Artists in Arms: Culture and Art on the trail of Anders Army 1941-1945
22.08.2021
Artists and war - this combination is no longer surprising. However, the Anders Army, founded 80 years ago, remains a phenomenon to this day. On the occasion of the round anniversary of the founding of this extraordinary formation, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute invites you on a multimedia journey - Artists in Arms (www.artistsinarms.pl). It is a story of artists and people of culture, their war trail from Russian town of Buzuluk, to Monte Cassino in Italy and beyond - Paris, London, Rome.
The Anders Army consisted of citizens of the Second Polish Republic: former soldiers of the Polish Army, prisoners of the Gulags, civilians, among them a large group of artists and people of culture. Many of them shared the fate of refugees, the trauma of the loss of their loved ones, the hardships of the war trail and post-war wandering, and finally a life far from their homeland.
Józef Czapski, searching for his colleagues "on inhuman soil", Hanka Ordonówna, engaged in rescuing children, poets Władysław Broniewski and Marian Czuchnowski, writers and columnists Melchior Wańkowicz, Gustaw Herling-Grudziński and Jerzy Giedroyć, filmmaker Michał Waszyński, one of the fathers of Polish jazz - Henryk Wars - become heroes on this trail. And also the whole plethora of painters and cartoonists, actresses and singers, composers and musicians, reporters and journalists who actively join the fight for human values.
The project www.artistsinarms.pl, addressed to an international audience, disseminates knowledge about the history of Poland and Poles during World War II through culture and art. Users can choose from three language versions - Polish, English and Russian. It uses unique archival materials from the collections of the Polish Institute and the General Sikorski Museum in London, while the graphic design, created by the Rzeczyobrazkowe studio, combines pre-war collage aesthetics with modern design.