The Museum is open 11:00 – 19:00
Cinema is closed now
The Museum is open 11:00 – 19:00
Cinema is closed now
Meeting
The Adam Wodnicki Award. A meeting with the winner, Mateusz Kwaterka
Guests
Mateusz Kwaterko, Justyna Sobolewska
Location
Auditorium
Language of the meeting
Polish
Admission
Free admission thanks to a partnership with Audi
The Book Institute and the Museum of Modern Art invite you to a meeting with Mateusz Kwaterka, winner of the Adam Wodnicki Award for his translation from French of André Baillon’s *Szczypawka z ogrodu Luksemburskiego i inne prozy* (The Nettle from the Luxembourg Gardens and Other Prose), published by the State Publishing Institute.
The conversation will be moderated by Justyna Sobolewska.
“Baillon’s literary journey was exceptionally fascinating. His work, diverse in terms of genre and form, was an expression not only of a literary struggle, but also an existential one. Successive emotional crises left a strong mark on the works he created. “Szczypawka z ogrodu Luksemburskiego” is, in a subtle and indirect way, a story about the author’s own struggles. But the Polish translation actually contains three books (in addition to “Szczypawka…,” the volume also includes “Historia pewnej Marii” and “Deliria”). Mateusz Kwaterko, an experienced and renowned translator, faced a very difficult task, as each of the aforementioned works has slightly different stylistic features, for which equivalents had to be found in Polish. In the opinion of the award jury, the translator rose to this challenge admirably.”
– Grzegorz Jankowicz, director of the Book Institute and chairman of the jury for the Adam Wodnicki Award.
André Baillon (1875–1932) is one of the most important Belgian writers. Critics have hailed him as the founder of Belgian modernism, a cheerful naturalist,
a neurasthenic chronicling his therapy sessions, the heir to
nineteenth-century realism, a precursor of surrealism and existentialism, and even a postmodernist author focused on the cracks and fissures of language. In any case, they unanimously consider him one of the most interesting and
most original writers of the 20th century.
a neurasthenic chronicling his therapy sessions, the heir to
nineteenth-century realism, a precursor of surrealism and existentialism, and even a postmodernist author focused on the cracks and fissures of language. In any case, they unanimously consider him one of the most interesting and
most original writers of the 20th century.
This comprehensive volume of Baillon’s prose, translated by Mateusz Kwaterka, includes: the social novel “The Story of a Certain Maria—The Life of a Small-Town Maiden”; the novel “Szczypawka z ogrodu Luksemburskiego”—the life story of Marcel, a patient at a psychiatric institution whom the author met at the Salpêtrière—and “Deliria”—an extraordinary account of the narrator’s mental breakdown. These are polished literary works with a well-thought-out structure and complex narrative. Baillon’s prose seems
to straddle the line between the ramblings of a madman and a meticulous account, which gives it a unique sense of vibrancy.
to straddle the line between the ramblings of a madman and a meticulous account, which gives it a unique sense of vibrancy.
The award was established by the Book Institute to honor Adam Wodnicki, an outstanding visual artist, translator of French literature, and writer, and its purpose is to recognize the best translation from French and/or a translation of a book devoted to the visual arts, published in book form.
The following people will attend the meeting
Mateusz Kwaterko
Justyna Sobolewska
This content was translated by DeepL