On Monday evening, 20 February, another meeting of the Olivia Cooltura series took place. The guest of OBC was a well-known Gdańsk photojournalist, Maciej Kosycarz. His extremely colourful personality, charisma and incredible talent for storytelling – recorded in the photos of his father, Zbigniew Kosycarz, and his own – made this event a long memory of the numerous guests gathered in Olivia Sky Club.
Maciej Kosycarz is a well-known figure to most people living in Gdańsk. He can easily be described as “The Man: A Gdańsk Cultural Institution”, although he prefers to present himself as: “Son of his own father”; because of his great respect for the person and professional achievements of his father, Zbigniew, whose saving became Maciej’s life’s mission. In his work, he is first and foremost a chronicler of the changes taking place in our reality and customs, recording – with the help of a camera – what is constant and unchangeable and what is ephemeral. She is also involved in the organization of exhibitions and the Pomeranian Press Photography Competition Gdańsk Press Photo. Over the last dozen or so years, he has released twelve albums from the series “Fot. The Scythe”. On a daily basis, he is a photojournalist and the owner of the Kosycarz Press Foto agency. Since last year, he has also been a co-owner of the Gallery of Various Arts (Gdańsk, 101 Ogarna Street).
In the first part of the meeting, in a nearly hour-long conversation with Monika Bogdanowicz from Olivia Business Centre (the author of the Olivia Cooltura series), Maciej Kosycarz talked about how he showed an entrepreneurial spirit from an early age and how he creatively developed many of his own, often surprising, business projects. In a hilarious way, he shared memories of his youth and brought closer the life of a photojournalist, rich in unique experiences. The conversation also included a reflection on the development of the media, new technologies and communication tools that are changing the way we treat photography. The scythe-maker spoke m.in. about the impact of the above on our “photo-behaviors” and habits of recording images every day. The protagonist of the meeting appealed to the guests to immortalize, in any form, their loved ones and their immediate surroundings: places of residence, commute, walking routes, etc. Based on his own experiences, he described meetings from the past, for example with the future Miss World Aneta Kręglicka or the musician and satirist Krzysztof Skiba.
The transience of moments can be preserved forever, thanks to capturing in photos what is important to us and what we want to pass on to our loved ones or future generations.
In the second part of the meeting, Maciej Kosycarz presented an extraordinary collection of photographs from the archive of his father, Zbigniew Kosycarz, as well as his own photographs, which have entered the history of Polish and world reportage. The screen in Olivia Sky Club was filled with a rich palette of social, political and cultural situations… Extraordinary historical moments, such as the visit of Pope John Paul II to Oliwa, the President of the United States George Bush or the match between Lechia Gdańsk and Juventus Turin.
In the finale, the guests saw unique photos from Oliwa before and after the war. It has been a district of Gdańsk for 90 years, and its intensive economic development has been especially in the last decade, although in fact – looking at the pages of the rich history of this place – Oliwa has always been a people-friendly space, open to the world and taking on new challenges. After all, in the 1960s, the tallest blocks of flats in Gdańsk and the largest sports stadium were built here.
The meeting ended, it could not have been otherwise, with talks with the participants. There were also photos taken together and special dedications in albums by Maciej Kosycarz.
We would like to thank all guests for their presence. We would like to express our special thanks to Mrs. Danuta Poczman (President of the My Olive Association), Mr. Tomasz Strug (StaraOliwa.pl) and Ewa Kowalska (IBedeker.pl).
We would also like to thank the Provincial and Municipal Public Library in Gdańsk and the Gdańsk Community for their patronage, as well as the Lobster Restaurant for delicious refreshments.
We will invite you to the next meetings with authors soon.
Monika Bogdanowicz
Karolina Klawitter – lyric soprano, graduate of the Faculty of Vocal and Acting at the Academy of Music in Gdańsk. She made her debut as Tatiana in Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Baltic State Opera. In 2001 she was invited to Barcelona, where she sang the soprano part in Mozart’s Requiem with the choirs of Crete and the Spanish Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Joan Luis Moraled. He collaborates with music centres all over Poland. He has given chamber concerts as well as concerts with orchestra accompaniment. Together with the Gdynia Cultural Centre, she creates and conducts regular musical matinees for children at the Little Gdynia Philharmonic. Together with mezzo-soprano Izabela Lewandowska, he performs as the duo Sekreto. Since 2013, she has been associated with the Gdynia Cultural Centre, where she creates and conducts musical matinees for children as part of the Little Gdynia Philharmonic series. Since 2014, he has also been conducting concerts for children at the Kashubian Philharmonic in Wejherowo, sensitizing them to the beauty of classical music. Together with mezzo-soprano Izabela Lewandowska, he performs as the duo “Sekreto”.
Krzysztof Bobrzecki – baritone. He began his musical education in his hometown of Białystok, where he graduated from the State Secondary Music School. In the singing class of prof. Violetta Bielecka. He continued his education during his studies at the Faculty of Vocal and Acting at the Academy of Music in Gdańsk. St. Moniuszko, in the solo singing class of prof. Ryszard Minkiewicz. He perfected his vocal skills by taking part in numerous seminars and master classes for vocalists. Her opera repertoire includes, among others: the parts of Don Giovanni (Mozart), Martin and Servatius (Moniuszko’s Verbum nobile), Leonardo (Z. Kassern’s The Comedy of The Dumb Wife), Guglielmo (Puccini’s Le Villy), Doctor Falke (J. Strauss’s Die Fledermaus). In his musical pursuits, he does not shy away from contemporary music – he has a number of world premieres of works by composers working in the 20th and 21st centuries. Her opera repertoire includes, among others: the parts of Don Giovanni (Mozart), Martin and Servatius (Moniuszko’s Verbum nobile), Leonardo (Z. Kassern’s The Comedy of The Dumb Wife), Guglielmo (Puccini’s Le Villy), Doctor Falke (J. Strauss’s Die Fledermaus). Since 2008 He is invited to take part in a series of concert performances of operas in Bremen (Germany), where he was applauded as Samuel in Un ballo in maschera, Melitone and the Surgeon in La forza del destino, Crespel and Schlemil in The Tales of Hoffmann, and Shaunard in La Bohème. He is willingly entrusted with roles in contemporary operas, he has taken part in such works as a composer. participation in the world premiere of J.M. Wieczorek’s opera Jan z Kolno, participated in the staging of Michael Nyman’s opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Doctor P.), and in 2013 in the world premiere of P. Zych’s opera Poiesis (The Professor) as part of the Bydgoszcz Opera Festival. She also sings on opera stages in Warsaw, Szczecin and Gdańsk. As an assistant professor, he teaches solo singing at the Academy of Music in Gdańsk.
Anna Mikolon – pianist, scholarship holder of the Fryderyk Chopin Award and the Children’s Art Foundation, winner of the first prize in the Early Music Competition in Łódź. A graduate of the Academy of Music in Gdańsk. She completed an artistic internship in piano chamber music at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. In 2016 She obtained a postdoctoral degree in the artistic discipline of instrumental studies. Pedagogue at the Academy of Music and certified teacher of the Secondary School of Music. in Gdansk. Pianist during many master classes, often awarded as an accompanist at competitions. She is the author of the monographs: The Musical Language of Dmitri Shostakovich as a Form of Personal Expression (doctoral dissertation 2011) and The Specificity of the Work of a Pianist-Tutor of Vocalists. He has numerous publications and recordings to his credit, m.in. piano miniatures by Z. Noskowski and Piano Sonata No. 2 by D. Shostakovich. He conducts a variety of concert activities – chamber and solo – collaborating with both vocalists and instrumentalists (900 concerts in Poland, Austria, Denmark and Russia). She participates in artistic and scientific sessions and music festivals, such as: Gdańsk Music Summer – Chopin on the waters of the Motława River, Gdańsk Music Festival, International Piano Duo Festival, Gdynia Classica Nova, Sopot Days of Vocal Art, Sonosfera, Dobrodzień Classic Festival, New Waves Contemporary Music Festival, Gdańsk Vocal Days, Drozdowo-Łomża Music Days, Kaleidoscope of Musical Forms and Festival of Sacred Music in Sopot. For 11 years she was a pianist-tutor of soloists at the Baltic Opera. In 2017, she received the Cultural Scholarship of the City of Gdańsk.
