Over a hundred people registered for the international research symposium "»Hommage à Jan Buck« - Lubusz and Lower Silesia contexts: geography, history, and art" under the scientific direction of Dr. Lidia Głuchowska from the Institute of Visual Arts at the University of Zielona Góra - the author of the program and coordinator of the research-exhibition project "Hommage à Jan Buck" (2022-2025). As the fifth event in the project - after symposiums in Bautzen, two in Cottbus, and one in Wrocław - on the 2nd of February 2024 at the Museum of the Lubusz Land, it was an event of particular importance in the history of Polish-German transborder relations and in Zielona Góra with significant social resonance.
The symposium clarified that the concept of the entire multi-year project "Hommage à Jan Buck" and its initiation at the University of Zielona Góra, in the Institute of Visual Arts, with its current edition taking place at the Museum of the Lubusz Land, were not coincidental. Research by Dr. Lidia Głuchowska forming the basis of all project modules shows that the reformer of Sorbian art, Jan Buck/Buk, maintained lasting contacts with many artists from Poland, including a whole constellation of Lubusz region artists, among them the founding fathers of local institutions and artistic events and famous recurring events - the Golden Cluster and the Biennale of New Art, including Klemens Felchnerowski, Zygmunt Pranga, Witold Nowicki, Stefan Słocki, and co-founder of the Institute of Visual Arts - Zenon Polus, who, as an employee of the then local Higher Pedagogical School, was not only a participant but even the co-organizer of the first Biennale Europe Symposium on Lusatia - one of many local open-air events in which, together with Jan Buck, artists from Zielona Góra participated. On the other hand, one of the most important centers of Polish Sorbian studies - the Society for Lusatian Studies was established at the Institute of History, inspired, among others, by former rectors of our university - Prof. Hieronim Szczegóły and Prof. Czesław Osękowski.
The symposium was attended by prominent historians and art historians, as well as enthusiasts of Sorbian themes, and the last living nestors of Zielona Góra's "Avant-Garde in the Wild West" who maintained creative friendships with perhaps the most eminent Sorbian artist, Jan Buck. This event, which we have already extensively announced at uz.zgora.pl, was held under the patronage of seven prestigious international offices and institutions, including the Rector of the University of Zielona Góra, Prof. Wojciech Strzyżewski.
The symposium was solemnly opened by the director of the Museum of the Lubusz Land, Leszek Kania, saying: "On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Jan Buck's birth, the Sorbian Museum in Bautzen and the Institute of Visual Arts at the University of Zielona Góra undertook actions as part of a transborder project, implemented on both sides of the Polish-German border."
Guests were also welcomed by the Member of the Lubusz Voivodeship Board - Tadeusz Jędrzejczak - also promoting the European Territorial Cooperation Group "Geopark Łuk Mużakowa" operating in the area where the Institute of Visual Arts of the UZ has already organized two significant exhibitions - a photographic one led by Dr. hab. Helena Kardasz, prof UZ and a collective one - "Gardens" - under the scientific direction of Dr. Lidia Głuchowska, curated by Prof. Dr. hab. Paulina Komorowska-Birger, director of the Institute of Visual Arts. Both exhibitions were held in cooperation with the Museum of the Lubusz Land. Marshal Tadeusz Jędrzejczak said, among other things: "I responded with great joy to this exceptional event. Polish-German cooperation, especially cross-border cooperation with Saxony and Brandenburg, is important (...) Jan Buck, who left significant traces in Lusatia, was opposed to both fascist totalitarianism and communist totalitarianism."
On behalf of the Rector of the University of Zielona Góra, Prof. Wojciech Strzyżewski, Prof. Dr. hab. eng. Justyna Patalas-Maliszewska - Vice-Rector for Cooperation with the Economy, spoke, as did other honorary guests, in the company of a silent witness - a Sorbian woman in original clothing from the area of Lubań/Górzyno (Lower Lusatia: Žemr/Gora) from a collection later recounted by a speaker. Vice-Rector expressed gratitude to Dr. Lidia Głuchowska, who created the concept of the entire project and has successfully coordinated its course for over two years. She emphasized that participation in such an important event is an honor and that only intensive cooperation of an international team of partners could enable the culmination of the "Hommage à Jan Buck" project at the Museum of the Lubusz Land, contributing to the strong contribution of the University to Polish-German cooperation.
The delegate for Sorbs of the City of Cottbus, Anna Kosacojc-Koselowa/Kossatz-Kosel, said, among other things: "As a Sorb (...) I feel deep pride in the fact that today we will jointly honor Jan Buka/Buck, one of our most prominent artists. His work and life path are a unique reflection of building and developing personal relationships and artistic influences between Sorbs, Poles, and Germans." She also emphasized that Jan Buck's artistic education in Poland was a condition for the development of his creativity.
The director of the Sorbian Museum in Bautzen, Christina Boguszowa/Bogusz, explained the genesis of the "Hommage à Jan Buck" project: "The Sorbian Museum in Bautzen was a pioneer in initiating this project, possessing the most extensive collection of Jan Buck's works, reflecting all stages of his creativity (...) At the initiative of the Institute of Visual Arts at the UZ, and in particular Dr. Lidia Głuchowska, this initiative evolved into a comprehensive international project with additional modules - a series of exhibitions under the overarching title »Hommage à Jan Buck« and accompanying international research symposia."
Presentations by researchers Dr. Lidia Głuchowska, scientific project manager of "Hommage à Jan Buck," discussed the socio-historical premises for its existence and the global and regional profile of the enterprise: "The project (...) makes a significant contribution to international research for the revision of the hierarchical cultural geography and the decentralization of the art history canon, created from the perspective of Paris, Moscow, New York, or Beijing. In the context of horizontal art history, it aims to strengthen cultural exchange between 'peripheries' on both sides of the Polish-German border and understand the phenomenon of the transborder and multinational region of Lusatia. 'Hommage à Jan Buck' also contributes to the nobilitation of subjective cultures of memories and 'herstory' - the contribution of women to the transmission of tradition - which opposes official national art historiographies, which are always politically motivated constructs."
Next, Dr. Głuchowska presented a preview of the currently produced segment of the film series "Hommage a Jan Buck" (parts of which can already be seen online) - from the double vernissage of the previous edition of the project in Wrocław, explaining that the meaning of some of the exhibited works is closely related to the research goal of the project.
Dr. hab. Piotr Pałys, a professor at the Institute of Silesian Studies - a distinguished expert on the discussed issue, who generously and in record time prepared his presentation, replacing Dr. Pëtša Šurman/Peter Schurmann from the Sorbian Institute - illuminated for the audience the history of Polish-Sorbian cultural and political relations since the Romantic period, discussing the importance of organizations such as the Polish Union in Germany (established in 1922 - incidentally, the year of Jan Buck's birth), which inspired other national minorities in Germany - Danes, Frisians, Lithuanians, and - noteworthy - Sorbs - to fight for their rights. Poles have supported their efforts for over a century to create an independent state and educate their intellectual elites in the West Slavic environment. They also advocated for the establishment of an autonomous Sorbian municipality in the area of Mużakowo after the expulsion of the Slavs in 1945.
The star of Polish Sorbian studies - Prof. Tomasz Jaworski from the Institute of History at the University of Zielona Góra - a long-time president of the Society for Lusatian Studies in Zielona Góra, shared with the numerous guests of the symposium memories of the origins and achievements of the association bringing together historians, philologists, and enthusiasts of regional issues. He mentioned, among others, the cooperation with the aforementioned former rectors of UZ and with Witold Piwoński, who supported him in the pioneering years of the association. He presented lists of dozens of conferences organized by them between 1992-2017 and published books, including several doctorates awarded at our University.
In his speech "Traces of Sorbian culture in Lubusz and Lower Silesia - insights of a enthusiast," Dr. Tomasz Fetzki from the Institute of Pedagogy at UZ presented, among other things, examples of traditional Sorbian architecture in the transborder region of Lusatia on the Polish side of the border - in Lubusz and Lower Silesia - in places like Bogatynia (Rychnów), Buczyny (Bukowce), Dębinka (Tšechlina), Brzostowa (Brěštowa), and Chudzowice (Běrnojce). He also reminded that the first translation of the Bible into Lower Sorbian by Mikławš Jakubica was produced in a dialect from the Żary (Žarow) and Lubań (Žemr) areas. He also emphasized the necessity of preserving the common Polish-Sorbian cultural heritage in Poland.
Dr. Agnieszka Łachowska, from the circle of the Society for Lusatian Studies of Prof. Jaworski (Technical and General Education School Complex in Głogów), talked about the pragmatism of Sorbian social microstructures, emphasizing the care for identity, material culture, and folk costumes in Eastern Lower Lusatia, the area of part of today's Lubusz Voivodeship. The conclusions of her research concerned social capital and the Sorbian cultural heritage with artistic values, which, despite Germanization, survived until 1945, as exemplified by the costume she presented, received from a former resident of her hometown. In her presentation, Dr. Łachowska emphasized the need for a broader introduction of knowledge about Upper, Lower, and Eastern Lusatia into textbooks.
Dr. Karolina Zychowicz from the Institute of Visual Arts at the University of Zielona Góra and the Institute of Art History at the University of Wrocław in her report "Jan Buk/Buck and the plein air movement in Poland" highlighted, among other things, the Biennale of Spatial Forms in Elbląg and the Golden Cluster Symposium in Zielona Góra as those that played a key role in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century. She stated that the Polish plein airs, where Jan Buck was often invited, usually followed the tradition of 19th-century open-air painting. However, from her presentation of the exhibition catalog in Szczecin in 1970, it emerged that Jan Buck met one of the most distinguished artists of the Zielona Góra artistic avant-garde - Klemens Felchnerowski - there, as emphasized in the discussion by the director of the Museum of the Lubusz Land, Leszek Kania. Dr. Zychowicz added that the artist also participated in other similar events, both international and as was possible back then - in countries of the People's Democracies - in Hungary, Bulgaria, and Lusatia. In the discussion, Dr. Lidia Głuchowska supplemented the speaker's statement with her own research findings and materials from the archive of Dr. Malgorzata Mieczkowska from Szczecin on further connections of Jan Buck with the local artistic and scientific community in the years 1984-2003.
Debate: Witnesses of the era on Polish-Serbo-Czech relations and Jan Buck Piotr Gaglik, founder of the Polish-Serbo-Czech Society, Lower Silesian Branch in Wrocław - an absolute Cicero on contemporary Polish-Serbo-Czech relations - in his presentation "My half-century with the Lusatians" pointed to the Society's contribution to supporting Lusatian organizations and institutions and such outstanding cultural activists as Jurij Łušćanski/Wuschansky and Werner Meškank/Meschkank, who also participated in previous editions of the project "Hommage à Jan Buck".
Then, Pětr Buk/Peter Buck presented the presentation "My father Jan Buk/Buck and his contacts with the Polish artistic scene", showing archival photographs and his father's index photo from the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Wrocław from 1949. He emphasized that Buck maintained intensive contacts with many representatives of the Polish artistic scene from numerous centers, presenting a long list of their names and emphasizing that at that time in the GDR, "Poland meant: freedom!"
In the introduction to the statements of the last living friends of Jan Buck - artists from Zielona Góra - Adam Bagiński, Henryk Krakowiak and Grażyna Michalak-Bazylewicz, Dr. Głuchowska presented the results of her research on Energy Workshops and the Biennale Europa, in which they participated. From her scientific findings, it emerges that - in addition to the guests of the debate she led and the aforementioned elder statesmen of the Zielona Góra artistic institutions - contacts with Buck were also maintained by other residents of Lubusz - Ryszard Kiełb, Bogumiła Balicka-Michorzewska and Krystyna Maj-Mazur. Dr. Głuchowska presented documentation on workshops in Lusatia in which these individuals participated, which she found, among others, in the archive of Pětr Buk and her respondents - including photos by well-known Serbo-Czech photographers Thomas Kläber and Jürgen Maćij/Matschie.
Henryk Krakowiak recalled that at the workshops where he met the Serbo-Czech artist, he created paintings reflecting the cult of the machine and that he maintained ties with Jan Buck until the closure of the Polish-German border. He also mentioned that in Legnica, he organized an exhibition of works by another participant in these workshops - Günter Rechna.
Adam Bagiński could not participate in the deliberations, however, Dr. Głuchowska explained and presented that his works created in Lusatia, like Buck's paintings, had a contentious character towards the apotheosis of technicism and industry promoted at the workshops, as they depicted "cosmic" landscapes in the mining areas. As demonstrated, at the Lusatian Biennale Europa, Adam Bagiński, like the co-founder of the current Institute of Visual Arts at the University of Zielona Góra - Zenon Polus, created land art installations. In the work "Changeability" (1995), he used motifs of roof beams from thousands of destroyed Serbo-Czech houses, victims of mining activities. She also established that the exhibition of Adam Bagiński's paintings in Cottbus was organized by none other than Werner Meškank/Meschkank - who strongly supported the project under her direction - also mentioned in Piotr Gaglik's statement.
Grażyna Michalak-Bazylewicz recalled how the abandoned Lusatian ghost villages and their last, desperate inhabitants condemned to mass resettlement to distant regions of Germany left a profound impression on her, resulting in often being denationalized.
Works by Adam Bagiński, Henryk Krakowiak, and Grażyna Michalak-Bazylewicz - as a surprise for the guests of the debate - in reference to Dr. Głuchowska's research findings, at the initiative of the curator of the Zielona Góra exhibition "Everything is a landscape. Serbo-Czech painter Jan Buck", Marta Gawęda-Szymaniak, hung inside the entrance to the stained glass hall of the Museum of the Lubus Land, where the deliberations took place - as a pars pro toto - a signal of the long-standing ties of the Zielona Góra artistic community with the Serbo-Czech artist Jan Buck, and furthermore - at least several hundred years of ties between Poles and Lusatians...
Summary We thank our speakers and all those who contributed to the success of the symposium and the entire previous realization of the "Hommage à Jan Buck" project for their enthusiastic and selfless cooperation. The Symposium at the Museum of the Lubus Land was probably the first to fully explain the international, including Polish-Serbo-Czech-German context in which Jan Buk/Buck worked, as well as the Serbo-Czech history of parts of the Lower Silesian and Lubusz provinces. Only it made it fully clear why this monumental undertaking was initiated precisely in Zielona Góra.
Dr. Lidia Głuchowska made every effort to ensure that the Lower and Upper Sorbian languages were visible and audible at all previous stations of the project - in publications and films, as well as on posters from symposia and exhibitions. When a large group of students from Dr. Łachowska's high school in Głogów, who found themselves among the guests of the symposium, asked Dr. Głuchowska why the title of the project was in French, she replied: "It was the traditional language of modern diplomacy. There are too many particulars for posters, and German is for the Lusatians, as it previously was for many other nations, including Poles - the hegemonic language..."
In Zielona Góra, along with Christina Bogusz/Bogusz, Anna Kosacojc-Koselow/Kossatz-Kosel, Christina Klima/Kliem and Gregory Kliem, as well as Justyna Lubas-Wałęcka from the MZL, Dr. Głuchowska supported the MAMADA vocal group under the direction of Victoria Korol, in determining the provenance and acquiring texts of folk songs performed by them. Thanks to this, both Sorbian languages, familiar to the Poles, also sounded vocally at the double opening of the exhibitions "Everything is a landscape. Serbo-Czech painter Jan Buck" (curator: Marta Gawęda-Szymaniak, MSL) and "Hommage à Jan Buck (IV): EVERYWHERE - NOWHERE - HOME" (curator: Dr. Radosław Czarkowski, prof. UZ, ISW), with the symposium as the scientific introduction, which will be reported in separate entries.
Other previous reports from the symposium:
Museum of the Lubus Land in Zielona Góra: mzl.zgora.pl
Marshal's Office of the Lubusz Voivodeship: lubuskie.pl
TVP3 Gorzów Wielkopolski: gorzow.tvp.pl
Western Institute in Poznań: www.iz.poznan.pl
