We talked with Stanisław Baj for a long time. In Krakow, in Warsaw, in Dołhobrody. Sitting at a big table, surrounded by albums and notes. Among his paintings, with a cup of really strong coffee. In the kitchen of his country house (eating delicious apple pie!). In a barn which he converted into his studio. On the banks of the River Bug - with birds singing and under the watchful eye of the border guards patrolling the edge of the European Union. And by phone, because you cannot always be in the same place at the same time.
Hence the idea of how to organise this exhibition. We wanted everyone to meet Stanisław Baj and see how this artist talks about life, about friendship, about loneliness, about his inspirations, about light, about darkness, about mystery, about waiting for the inevitable and the unexpected. That is why quotes from our interviews with him will guide you around the exhibition along with sounds and books which he finds important.
We would like to introduce you to a man who is constantly and attentively looking for his own truth about the world and about himself. And although Stanisław Baj speaks from a particular spot on Earth, he talks about what is important, honest and dear, no matter it is in the world.
Stanisław Baj was born in 1953 in the village of Dołhobrody. He is head of the Painting Studio at the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He lives in Warsaw and in Dołhobrody on the river Bug. He paints expressive portraits and hypnotic landscapes which he has been doing for years on the banks of the same river - because he likes surprises.