing what exactly it is about. When I got a telegram that my entry was granted a gold medal, typically enough I burnt into tears, and I called my husband. After having listened to my report, he concluded that it seemed as a joke of one of my friends. No one knew me, I knew nobody, I went to Legnica to collect the medal actually quite scared. The only person I talked to was Przemek Dunaj. We exchanged stories about our complexes, fears and worries. Just the way it happens with people. The time went by, a lot has changed. Now, after twenty years, we are here in Legnica again, and once again we are able to talk about our fears, complexes and worries. Just like it happens with people.
Przemysław Dunaj:
I came to Legnica for the first time in 1997. I won an honorary mention then, and my friend, Tomek Broda received Grand Prix. Right before the award ceremony, Tomek asked me about his hair – did it stand up in a characteristic place, exactly where popes wear a zucchetto. His hair actually stood up as hell, but not to confuse him at this special moment, I said it did not. I would not like to be aware of such a thing either. In the following years I came here three more times. In 1999 I had even a solo show. This is when I met Małgosia Lazarek.
Małgorzata Lazarek:
The second time we met was one year later. Przemek won Grand Prix then. New millennium was just ahead of us, and I eventually took a plunge and started to draw and paint. Since that moment Przemek disappeared somewhere. We met only last year, and we acted like we met last no earlier than the day before. That is when the idea of the show was born.
Przemysław Dunaj:
Together with Małgosia we decided to tell each other about what had happened in those last twenty years. And what is the best way to do it? Obviously, by means of an exhibition. And what is the best place to have it? Well, certainly, in Legnica, and we were lucky enough to coincide with Satyrykon… It is a wonderful event and I am looking forward to this meeting after the years have passed. Actually I have been absent here more than ten years.
Małgorzata Lazarek:
What is Satyrykon for me? For some people, it is a prestigious international contest of satirical drawing, for the others it is a meaningful cultural event. My view of Satyrykon is very personal. It won’t be an exaggeration, if I say that thanks to this event, thanks to the people I met here, my life has changed. Satyrykon made me believe in my own skills, gave me wings and a huge mobilisation to work. I met great artists and culture animators from almost all over the world. The city of Legnica has become close to my heart. Special thanks go to Ela Pietraszko who is a regular Guarding Helper Angel of Big Softies, at the same time the Perfect Organiser of All Satyrykon-Related Things. I can only make a deep bow and say ‘Thank you for everything’.
What do I actually do?
Przemysław Dunaj:
One of my friends said once that God, or any other primal force, is not interested in what we do but rather who we become then. Moreover, one is getting older… Some time ago I had a meeting with an old secondary school-mate, at about seven in the evening, in the shopping mall. When I was going out, I met my Father at the gate. He looked at me suspiciously and asked: ‘Where do you think you go at night?’. Indeed, I thought, what was I doing? It was dark and cold. Perhaps I will have a drink, and the next day I will have a headache, and maybe the situation will develop and I will be forced to drink two or three, I will feel bad, and for God sake I will puke somewhere in the bushes… I turned back home, and called my friend with apologies that I was not able to come. More and more often I feel that the untold stories and undrawn cartoons sit on me like a flock of crows over a cunning fox, who is waiting for an easy loot pretending he is carcass. Unfortunately, sometimes I feel lack of energy to jump up suddenly and catch feathers of even a trivial anecdote.
Małgorzata Lazarek:
And what now? When I celebrated my twentieth birthday I had a feeling that I was old and ‘I lived enough’, or in other words, all what beautiful was already behind me. This feeling overpowered me when I sent my works to Satyrykon for the first time, and that is why I placed in a questionnaire a photo of me in my study years. I did this because I didn’t want anyone to know my age. Three years since my debut at Satyrykon I have managed to win a gold medal, the second prize, an honorary mention, a few awards of other satirical and artistic competitions. And when I showed my works in Piwnica pod Baranami in Krakow, I thought to myself than nothing better could actually happen to me. I was completely wrong. After twenty years I was granted the wings in Legnica, I have an impression that all things beautiful are still in front of me. I have not yet lived enough.