people-from-krakow

"What's going on in politics, sir? Are the Chinese holding on?"

"You didn't make me stutter a short-legged, epileptic dwarf hermaphrodite horse moss or anything from fauna and flora Thank You for this, Lord But why did you make me a Pole?"

"He must die, why he has to be alive?"

"I like the slipper better from you, you son of a bitch"

"You had, boor, a golden horn; you had, boor, a feathered cap... Now you're left with just a string."

"I consider Cracow to be a small, pretentious, highly ridiculous town."

"I have small towns in my asshole!"

"The essence of a democratic state, the essence of the rule of law, is above all a clear and transparent electoral process, including an easy access to polling stations and a lack of exclusion when it comes to being able to vote."

"Christian democracy, in fact, has disappeared from European politics. It is therefore quite understandable that countries like Poland, which still has a strong Catholic culture and community, and resists the current moral revolution, are met with aggressive reactions from the EU, and this aggression will increase until or unless Poland capitulates. I hope it won't."

"I will never agree with statements that Poles as a nation participated in the Holocaust or Poland participated in the Holocaust. It humiliates us and hurts us. In my own family, there were people murdered by the Germans, and first and foremost [to say the contrary] waters down what really happened."

"Poland is stable politically. The opposition is making it impossible for parliament to work."

"Peace and law - two words, without which co-existence of nations, ethnic groups or those whose religions are different, is unimaginable. Peace and law - terms that are beautiful, important, but very brittle, that need to be taken care of, than need to be - without any interruptions - treated well. We, the Poles, know it perfectly, that peace cannot be taken for granted."

"I was raised in a family that has always been Catholic, for generations. That's the type of family I grew up in. This connection to the Church, to the Catholic Christian community, was always a fact, from the beginning of my life."

"I wanted Poland to be, right from the start, a country of solidarity, a country not guided by the rule: the weaker has to die. Therefore, we tried to protect each and every life with the same commitment. Therefore, whenever we could, we tried to show solidarity with other nations who needed assistance at a given time."

"This is not why my parents’ generation for 40 years struggled to expel communist ideology from schools, so that it could not be foisted on children, could not brainwash and indoctrinate them. They did not fight so that we would now accept that another ideology, even more destructive to man, would come along, an ideology which under the clichés of respect and tolerance hides deep intolerance."

"If someone is undertaking aggressive military activities in Ukraine and Syria, if someone is bolstering his military presence near his neighbors ... then we have an unequivocal answer regarding who wants to start a new Cold War. Certainly, it is not Poland or the NATO alliance."

"I always say that as a President of my country, President of Poland, I would like to have the best relations with all our neighbors."

"Although hardly of central importance, the biographies of Boas and Malinowski may shed a little light on their unorthodox approaches to cultural variation. As indicated above, both men spent most of their adult life abroad; the German Boas in the USA, the Pole Malinowski in England. One may wonder if the uprootedness and alienation they must have felt, both in relation to their native countries and towards their adopted ones, could not have been a valuable resource when they set out to develop their new science."

"Ethnology or Anthropology, the science of Man, must not shun him in his innermost self, in his instinctive and emotional life."

"Art is just like the languages that people use: each one opens up different possibilities, different layers of sensitivity and expression."

"I am absolutely for the possibility of a happy relationship between adult people, regardless of their gender, and I think that they cannot be denied the right to live worthily. I am also in favor of equal treatment of married couples and couples living in concubinage. I did not marry myself. In Poland, the wedding is considered to be a sanctity, while in fact it has primarily legal consequences: it guarantees the right to inheritance, to adoption, to the visit in a hospital in the most dramatic moments. The husband who is an alcohol addict and abuses his wife can accompany her to the hospital in an ambulance, while the cohabitant cannot accompany a loved and loving partner. In the Netherlands, spouses and cohabitants have similar rights."

"I am fascinated by the fear of terrorism in Poland, when people die on the roads every day – and every year there are thousands of people who lose their lives in a very stupid way."

"I began drawing when I was one and a half years old. I never stopped."

"Vetulani is a rebellious artist: when we admire beautiful faces, forms, wide-framed Dutch landscapes, he says "and now for something you haven’t expected." The spectator is awakened from a reverie and confronted with an object of mysterious ugliness, like silicone heads of the pope."

"He deliberately rejects the classic beauty of the form for the sake of fragility, transience or simply greater sensitivity to what is present. His work has a mockery and ironic character. He looks critically and with great apprehension at Poland, he does it from the perspective of an emigrant, from culturally and socially different Netherlands, which became a new homeland for him."

"The illusionary nature of a two dimensional work of art can sometimes frustrate my creative process. I overcome this by stepping out of the flat illusion into the three dimensional and create sculptures of wood and bronze."

"In 1986 I began studying painting at the Art Academy in Kraków. A more sophisticated ability to translate my feelings, fascinations, fears and desires within an already present personal sense of aesthetics onto a canvas, or any other material using more or less traditional media is something that I began perfecting in art school. The interaction with skilled and understanding teachers as well as observing the work of fellow students made me aware of the diverse approaches taken to create a painting. I found more ways of treading on my own path."

"The label “objects” is the most appropriate for works which elude clear-cut definitions. Foam sponge, builder's silicone, packaging tape etc. are the main materials which I use to create these works. Sometimes, because of the properties of some of the materials which they are made of they have a limited span of existence. But often the roughness and imperfections become make them artistically strong."

"I have been working with silicone for years. While I was still studying, I painted on unusual materials, for example on a soft felt. I like material that easily surrenders – you can tame them and “go out” to the third dimension, and at the same time sanctify something that is considered ordinary. Once, I painted on sponges over twenty centimeters long, which create a great illusion of sandstone."

"I like working on sponge because it's a simple, light material and always ready to use. The colour and texture meet my aesthetic requirements and it has a lolof volume and physically, is very present in the space. The ink or paint is immediately absorbed into the foam surface, making any corrections almost impossible. It is a material which lends itself to quick, fast application and is particularly good for spontaneous sketching with paint squeezed directly from the tube. The fact that these works will not last (sponge is not a very durable material) does not deter me; it suits the character of the work very well and to an extent reflects my ideas about art."

"I love what I've learned from my parents, and what I continue here [in the Netherlands] – wandering, Sunday trips out of the town, mindfulness with which you can look at plants and animals. I am not interested in that professionally and I have no ambition to classify flora and fauna, but with enthusiasm I profess my amateur love for nature. Light, air, clouds, landscapes only seem harsh. A lot of beauty can be found in this rawness."

"I really like painting on unusual base, such as zinc plates, which are already exposed to rain. These are old plates, consumed by time and weather. I paint very subtle paintings on such a ground. On the other hand, paintings on a sponge, which may seem harsh in terms of subject matter – are, contrary to appearances, very soft and pleasant. For instance, it is enjoyable to move and hang them."

"I often use old photographs in paintings and collages. During some historical periods photographs have taken on the function of a signature or trademark. Throughout my childhood my 'forefathers and foremothers looked out from a photographic heaven' with a very real and often threatening presence. In fact, often in the works where I incorporate old photographs the works become personal 'maps of conscience'."

"I have a need to create works that are not just shocking, or say: striking, smashing – but also such works that can become companions of my various life events, and become companions of other people in their situations. These are the works that I create from the deep need to communicate with my sense and my ideal of beauty."

"I was recognizable in Kraków because of my family. I felt it as a burden. I tried to cut myself off from the past and build something myself. To become independent."

"I would feel unhappy in a country with whose law and morals I disagree."

"In Poland, many doctors would not undertake euthanasia due to religious beliefs. The Dutch are more pragmatic, and death is not a great taboo for them, but part of the natural order of things."

"In the Low Countries, people are met with indifference, which is the consequence of the assumption that everyone is responsible for their fate. Everyone keeps their own views, but there is no attempt to impose them on others."

"Years ago I heard such a nice saying that the soul travels at the speed of a horseback run. Nowadays, of course, nobody travels by horse, but it seems to me that I am always somewhere in the middle of my travels between Poland and the Netherlands. As soon as I reach one destination, my soul still has not left the other place for good, and then back again – everything is mixed up. Of course, I'm formed in Kraków. For me, Kraków is the source of all inspiration. But my home, my family is in Utrecht."

"Tomasz Vetulani's work balances between two fascinating axes, producing an image of an artist juggling various means of expression. From intriguing and expressive objects, made by him from, say, hot white glue or black silicon, with strong social and political connotations - to subtle images-objects, evoking fleeting states, where the sensitive eye of the artist touches the sublimation of certain senses."

"We can not predict who will develop the cancer. Cancer is a just disease – it affects everyone, regardless of whether we are poor or rich, where we live, how we live."

"The more times your cells divide, the greater the chance of mutations that lead to cancer. That is why the average oncological patient is a mature person or even a senior."

"In lectures, it is important that you lecture simply. We are interested in the smartest students, and we really should take care of those who have most difficulties to understand certain concepts. I try to balance it."

"If you want to be a good doctor for patients, you need to devote some time to it, and if you want to have achievements in scientific research, you need to spend a lot of time in the laboratory. It is difficult to reconcile."

"In science, wherever politics got involved, the results were deplorable."

"Andrzej Szczeklik was a fascinating personality in many respects. The scope of his general knowledge was absolutely rare. He saw what others did not notice. It's enough to say he was a better doctor than a good doctor. He could look and listen to what the patient says. Looking, he already knew what was wrong, after little things, after grimaces, after the way of breathing, after the way someone sits down or gets up..."

"At a time when cancer was a rare disease, people lived shorter for other reasons. When there were no antibiotics, they often died for ordinary infections. I therefore think that the "cancer epidemic" does not result from changes in genetic predisposition or carcinogenic factors, but from the fact that in recent decades these imperfections of human nature have been revealed that were previously masked by other diseases."

"I had very happy high school years; I was not a very diligent student, but I had good achievements – I was a winner of biology and chemistry national competition, which gave me a lot of points when I decided to take the entrance examination for medicine, not being completely convinced of the medical profession, since there was never a doctor in my family."

"Well, the truth is that although in the 1980s everyone in Poland was in favor of changes in the country or at the university, the path to these changes was seen differently by everyone. If I remembered one of the more turbulent meetings of the Kraków Medical Academy authorities (I was handling this meeting as a journalist) in the most tense time of Solidarity strikes, professor Ptak strongly protested that the proverbial cleaner or even the students would decide on the election of the rector."

"The task of immune cells is to recognize foreignness. And fight with it. An implanted foreign organ, or its fragment, is undoubtedly a foreign body. The immune system therefore begins to fight it. However, now immunopressives – and therefore immunosuppressants – are so effective that the rejection of transplants is inhibited."