| Jan
Lenica: Wozzeck, 1964 |
|
The
scream of Wozzeck
In
memoriam of Jan Lenica (1928-2001)
by
Majid Abbasi
I cannot
remember clearly when I first saw the poster of Wozzeck but like
all other masterpieces of the great masters, I will have it in my
mind forever. Every time I think about Jan Lenica, I remember Wozzeck
as well as Alban Berg. To me, this is something like Shakespeare’s
Hamlet and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. After some years in
the cultural committee of the Iranian Graphic Designers Society
(IGDS), some of my friends and I decided to organize Polish Posters
Exhibition in Tehran.
We did not have the original version of the poster therefore we
agreed to have a digitally printed one and right in the center of
the main wall. After this exhibition I became more interested in
Polish posters and I bought different books to know more about Lenica
and of course other great Polish poster designers. Then I had a
wonderful opportunity to visit Poland as well as great Polish graphic
designers. The 18th International Poster Bienniale Warsaw opened
on 8th of June 2002 in The Poster Museum at Wilanow. In 1966, Lenica
won the first prize for Wozzeck at the First International Poster
Bienniale in Warsaw. He had passed away some months before so there
was a moment a silence for him and later another moment of silence
for Ikko Tanaka.
Victor Gorka, Waldemar Swierzy, Mieczyslaw Wasilewski, Franciszek
Starowieyski, Maciej Urbaniec and many more were all there except
three great Polish poster designers: Roman Cieslewicz who had passed
away some years ago, Jan Lenica who passed away recently and Henryk
Tomaszewski who was too ill to be there. Being in that atmosphere
including their streets and architecture caused me a deep understanding
of the Polish masters.
One day I went to visit Morteza Momayez. I wanted to sort his private
collection of posters of the graphic designers from all over the
world for the Museum of Graphic Design in Tehran. When I came back
to the my studio and looked at the posters again, I found twenty
two of Lenica’s posters among them. The day after, Morteza
Momayaz and I decided to organize an exhibition of Lenica’s
posters.
Then I talked to Krzysztof Dydo who is famous collector and manager
of Poster Gallery in Cracow and he sent me fourteen more of Lenica’s
posters. The first anniversary of Jan Lenica’s death was in
October 2002 and Niyavaran Cultural Center prepared for his exhibition.
Krzysztof wrote about Lenica and sent it to me. I wanted Alain Le
Quernec to the same and he also sent me a piece of writing which
was full of his feelings. At the end I asked Morteza Momayez. Regardless
of all the things he was busy with, he wrote about Lenica too. Now
I could prepare them all to have an interesting catalogue.
After years I am not sure but I think one day in my imagination,
I saw Wozzeck on the walls of the streets in Warsaw. The streets
which are now very different. That wall was completely red and only
“The scream of Wozzeck” could be seen. Maybe on the
same wall, there is a poster of McDonald now. Today he is highly
remembered in Iran for his art.
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