It was mainly admirers of the novel “Lala,” published the previous year, who came to meet its author. Women made up the largest group among the audience, although men and young people were also present. Halina Majewska, director of the Municipal Public Library in Bolesławiec and the meeting’s host, announced that Jacek Dehnel had agreed to become the spiritual patron of the literary discussion club launched at the Gallery. The evening revealed many sides of the Warsaw poet. It is worth adding that several of the author of “Lala’s” youthful paintings were exhibited at Galeria Format.
The poet, elegantly dressed as usual, told those gathered, among other things, about the creative process: that he enjoys writing on trains and, since buying a laptop, has been creating even more often. He admitted that, under the influence of Virginia Woolf, he had returned to the diary form. He works a great deal because he would like to be a person who is constantly developing, rather than someone who is “shrinking,” as his colleague from the Łossskot programme, Tymon Tymański, puts it. Asked whether there was any field that did not interest him, he replied that sculpture was an area of art incapable of arousing strong emotions in him, much like architecture, although Turin’s historic monuments delight him. He also addressed the subject of critics’ absurd accusations and his fame. He stated that publicity is fleeting and that, in reality, it is impossible to know which of one’s contemporaries will be remembered in 50 years. The audience also asked why, despite his young age, he dealt in his work with such issues as transience and death. Half-jokingly, the poet replied that it might be because he had often been ill in childhood and had come close to death many times. But it was not the case that he came from a “funeral-director family.” The people of Bolesławiec also learned that the poet was currently working on two novels.
The reading of the poet’s texts was an essential part of the evening. The author read, among other things, one of his best-known works—the poem “Happiness.” As he admitted, he was so pleased with the piece that he would give it “four-plus” out of five. He also read several poems from his latest collection, “The Razor of a Twinkling,” published in January of that year. From that volume, the poet presented, among other works, the excellent “Otherness” and the poem closing the collection, “The Reception,” a rhyming poem addressing fundamental and ultimate questions. This poetry showed those gathered at Galeria Format a somewhat different side of the Warsaw writer’s work: an existential, eschatological side, at times far removed from the distinguished language of “Lala.” Nevertheless, Dehnel’s prose could not be missing that evening. The author read a key passage from his best-known novel to date—the passage about how “the doll was born.”
At the end, the poet signed books. Those who had not yet managed to buy any of Jacek Dehnel’s works could do so in the lobby of Galeria Format, at a very affordable price. There was no shortage of interested readers. Unsurprisingly, “Lala” and the excellent “The Razor of a Twinkling” proved the most popular.
“[...] You, if you await some morals, / wait no longer. There is little time. // Be good. Love. Age with grace. / Castles are weak. Panes are thin.” (Jacek Dehnel, “The Reception”)
(GA report, photographs and video material by KG)