Czesław Dźwigaj created nearly 70 monuments to John Paul II in Poland and abroad. The artist’s body of work also includes several dozen other monuments: Grudzień ‘70 in Szczecin, To the Sons of This Land in Świątniki Górne, monuments to Gen. Leopold Okulicki and Stanisław Fischer in Bochnia, Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski in Stalowa Wola, Rev. Piotr Skarga, To the Victims of Genocide in the Eastern Borderlands, Marshal Józef Piłsudski, I.J. Paderewski in Kraków, Nikifor in Krynica-Zdrój, King Sigismund Augustus in Augustów, King Łokietek in Tarnów, King Casimir III the Great in Skawina, Duke Władysław V Wstydliwy in Nowe Brzesko, Henryk Sienkiewicz in the Villa Borghese Park in Rome and in Szczawnica, Jan Matejko, Juliusz Kossak, Stanisław Lubomirski, Rainbow of the Covenant in Nowy Wiśnicz, the Park and Monument of Tolerance in Jerusalem, and the Katyń–Smolensk monument in Warsaw.
The artist will come to Bolesławiec with an exceptional work: an audiovisual exhibition in tribute to the requiem “Missa pro defunctis” by Roman Maciejewski. It is one of the artist’s most important projects of recent years. Czesław Dźwigaj worked on the exhibition for four years. He encountered Roman Maciejewski’s work at the beginning of this century, when the composer’s brother asked him to create a monument to him. The commission was never completed, but it became an inspiration and began a process of exploration that led to the finale: this extraordinary exhibition—a tribute and monument to Maciejewski’s greatest work, and at the same time an individual vision of the great eschatological drama.
In an interview with Istotne.pl, Professor Czesław Dźwigaj describes his work on the project and explains why he took on such a difficult and monumental subject as depicting a great musical work.
When creating a work with a pacifist message, speaking about the trauma of war, did you reflect on punishment for all the people who took part in war, including those who killed in defense of their country?
No, in my opinion those who defend themselves cannot be punished. Turning the other cheek is a beautiful thing, but I do not believe that is how one should act when an enemy invades one’s homeland. The guilds of marksmen that defended cities from the ninth century onward may serve as an example. They never went beyond the defensive walls. They attacked only within the city, killing an enemy who had brutally entered their territory.
Maciejewski’s Requiem is a work about the great trauma experienced after the two world wars…
Roman Maciejewski based his Requiem on a medieval liturgical text, although it is not a mass. He lived through both wars: he was born in 1910 and, as a small child, perhaps did not remember the First World War well, but he experienced the Second World War very consciously. Maciejewski was also a creator of the interwar period, listened to the music of Karol Szymanowski and lived in the Second Polish Republic. The artist took part in the creation and subsequent collapse of the Polish state. This also influenced him.
Do you need musical training to create paintings based on a requiem?
Music has accompanied me throughout my life. Either one brings music from home, or nature or God—as one prefers to call it—gives us musical sensitivity as a gift; I count myself among the latter. Among other things, I held an exhibition entitled “Polyphonies” in Chrzanów in 1973–75 about Tchaikovsky’s music. I listened to all of Maciejewski’s works and was deeply impressed by his talent. His mazurkas are excellent; he was a great artist.
Regarding the requiem, I spoke with an outstanding musician who said that although a work such as a requiem is associated by average listeners with Mozart, more than 160 of them have been written since the Middle Ages. It turns out that Maciejewski’s requiem is in no way inferior to Mozart’s. I even had the idea of selecting the best passages from all the important requiems written to date and creating one ideal work.
How did the idea of creating paintings for the requiem come about?
Stefan Szlachtycz made a film for TVP, “Outsider, or a Portrait of Roman Maciejewski, the Independent Composer.” Later I met Wojciech, the musician’s brother, who suggested that I create a monument to the requiem. Concepts, drawings and plans were even produced, and Wojciech Maciejewski chose one of the designs, but it overwhelmed me and I withdrew. I felt that I could not do it; the work was too great. Sometimes that happens. But it would not leave me alone. I collected literature, doctoral dissertations and habilitation theses about the work, listened to the requiem and approached it differently. I divided the work into sections. I combined them with paintings, and that is how my tribute to this work came about. To me, it is a work that prompts reflection on human folly—in other words, war.