Events

He is known internationally as an organizer of mass happenings and author of books and graffiti dwarfs. He began his independent activities in the 1970s. After August 80, he created "the Movement for a New Culture" in Wrocław. Soon after, in 1981, he published the "Manifesto of Socialist Surrealism" and launched the Orange Alternative movement. During martial law, Poles became more familiar with Major's activities through graffiti dwarfs painted on spots covering anti-regime slogans. In total, there were more than a thousand of them in various Polish cities. Beginning in 1986, he began organizing a series of happenings that continues to this day - more than sixty by 2006 - which have gone down in history as the Orange Alternative.

Waldemar Fydrych is the author of five books, including the drama "Don General," and a painter, creating distinctive works with images of dwarfs. His book "Lives of the Orange Husbands" in July 2014 was published by the London-based Minor Compositions publishing house in English with a foreword by the famous activist duo The Yes Men and the well-known American journalist Anne Applebaum.

In 2013 he was recognized in the book "Surrealism - 50 works You should know" by Brad Finger, published by Prestel Publishing, a publishing house owned by the Random House publishing concern, as one of the most prominent representatives of Surrealism in the history of this trend alongside such artists as Picasso, Dali, Duchamp, Artaud, among others. 

The most famous happenings by Waldemar "Major" Fydrych are:

1. Tubes, or smokestacking the city (April 1, 1986);

2. Potluck Festival (April 1, 1987);

3. Dwarfs on Świdnicka Street (June 1, 1987);

4. Down with the U-Pals (July 1987);

5. Anti-War Action (September 1, 1987);

6. Toilet Paper - the so-called first handout (October 1, 1987);

7. Militant Day (October 7, 1987);

8. Terrorist Day or Al Fatah (October 11, 1987);

9. Army Day or Maneuvers Melon in Mayonnaise (October 12, 1987);

10. Who's afraid of Toilet Paper? - The so-called Second Hand (October 15, 1987);

11. Eve of the October Revolution (November 6, 1987); (1000 participants)

12. Referendum on Świdnicka Street (November 27, 1987); (1500 participants)

13. Santa Claus Day (December 6, 1987); (2000 participants)

14. RIO-bot Carnival (February 16, 1988); (5,000 participants)

15. Secret Service Day (March 1, 1988);

16. Women's Day (March 8, 1988); ended with the arrest of Major Waldemar Fydrych  "on a summary basis" for 2 months of absolute detention.

17. Major's trial (March 29, 1988); - appeal trial, after which Major was acquitted and released

18. Dwarf Revolution (June 1, 1988); (15,000 participants)

19. Brotherly Aid Forever Alive (August 19, 1988) (near Snezka near the Polish-Czech

border, two days before the 20th anniversary of the Warsaw Pact troops'

intervention in Czechoslovakia);

20.Resident on Świdnicka Street (October 21, 1988);

21. October Revolution (November 7, 1988);

22.The eve of the great anniversary (December 12, 1988) of martial law.

23.Carnival or Herring on Świdnicka Street (February 7, 1989);

24.Stalin's Funeral or Funeral for Yourself (March 21, 1989)

25.FSO, or Festival of Present Art (June 1, 1989) concluded with a concert by the bands Kormorany, Big Cyc and Kult;

He has received numerous awards for these activities: including the 1988 Solidarity Award from the Puls Publishing House in London, and the Polkul Awards in Australia. He and the Orange Alternative, which he led, are the only winners to date of the Ashes and Diamonds Award established by director Andrzej Wajda, which was awarded in December 1988. 

"Rewarded" he also received special attention from the regime's Interior Ministry in Poland, which kept an eye on Major Fydrych and his activities. In March 1988, during a happening in which he handed out sanitary pads on the street - a product in short supply at the time - Waldemar Fydrych was arrested and jailed for three months. In the face of mass protests, however, he was soon released.

Valentine's Day Ball - the fundraiser for Polish school in los Angeles, on 8 February 2025 at the Polish church on Adams Blvd. During the event, the Club will present Tomasz Sobania who will conclude his run across the U.S. on 26 January 2025 in Santa Monica. 

Tomasz Sobania at the finish of his Run Across the US

Tomasz Sobania, a Polish ultramarathoner and motivational speaker, is in the midst of a unique run across the United States. He started on September 15 in New York and has already completed 2/3 of the entire route. On February 2, 2025, after covering 5,200 kilometers in 140 days by running, he will reach Santa Monica, California, where he will finish his remarkable expedition.

This will be a truly exceptional feat for a Polish athlete. However, this is not just an athletic challenge - Sobania's goal is to inspire others to action. That's why he's running across the US with the slogan “You can do more than you ever thought possible” on his T-shirt, making media appearances and holding community meetings to talk about his experiences and encourage action. His trip also provided an opportunity for an American film crew to create a documentary to show the diversity and spirit of the United States in 2024 from the East Coast to the West Coast.

More information about the run and the campaign can be found on Thomas Sobania's official social media profiles.

Modern philosophers also described the category of sublimity, which expressed the human experience of the power and boundlessness of nature (Immanuel Kant). An important role was played by the artist, whose ideal was a genius creating his own forms of beauty. The lecture will also be an opportunity to reflect on the question of what art is. Ancient philosophers developed a classical understanding of a work of art, which was based on masterful imitation (Aristotle's mimesis and Plato's radical critique of mimetic art). In the 20th century, avant-garde art undermined the traditional understanding of a work of art, which will be discussed using the example of contemporary artistic trends (surrealism, abstractionism, conceptualism and performance). We invite you to listen to a story about the history of beauty, which will be illustrated by famous works of art!

Biography

Adrian Krupa – philosopher, graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw and the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). Scholarship holder at the University of Saarland (Germany). Currently completing his PhD at the Doctoral School of Humanities of the University of Warsaw in the field of philosophy. His doctoral dissertation is about posthumanism with particular emphasis on the concept of "the posthuman". As an educator, he popularizies philosophy in the form of meetings, lectures and workshops. Facilitator of the "Służewskie Forum Filozoficzne" at the Służewski Dom Kultury in Warsaw. Privately, a lover of ancient and modern Greece. 

The heroine of our meeting today is Zofia Rysiówna. A woman from Nowy Sącz, a liaison officer, an actress, a mother and a wife, a strict but fair and dedicated person. She will open up the world of family memories of the Rysiów family from Nowy Sącz to us. Continuing the family saga, we will follow "Zosia" in this story, because that was her war nickname, and we will try to see the youth of Nowy Sącz, their activities and sports through her eyes. We will meet Rysiówna's school professors and try to recognize the character traits of the so-called Other Generation, with whom we have less and less in common.

Perhaps she will reveal to us the spherical reflection of Jan Karski's secret emissary, in which action she took part and reveal the later dramatic fates of the family and the inhabitants of this city related to it. I do not know if she will take us with her beyond the walls of the Camp, we cannot really expect that, but I think that at the end of the story Zofia Rysiówna will invite us in front of her beloved radio microphone and onto the stage of the theater. Her post-war life was hidden and here too let's not expect too effusive a report. What can we expect? Honest words, a warm heart and something on the border of a dream and intense experience.

The stage statement combines: the testimony of an indirect witness to history, archival radio recordings, poems with elements of a fictional narrative in musical accents. The whole thing was based on "Memories of May" by Wanda Straszyńska, remembered family relations and the book "On the Paths of Fantom" by Jacek Ryś.

Let this meeting be an engaging journey into the recesses of memory of living memories.

~ Sebastian Ryś