ART

"The perfume of flowers ..."

Hurrying through life at a hectic pace, deafened by car engines, blinded by the glare of computer screens, wrapped airtight in plastic bags, we shut ourselves inside a world of omnipresent civilisation. Sometimes we are torn from this world by the voice of a poet:

"Let us not violate the eternal laws of nature,
and with radiant joy
let us give of ourselves like daily bread,
that we ever may delight in the perfume of flowers..."
                                                                  (Jerzy Cwaliński)

World Environment Day presents us with the opportunity to remind ourselves of our ties with nature. Under the initiative of Bogumiła Boniecka, president of the Ecological Foundation "Warta", on 16th June, at 20:00, in the Raczyński Library, the municipal and provincial authorities will meet with artists and businessmen to take a look together at OUR world.

The writer of the script for the "artistic event: The Perfume of Flowers" is the singer Elżbieta Arsso-Cwalińska, director of the Experimental Operatic Theatre in Poznań. Elżbieta, of whose theatrical works we have frequently written, has prepared a special repertoire for this occasion. Also to take part in the meeting are the following personalities: the well-known and popular Poznanian actors Grażyna Korin of the Teatr Nowy (New Theatre) and Artur Pierściński of the Teatr Polski (Polish Theatre); the pianist Krzysztof Sowiński, prize-winner at a number of prestigious music competitions and researcher at the Music Academy in Poznań; the poet Jerzy Cwaliński, co-writer of many shows of the Experimental Operatic Theatre; the fine artist Jędrzej Stępak, who creates his art with a singular sensitivity, from natural materials, and is director of the UAM Workshop of Spatial Forms and a Greenpeace collaborator; and the art historian Joanna Dziubkowa, essayist and art critic, author of the texts to many outstanding exhibitions, custodian of the Muzeum Narodowe (National Museum) and our editorial colleague. Pupils of the Ballet School in Poznań will perform dance études to choreography by Krystyna Frąckowiak and Leszek Rembowski. Intertwined with the choreography will be a display of unique artistic jewellery, inspired by nature - the work of the designers Jerzy Włodawiec, who works with the firm Chart, and Grzegorz Pilarczyk, collaborator with Świat Muszli i Minerałów (The World of Shells and Minerals).

It is with pleasure that we can announce that our publication is media patron for this event. Such patronage is informed by our hope that events such as this may help to postpone, at least for a few years, the prediction of Stanisław Lem, drolly depicted, yet full of menace, of the universal phantomisation of the world, in which "...(a dog) roving through ... automatic cemeteries, will, of course, cock its leg, but will pee exclusively Chanel No.5, being an electroperfumed dog".