Prezydencja 2011

Manuscripts are disappearing from European libraries. Together with them all memory of the authors and their work also disappears.

Stanisław Lem, on numerous occasions, expressed his view that there were too many books in the world. He claimed that amid the flood of printed paper we miss that which is really important. In “Imaginary Magnitude” he wrote: “The voice of a million Shakespeares is the same turmoil and mad noise as the voice of a herd of buffalo on the steppe or waves breaking on the seashore".

And all of the sudden, the sound of the paper sea grows silent. The number of books decreases. Somebody steals them in such a cunning way that all the copies of a given work irretrievably disappear from the bookstores, second-hand bookshops and libraries. They disappear without a trace from the memories of the readers.

The works of Shakespeare, Borges, Kafka, Verne, Miłosz and Lem (who was definitely looking for a different solution to the problem of the overabundance of literature) fall victim to the crafty thief. Meanwhile, mankind is not aware of the fact that it is constantly being robbed of its most precious treasures. It’s the perfect crime…or almost perfect.

Authors:
PRZEMYSŁAW TRUŚCIŃSKI – born In 1970, one of the most famous Polish writers of comics and a tireless promoter of this genre. He is artistic patron of, among other things, the comic competition organized by the WarsawRisingMuseum..
GRZEGORZ JANUSZ – born in 1970, he made his debut in 1991. He is the author of numerous stories and screenplays (mainly for comics) and of one novel, and is an avid reader of books.

Introduction
The comic strip is an invitation to a cultural journey around the Member States of the European Union. It is not a commentary about current political events. The Polish Presidency of the EU Council is merely the background to the events presented.

Manuscripts are disappearing from European libraries. Together with them all memory of the authors and their work also disappears. The European Congress of Culture is meeting in Wroclawto solve the riddle of these thefts. For the same reason an informal Council of Ministers for Cultural Affairs of Member States is being convened.

Both events actually happened within the course of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council. The greatest representatives of the cultural world came to our country, at Prof. Zygmunt Bauman’s invitation, to discuss, amongst other things, the links between mass culture and elite culture. The comic strip of the Presidency is the voice of popular culture in this debate, and there are further links to the Polish Presidency.

The scenography is created by the key elements of European heritage. Against the background of the main themes of the storyline we find references to the priorities of the Polish Presidency.
Our intention was to show the unity of the challenges Europefaces in the spirit of the expression which has become the motto of the European Union stated in the preamble to the Treaty of Lisbon: “United in diversity”.

In the past it was the PolishSchoolof Posters and the PolishFilmSchool, nowadays it is the PolishSchoolof Animation and drawing which promote Polandin the uniting Europe.