From 10 December 2024 viewers in Tokyo will have an opportunity to experience the artistic accomplishments of one of Poland’s most distinguished directors, Academy Award winner Andrzej Wajda. The monographic exhibition “Wajda” dedicated to the director will be accompanied by a review of selected films, which will run until 26 December 2024. Both events will be held at the National Film Archive of Japan in Tokyo and are the result of cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Manggha Museum in Krakow.
Travels to Japan
Japan occupied an important place on Andrzej Wajda’s travel map. The director has visited the Land of the Cherry Blossom as many as seven times, not only looking for creative inspiration, but also familiarising himself with its centuries-old tradition. As a result of his travels, he took notes and created sketches that viewers will have an opportunity to see as part of an exhibition at the National Film Archive of Japan. His admiration of and reflection on the lives of inhabitants of the Japanese Islands is evident. During the events, which begin in December, Japanese viewers will have the opportunity to both get to know the director’s work better and learn more about the unique bond he has forged with their country.
AMI is the organiser of the film review in Tokyo
The festival, which will last more than two weeks, will present 14 films summarising the period of the director’s work spanning 40 years, from 1954 to 1994. The artist’s works selected by the organisers of the event, will include, among others: “Generation” (1954), “Everything for Sale” (1968), “Man of Marble” (1977) or “Nastassia” (1994). A total of 30 ticketed screenings are scheduled. One of the screenings will be accompanied by a lecture held by a Polish film historian, Dr Rafał Syska, who in 2019 curated the exhibition titled “Wajda”, presented at the National Museum in Krakow.
“Wajda” exhibition space and multimedia show
The exhibition prepared by Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology in Krakow (10.12.2024 - 25.03.2025) titled “Wajda” will be a space full of nooks and crannies, images and sounds designed to keep visitors in constant motion, alluding to the work of the Polish director, who after finishing one work moved on to the next one. The exhibition will feature objects from the Andrzej Wajda Archive, which are normally housed at the Manggha Museum in Krakow. They form a starting point of a “journey to Tokyo”, which consists of the director’s memorabilia: letters, production documents and, above all, the notebooks in which he took daily notes for most of his life. In this way Wajda recorded his feelings, accounts of meetings, ideas for films, but also his joys and irritations. There is no shortage of drawings and sketches in his notebooks, with which he expressed his emotions at different stages of his life. His archive at the Manggha Museum contains several intriguing objects, among them props from the film Katyn (2007) or a costume worn by Kazia, one of the main characters in “The Maids of Wilko” (1979) played by Krystyna Zachwatowicz-Wajda – the director’s wife.
The exhibition will feature objects from collections across Poland: production stills and BTS photos from the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute in Warsaw, posters from the Museum of Cinematography in Lodz as well as costumes from the National Centre for Film Culture in Lodz and the Feature Film Studio in Wroclaw. An impressive collection of awards will be supplemented by items lent by the Ossolineum in Wroclaw and the Jagiellonian University Museum in Krakow: Wajda’s honorary Oscar award in recognition of five decades of extraordinary film direction and the Cannes Palme d’Or for “Man of Iron” (1981).
Excerpts from Wajda’s films will transform the exhibition space into a multimedia show. They will guide viewers across Wajda’s life, starting with his childhood in the Suwalki region and the romantic myths associated with it; through the Inferno section focused on the war, his New Wave experiments and the theme of revolution; to nostalgic themes and the Japanese section.
Co-organisers of events: Adam Mickiewicz Institute, National Film Archive of Japan
Partners: National Museum in Krakow, Polish Institute in Tokyo
More information: www.iam.pl
Media contact:
Grzegorz Niemczyk
The Adam Mickiewicz Institute (IAM) brings Polish culture to people around the world. Being a state institution, it creates lasting interest in Polish culture and art through strengthening the presence of Polish artists on the global stage. It initiates innovative projects and supports international cooperation and cultural exchanges. It promotes the work of both established and promising artists, showing the diversity and richness of our culture. AMI also runs the Culture.pl website, which is a comprehensive source of knowledge about Polish culture.
