The idea of honouring the musician, who died in March this year, came from members of the Blues nad Bobrem Association. The life-size monument is only one of the ways of commemorating Tadeusz Nalepa. Another is naming the Blues Band Review, which will take place on 11 August, after him. The bluesman's wife, Grażyna Dramowicz, and his son Piotr will attend. Nalepa's monument will be unveiled on the day before the review. The bluesman will probably stand either right by the entrance to the town hall or on Prusa Street. Initially, there was also a plan to place the sculpture in Waryński Park and rename it Tadeusz Nalepa Park, but that idea was abandoned.
"Grażyna Dramowicz was surprised that someone wanted to honour Tadeusz," says Dariusz Gruszecki, director of this year's Blues nad Bobrem festival. In his opinion, however, "it is worth honouring a man who is the father of Polish blues." All the more so because, as he admits, Bolesławiec is associated by many Poles not with ceramics, but with blues. Work on the monument was entrusted to Sebastian Lichodziejewski. The sculpture will be made of sandstone. "Sebastian is a fantastic sculptor," says the BnB director.
"According to the plans, Nalepa is to stand with a backpack and a guitar, as if he were waiting for a car in the morning after a concert," explains Sebastian Lichodziejewski. It is already known that he will not sculpt the guitar. A case will instead lie beside the bluesman. This is related, among other things, to the material from which the sculpture will be made. "Sandstone is a rather demanding, fragile material," says the artist. At first, the sculptor wanted to depict Nalepa with short hair, as the guitarist looked towards the end of his life. He changed his mind. "All the blues musicians I spoke to said they could not imagine him without long hair; that is how they remembered him," says Lichodziejewski. Besides, as he adds, "if he has long hair, he will be more distinctive." Before starting work, he wants to meet people who knew the father of Polish blues – "I will certainly ask for their opinions; although I will be the author of both the design and the sculpture itself, I will be doing it for these people."
Why sandstone? Lichodziejewski cannot imagine a cast monument in a city with such a thriving stoneworking and sculpture centre. The monument will have no ornaments, so the sculptor will have to work on bringing his creation to life. It will take him about six weeks to complete, he says. Nalepa will also have to be properly integrated into the city, with references to other Bolesławiec sculptures and to the late Baroque. Peter Breuer, the author of, among other works, the monument Jesus, Friend of Children, "set the bar very high; you cannot make just anything here," says the artist. Nevertheless, Nalepa's monument will refer to Baroque sculptures only through its texture. "It certainly will not look like St Sebastian," the sculptor jokes.
Tadeusz Nalepa is a special figure to Sebastian Lichodziejewski, but he came to like him "in the final period of his life, because men who have been through a lot have a very wise view of many things." In this respect, the Polish bluesman reminds him of the Canadian bard Leonard Cohen. The leader of Breakout is becoming increasingly close to him. "When I start working on a sculpture, I begin to get to know the person, reading a great deal about him and looking at his photographs. I get to know him more at that point," the sculptor admits.
Sebastian Lichodziejewski's work can be admired, among other places, at the Galeria Piastów in Legnica. Recently, he sculpted St Florian for Lwówek Śląski. He has already received a commission to make another figure of the patron saint of firefighters. It will be his second St Florian, but, as he adds, "figurative sculpture is always unique."
(information and photographs: GA)