Dorota Sieron-Galusek Lukasz Galusek BOR PDF
Dorota Sieron-Galusek Lukasz Galusek BOR PDF
Łukasz Galusek
Borderland
BORDERLAND
On Reviving Culture
LIT
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
1 The wandering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Sub-existence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Restlessness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 The journey is above all a return . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4 A fixed point of reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2 Atlantis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.1 When did the end come? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2 Fugitives from Atlantis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.3 New barbarians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.4 In the light of u-topia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.5 Emptiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3 Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.1 The thread of the story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.2 Deeper descent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.3 In the footsteps of the intractables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.4 We remember, therefore we are . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.5 A question of dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.6 Therapy or mutilation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.7 Memory of ancient time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.8 Community of memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.9 Neighbours. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.10 However it was it is what it is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.11 Towards a culture of remembering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.12 Milieux de mémoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4 Rootedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.1 Returnees to Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.2 Home, nest, temple. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.3 The Sejny Chronicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.4 Establish the place, establish the word . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.5 The rooted avant-garde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
4.6 Playing here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.7 The Krasnogruda route . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7 Hospitality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
7.1 Friendship for life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
7.2 Practitioner of ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
7.3 The encounter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
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what was most important – the idea that became a place. They had
chosen a vulnerable region, where their work promised discovery, recovery,
healing. From the initial group, the two founding couples remain the
animators, directors, and the soul of the foundation till today. They are
Krzysztof Czyżewski, Małgorzata Szporek-Czyżewska, Wojciech Szroeder
and Bożena Szroeder. What they started is now a multi-faceted way of
living and working. Their original seat was located in an old synagogue in
the town of Sejny; it is there that they have performances and exhibits. Also
in Sejny, they established an archive and information centre which contains
a research library. In Krasnogruda, not far from Sejny, they have renovated a
manor house that once belonged to the family of the poet Czesław Miłosz;
this is where many of their cultural and intellectual activities take place.
In the surrounding park some of the most wonderful performances and
meetings happen. Each of these places is magical and unforgettable.
The book beautifully describes Borderland’s activities and the ideas
behind them. The authors not only understand but also share the
intellectual, artistic and emotional intentions that govern the practice of
the Borderlanders. They have read the same books that inspired the
Borderlanders, they understand what the Borderland’s practice consists
of, what its objectives are. Though Borderland’s work and its conceptual
underpinning has evolved and developed with time, its constant mission
is to grow social connective tissue so as to mend society’s ruptures.
The authors of the book present the stages of the unending process
of the reconstruction of the diversity of traditions: together with the
Borderlanders, they listen to the voices of the past. They share the loyalty
towards the place, and to any of the places the Borderlanders collaborate
with, avoiding preferential treatment for majority cultures, for hierarchy
linked to state power. And, very importantly, they describe Borderland’s
effort to create a space for the voices of those who are not here anymore,
for the murdered, the expelled, and the forgotten. Such work requires not
only modesty and devotion, but also courage. The authors of the book write
about that courage, mentioning, for example, that the publishing house
of the Borderland foundation issued, among many outstanding books,
Neighbors by Jan T. Gross (2000); it was an act that opened a nationwide
debate about complicity in the Holocaust. The decision to publish that book,
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to open it to free access on the Foundation’s website, was one of the most
decisive among their many important activities to enlarge public discourse
and ground it in facts.
The book follows these and other decisions made by the people linked
with the Borderland group that positively influenced the cultural climate
of post-1989 Poland. The Borderlanders made their choices in a very
deliberate way and celebrated their maîtres à penser. The book Borderland
follows their inspirations, most of all the decisive influence of Czesław
Miłosz with his non-dogmatic attachment to the borderlands. Other books
that Galusek and Sieroń-Galusek have read together with the Czyżewskis
and Schroeders are those by the chroniclers of the borderlands Stanisław
Vincenz and Jerzy Stempowski, as well as the poetry of Paul Celan and the
theology of Simone Weil. The thought of Hannah Arendt is also present, as
are the political choices of Jerzy Giedroyc. The issues of active memory,
of living with the Other, and of embracing difference are presented in
this book as they developed in the active thinking and thoughtful acting
of the Borderland. The book maps the intellectual, conceptual work done
by Borderlanders and shows their fruitful collaboration with people from
other difficult places and regions. The reader of this book will have the
unique possibility of seeing the interlacing of social practice with its
intellectual origins. The authors join the Borderlanders: their book is an act
of bringing the reader into a cultural and ethical community. The territory
this community occupies has no borders and does not require passports.
May it host a community of people as large as possible.
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184
185
188
L N
Landsbergis, Vytautas 146 Niemojewski, Marcin 119
Lebecka, Magdalena 160 Nijakowski, Lech M. 57, 58, 61, 62, 65
Lem, Stanisław 3 Nora, Pierre 53, 54, 71, 72, 74
Leszczyński, Adam 61 Nyczek, Tadeusz 3
Leśmian, Bolesław 120, 160
Levinas, Emmanuel 121, 169 O
Limanowski, Mieczysław 142 Obirek, Stanisław 26
Lipscher, Winfried 25 Ołdakowska Kuflowa, Mirosława 21
Lipski, Jan Jozef 66 Orłowski, Hubert 25
Loew, Peter Oliver 26 Osadczuk, Bohdan 120
Lorca, Federico Garcia 16 Osiński, Zbigniew 140, 141, 145, 157
Osterwa, Juliusz 142, 145
M
Machul, Piotr 72, 138 P
Macianis, Paulina 56, 149, 150, 152, Papusza, Bronisława Wajs 8
153 Pärt, Arvo 120
Magris, Claudio 33, 120 Patocka, Jan 129
Majewski, Jozef 166 Peiper, Tadeusz 96
Malinowski, Jerzy 96 Platon 21
Marai, Sandor 19, 10 Por˛ebski, Mieczysław 96
Marecki, Piotr 4 Prymarka, Aneta 49
Markowski, Michał Paweł 165 Prysznak, Jan 80
Matusiak, Dariusz 86 Purchla, Jacek 26
Mekas, Jonas 28 Puzyna, Konstanty 141
Mencwel, Andrzej 40, 41
Micińska, Nela 19 R
Mieroszewski, Juliusz 129 Roitman, Anatol 107
Mieželaitis, Eduardas 8 Rosič, Ljubica 127
189
190
Z
Zagajewski, Adam 2, 14, 15, 91
Zagańczyk, Marek 141
Zaleski, Marek 40, 122
Znaniecki, Florian 156
Ż
Żmijewska, Monika
191