Inauguration of the 2025/2026 academic year under the banner of Witkacy

On the 140th anniversary of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's birth, the University of Gdańsk will pay special tribute to this extraordinary, multi-dimensional artist through a series of events entitled ‘Witkacy Wielokrotny’ (Witkacy the Multiple), accompanying the start of the academic year. A two-day scientific conference, the opening of a unique exhibition prepared by the University of Gdańsk Museum, and a performance by the Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz Theatre in Zakopane, ‘The Metaphysics of the Two-Headed Calf,’ directed by Andrzej Dziuk, are just some of the attractions designed to introduce the academic and local communities to the creator of the Pure Form theory. The ceremonial inauguration of the 2025/2026 academic year will take place at the Main Library of the University of Gdańsk on 3 October this year. The inaugural lecture will be given by prof. Jacek Popiel from the Jagiellonian University. The special guest will be actress prof. Dorota Kolak from the Wybrzeże Theatre.

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Scientific conference

A two-day scientific conference organised by the Faculty of Philology of the University of Gdańsk and the Prof. Jan Ciechowicz Theatre Centre of the University of Gdańsk, with the support of the Polish Academy of Sciences, will introduce us to the world of ‘Witkacy Wielokrotny’ (Witkacy the Multiple). The conference will be held on October 1-2, 2025, in the Senate Hall of the Main Library of the University of Gdańsk (conference programme attached, details available at: Celebrations of the 140th anniversary of Witkacy's birth at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Gdańsk: Scientific Conference ‘Witkacy Wielokrotny’ and a performance by the S.I. Witkiewicz Theatre from Zakopane | Faculty of Philology, University of Gdańsk).

As the members of the organising committee write: ‘The conference is intended to provoke interdisciplinary reflection on the various forms and aspects of S.I. Witkiewicz's creative output. Together with invited researchers of Witkacy's work, we will seek answers to questions about the vitality and contemporary resonance of the ideas embedded in it. The titular “multiplicity” of the artist - playwright, prose writer, painter, reformer and theatre visionary - will translate into a polyphony of diverse research perspectives.’

Inauguration of the 2025/2026 academic year

The Rector of the University of Gdańsk, prof. Piotr Stepnowski, invites you to the Main Library of the University of Gdańsk on October 3, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. for the ceremonial inauguration of the academic year. The inaugural lecture entitled ‘What happened to Witkacy? Is he present or not?’ will be given by Prof. Jacek Popiel, an eminent theatre scholar from the Jagiellonian University. The ceremony will also feature a special performance by Dorota Kolak, an actress at the Wybrzeże Theatre, also known for her numerous film and television productions, professor of film and theatre arts, who will present an excerpt from S.I. Witkiewicz's ‘Matka’ (Mother) (Dorota Kolak played the title role in the staging of this drama directed by Grzegorz Wiśniewski at the Wybrzeże Theatre in 2003).

We invite the entire academic community of the University of Gdańsk to participate in the inauguration ceremony. It will also be broadcast: Inauguration Ceremony of the 2025/2026 Academic Year at the University of Gdańsk (the link will be activated a few minutes before the start of the event).

Exhibition ‘Witkacy the Multiple’

Immediately after the inauguration ceremony, there will be a vernissage of the exhibition ‘Witkacy the Multiple’, organised by the University of Gdańsk Museum. Exceptionally, the exhibition will not be held at the Museum, but at the University of Gdańsk Library Gallery. It will feature paintings, photographs and drawings by S. I. Witkiewicz, as well as theatre set designs for the staging of his plays. Witkacy's admirers from Pomerania are most familiar with the rich collection of his works located in Słupsk – the exhibition ‘Witkacy the Multiple’ will allow them to see artefacts brought from Warsaw, Łódź and Poznań, among other places.

‘The exhibition is, by necessity, a brief journey through the artist's rich legacy,’ says Marta Szaszkiewicz-Sawa, Director of the University of Gdańsk Museum. ‘We emphasise the issues that constitute its pillars (such as the theory of Pure Form or the activities of the Portrait Company), we point out themes that are important from our Pomeranian perspective, and we show selected paintings, photographs and elements of theatre set design.’

The exhibition will be open until the end of November.

Theatre performances

Witkacy spent most of his life in Zakopane, and it is from Zakopane that special guests will arrive to enrich the programme of the 140th anniversary of the artist's birth. The St. I. Witkiewicz Theatre will present two performances directed by Andrzej Dziuk: ‘CCY-WITKACY’ (on Thursday, October 2, in the lobby of the Modern Languages building; admission by invitation only) and ‘The Metaphysics of the Two-Headed Calf’ (on Friday, October 3, at 6 p.m. in the Prof. Jerzy Limon Theatre Hall; admission for those who have reserved a seat - additional seats can be reserved at ‘METAFIZYKA DWUGŁOWEGO CIELĘCIA’ by St. I. Witkiewicz ► ACK Alternator; tickets can be collected on October 1 at the ACK headquarters or half an hour before the performance).

On October 2 at 8:00 p.m. in the lobby in front of the Theatre Hall, there will also be a meeting with Andrzej Dziuk, hosted by dr Katarzyna Kręglewska from the Prof. Jan Ciechowicz Theatre Centre.

The series of events entitled ‘Witkacy the Multiple’ is part of the celebrations of the 55th anniversary of the University of Gdańsk.

 

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