SZUKAJĄC WITKACEGO
A journalism expedition retracing Witkacy's 1914 tropical journey — from Zakopane to Ceylon, from Port Said to the place where he held a gun to his head.
WITKACY POD STRZECHY
Ogólnopolski Konkurs Interpretacji Dzieł Stanisława Ignacego Witkiewicza · 2012 · Słupsk
3,000 PLN · Marshal of the Pomeranian Province
LOŻA LAUREATÓW
Special prize from the Laureates' Lounge jury · 2012
200 PLN · Pomeranian Province President's fund
FOLLOWING THE GHOST
Witkacy's biography is well-known in Poland — his plays, his portraits, his philosophy of Pure Form. What is almost entirely unknown is his 1914 tropical journey. He traveled with anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski to Ceylon and Australia, and specialists argue that Witkacy the artist was born during that journey. The tropics fundamentally altered his aesthetics, his use of color, his sense of dread.
This project set out to recover that unknown chapter. Not a biography. Not a documentary. A reportage — written in the first person, from the same locations, retracing the same ships and routes. Published as a serialized blog on podrozniccy.com from March to October 2012, with commissioned sepia-toned comic illustrations placing Witkacy in his historical environments.
"Morze Czerwone w czasie czerwcowych upałów, kiedy słońce dochodzi do zwrotnika Raka, staje się piekłem nie do opisania."— Stanisław Ignacy WitkiewiczFrom his 1914 tropical reportage, published 1919
A COMMISSION IN SEPIA
Commissioned illustrations placed Witkacy and Malinowski in their historical environments — drawn in aged-paper sepia ink to match the archival feeling of the research.
Zakopane · Departure
London · Outfitting for the tropics
Port Said · First stop
SS Orontes · At sea
SS ORONTES
Witkacy and Malinowski sailed from England aboard SS Orontes. The ship's archive — dining saloon, writing room, music room, the open decks — became part of the reportage. Not as tourism. As evidence.
Dining Saloon
Writing Room
Music Room
A NIGHT WITH A GUN
During the Ceylon leg of the expedition, the team located what is believed to be the specific place where Witkacy spent a night with a browning pistol at his head — a documented psychological crisis from his 1914 journey. The dispatch was picked up by RMF Classic and circulated in Polish media.
"The point was not to write about Witkacy. The point was to go where he went — and report back."— Jakub Górnicki
Patrons
Media: RMF Classic · Lubimyczytać.pl
Institutional: Muzeum Pomorza Środkowego w Słupsku · Muzeum Tatrzańskie w Zakopanem