The Absence

Bogusław Sobczuk: idea, direction
Marek Grabowski: set design, lighting
Dawid Sulej Rudnicki: arrangements, music direction
Rafał Jacek Delekta: conductor

Cast
Iwona Bielska, Mirosław Baka, Mikołaj Grabowski, Adam Woronowicz, Piotr Fronczewski (głos)), Maria Wróbel, Agnieszka Przekupień, Anastazja Simińska, Wiktoria Wojtas.
Backing vocalists: Michał Badeński, Maciej Kokot, Krzysztof Wawiórko.

PPA production: Roksana Mazur

Bogusław Sobczuk, the creator, author, and director of the concert: Four years ago – almost – Ewa Demarczyk died. An era that was intuitively associated with the realm of multifaceted beauty has ended with her passing. The perception of today’s time as unfavourable to delicate and ethereal values explains our nostalgia for the sphere of quality of life and the conviction that it is better to live in a world where beauty, truth, and goodness, beyond any doubt in that combination, constitute a value in themselves. In such a world, one lives with more dignity. Ewa Demarczyk, even at the height of her artistic splendour, did not receive the widespread recognition she deserved. Her art catered to a sophisticated taste – to readers of the poetry of Leśmian, Baczyński, Mandelstam, and Tuwim, far from simple rhymes, or lovers of the “unobvious” compositions of Konieczny, Zarycki, Radwan. However, although she was an icon of the elites, she moved everyone who listened to her.

fot. Bartek Barczyk

The problem with other performers singing “Ewa Demarczyk’s songs” can be explained by an analogy: there is only one prototype of a metre – exhibited in the Museum of Weights and Measures in Sevres, near Paris, and cast in a precious metal alloy not commonly used. Andrzej Zarycki, one of the composers who has written for her, claims that Ewa’s interpretation hits the heart of the textual and musical sense, the proverbial centre of the dial. Her laser-like precision and the ease (often illusory) with which she co-created the stage artworks both delighted and intimidated her potential imitators. Her performances were considered as masterful as the lyrics and compositions. And more – Ewa was disturbingly beautiful; she moved and fascinated – with her art and person….

We feel Ewa’s passing deeply. Despite the cherished memories of those who have listened to – and heard – her performances, despite the sincere praise for her art, her absence grows stronger every day.