15 May 2013 Literary Portraits by Elżbieta Lempp

The Villa Decius Association invites you to a vernissage of the Literary Portraits exhibition by Elżbieta Lempp on the 16th of May 2013 (Thursday) at 5 p.m. (the photographs show, among others, Wisława Szymborska, Sławomir Mrożek and Gustaw Herling-Grudziński). During the Literary Salon, Michał Rusinek – Wisława Szymborska’s long-time secretary and Agnieszka Kosińska – Czesław Miłosz’s secretary will talk about the authors being presented. The exhibition at the Villa Decius will be available to visitors till the 2nd of June 2013, from Monday till Friday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Entrance is free.

Photographs in Literary Portraits focus only on faces. Presented in the form of a traditional exhibition and a multimedia presentation, several black and white photographs present a panorama of the Polish and foreign literary scene. The exhibition includes works from 1987 till 2012 and refers to Literary Landscapes – the exhibition that was shown at the Villa Decius in 2006. This previous edition presented both writers’ portraits and photographs with literary topics. Photographs in Literary Portraits focus only on faces. Literary Portraits comprise works from 1987 till 2012.

Elżbieta Lempp has been taking photographs since the beginning of the 1980s. The most important topics undertaken by her include portraits of artists, particularly writers – Nobel Prize winners and the greatest authors from Central and Eastern Europe. She exhibits her artworks in Poland and abroad. In the years 2010–2012, thanks to a scholarship from the Pro Helvetia Foundation, she prepared the Art in the can. Resor project, under which she paid 14 study visits to penitentiaries (11 in Poland and 3 in Switzerland). Lempp’s works have been published in many international magazines and periodicals and exhibited in Poland and abroad. She co-operates with literary publishing houses, the culture.pl Internet portal and the Book Institute.