‘Galician Odyssey’

In the summer of 2004 the sculptor Robert Koenig took his sculpture project “Odyssey” on a journey across the historical region of Galicia in South East Poland and the Ukraine following a route linked to his ancestors, the Dudek family. (When in 1793 the Austro-Hungarian Empire invaded and annexed South East Poland the resulting province was named Galicia. When Poland regained its independence in 1918 Galicia became Polish once again with the mighty cities of Krakow in the west and Lwow in the east).

The tour involved exhibitions in Lwow in the Ukraine and Tarnow, Zakopane, Krakow, Gorlice in Poland. It also involved a private visit by the artist to the town of Przemyslany, east of Lwow.

The British documentary filmmaker Stephen Mathews followed Robert Koenig during his Galician Odyssey, filming his experiences and his attempts to uncover a family history unknown or forgotten, a 20 century history of this region of Europe.

23 carved limewood figures left Dominikowice, near Gorlice at the beginning of may 2004 heading for Lwow, in Western Ukraine. The exhibition, hosted by the ‘Lwowskie Towarzystwo Przyjaciol Sztuk Pieknych’, was installed in the Palace of Art courtyard next to the Potocki Palace. The carvings were thus visible from the street.

Following in the footsteps of the artist’s uncle, the sculptor Jan Dudek, ‘Dziady’ arrived in a city where he also left his mark having, amongst other things, contributed to carvings made for the Cathedral of St. Jura in the City.

Through this spiritual journey Koenig was to make further attempts to uncover the life and work of Jan Dudek in the 1920’s in this part of Galicia and to understand the history of this troubled region.

During the 2 weeks of the exhibition one day was chosen to take 13 of the carved figures around the city of Lwow, to bring them into direct contact with the public by arranging them for short periods on street corners and squares. They were then photographed and filmed with the artist responding to questions posed by the public.

During his stay in Lwow, Koenig travelled to the nearby town of Przemyslany to try to find the grave of his uncle Jan Dudek who died there tragically in 1929 at the age of 23. Unfortunately the Polish section of the cemetery was badly neglected and vandalised and the grave was not found. With the help of the Polish parishioners in the town he was shown the buildings where Jan Dudek worked as a sculptor in the workshops of Jan Wojtowicz which produced carved altars for many churches in Galicia and beyond. When the Soviets took over that part of Poland during WW2 the workshops were abandoned and the workforce fled west. A workshop that produced artworks for churches was not going to be allowed to survive in a Soviet state that did not recognise the existence of God.

The documentary film that recorded Robert’s journey to Galicia is entitled “In Search of Jan Dudek” and is due to be completed in the summer of 2008.

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