The year 2016 marks the 20th anniversary of Wisława Szymborska receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 2013, Tomasz Stańko launched Wisława, an album inspired by the poet's work. The jubilee will be celebrated in the international Project Barcelona, encompassing several events. The organisers explain:
Project Barcelona is a Polish-Spanish artistic endeavour with jazz and science in the background. It has been based on a meeting and conversation between two outstanding personalities and citizens of the world: physics professor Maciej Lewenstein and Tomasz Stańko, the superb Polish jazz musician. […] A combination and interaction between two worlds – physics and music, science and art – creates a perfect platform for artistic projects.
Tomasz Stańko's concert, accompanied by a recitation of Szymborska's poems in Spanish, will take place on 19th March at Conservatori del Liceu in Barcelona.
Plans also include a documentary to be directed by Krzysztof Lang and filmed by respected British cinematographer Michael Coulter, creator of photography for Love Actually and Sense and Sensibility. The film will include a fragment of Stańko's concert on 19th March and a recording of the conversation between Lewenstein and Stańko about their fascination with jazz and science. It will also feature ‘images of Stańko playing the trumpet in spaces such as the Sagrada Familia and at the seaside.’ The filming will also partially take place in Twarda Street in Warsaw. The premiere of the documentary is planned for 2016.
Organised in collaboration with the Wisława Szymborska Foundation, an exhibition of the poet's collages, Wycinanki (Cut-Outs), is being prepared for both Warsaw and Barcelona.
Professor Maciej Lewenstein, born in 1955 in Warsaw, is a theoretical physicist. He conducts research in the fields of quantum optics, ultra-cold gases, and quantum computing. Since 2005, he has worked in Spain (at the ICFO Institute of Photonic Sciences and at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies in Barcelona). In 2011, Lewenstein received an award from the Foundation for Polish Science for his achievements in the field of quantum optics and ultra-cold gases. According to the foundation's board, Professor Lewenstein ‘has made exceptional contributions to the development of these fields with his theoretical works frequently concerning breakthrough experiments, such as the first observation of dark solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates.’
The producer of the documentary for Project Barcelona is Krzystof Grzyliński, long-time friend of Professor Lewenstein, an enthusiast of jazz music. Grzyliński recently mentioned that Leweinstein is the author of Polish Jazz Recordings and Beyond, a book on Polish jazz, and explained:
The publication inspired a group of his friends to celebrate his 60th birthday by throwing him a concert by the great musician Tomasz Stańko. The concert will take place in Barcelona, where Maciej has lived and worked for years. In addition, an idea to film the event was born. That's how we arrived at the documentary project.
Trumpeter Tomasz Stańko, born in 1942 in Rzeszów, is one of the most popular jazz musicians in the world. He made his debut in 1962, playing in Jazz Darings with Adam Makowicz, and later the famous ensemble led by Krzysztof Komeda. In 1968, he formed his own quintet together with violinist Zbigniew Seifert and saxophonist Janusz Muniak.
In 1970, Stańko recorded the album Music for K., before producing Purple Sun (1973), TWET (1975) and Balladyna (1975) together with double bass player David Holland and saxophonist Tomasz Szukalski. During his illustrious career, Stańko has collaborated with musicians such as Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Gary Peacock, Tony Oxley and Jan Garbarek. During the last twenty years, he has been working with the prestigious Munich label ECM, where he recorded albums such as Litania (1997), Soul of Things (2002), Suspended Night (2004), Lontano (2006), Dark Eyes (2009) and Wisława (2013).
About the last album, Stańko said:
Contact with Wisława Szymborska's poetry moved me to the core and inspired me immensely. Meeting with the poet onstage and the possibility of improvising to the poems read aloud by her gave me an even stronger creative impulse. The result was the music, which with the utmost respect I'd like to dedicate to Wisława Szymborska's memory.
The announcement of the winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature took place on 1st October 1996, and Wisława Szymborska received the award during a ceremony in Stockholm on 10th December 1996.
Project Barcelona is under the patronage of the Cámara de Comercio Polaco-Española, the Polish Consulate General in Barcelona, City Hall in Barcelona, and the Institute of Photonic Science.