Travel Love Poland Magazine – March 2021

LP: Igor, while preparing for this conversation, I concluded
that both the main subject and your person are an extremely
extensive topic. You work in so many areas that I could hardly
find a "starting point". However, what is common to most, if
not all, of your activities are Slavs- their history, culture, and
traditions. So, I decided that it would be a good common
thread for further conversation.
Igor Górewicz: Well, I think I should thank you as I take it as a
compliment. The fact is, I often get itchy feet and I cannot
stand idleness. Ideas are swarming and you have to write
something, record something, and organise something. I dealt
with the Polish Army in the East in 1945 and the Germanic
peoples in the 1st-2nd centuries AD and I also love the
archaic and classical period of ancient Greek culture. The
beauty of melee weapons as such moves me greatly, and I
especially love the sword, its forms and ideas. But, indeed,
what defines me the most strongly in the sphere of culture,
both for me and in the space of social activity, is the
traditional culture of the Slavs and I am most widely
associated with it.
LP: Before we get to the main thread, I would like to start
with a short story about you. Your fascination with the
culture of the Slavs began during your studies, and now your
entire life is devoted to this subject. In fact, not only yours,
but also your family's. Do you remember what influenced your
choice of the way of life and the fact you decided to stick to
it?
Igor: The very same question allows me to tell a story
because it has been a long process. My activity in the field of
Slavic culture started during my studies, but the beginnings
of the fascination itself lie somewhere deep in my childhood,
although I have never managed to track down and indicate a
single moment or an event that particularly sparked this
interest. It has been rather a multi-threaded influence and
development. The fact that there are fascinating things
hidden in history was revealed to me by my father and
grandfather, reading about the kings of Poland or the myths
from Mythology by Parandowski. Perhaps surprisingly, from a
chronological perspective, the ancient Greeks knocked on the
door of my imagination before the Slavs did. On the other
hand, however, I grew up in the Polish People's Republic, in
which Slavonic threads (no matter how simplified or used)
were present, especially in the iconosphere, perhaps even
more than in a conscious way. However, I remember that my
father brought a figurine of a Slavic warrior from a business
trip, with an almond-shaped kite-shield, an axe, and a
characteristic shoulder-length haircut and bangs (laughing).
Although he was mine, it used to stand in the parents' room,
on the shelf above the radio playing the third programme of
Polish Radio, as the figurine was made of plaster and was not
suitable for playing with.
He just used to stand and look at me and I used to stare at
him. And so we looked at each other until this image left his
imprint on me. On top of that, there were talks with
drawings by Szymon Kobyliński about the armament and the
traditions of the Polish army. That was brilliant and so
appealing that I felt that all of this was, on the one hand,
magnificent, while on the other very "homey" and "ours".
Not only the Slavs, but mainly them, as my imagination was
also occupied by the vision of the battle of Grunwald (also
known as the First Battle of Tannenberg) and Winged
Hussars. All of this, of course, in a childish, teenage form. It
was not without significance that I listened to heavy metal
since I was a child, and then in the 1980s, warriors, combat,
swords, and axes were some of the most common themes of
lyrics and covers. And above all, Conan!! In this role, Arni, the
one and only, and Howard's books. We didn't have Conan's
comic books back then. These elements of popular culture,
on the other hand, shaped the image of a warrior and it
would not be possible without a temporary fascination with
the icon of pop culture, for example, Vikings.
Exactly on my 18th birthday, I started collecting replicas of
swords. Soon, one by one, they hit my wall. When I was at
the very beginning of my studies, the Viking Festival in Wolin
began being organized and I used to attend. I was fascinated
by melee weapons, Vikings, and Slavs. The participants of
the festivals were only foreign Vikings, mainly from England
and Denmark as it must be explained that at that time in
Poland we had no re-enactment groups of that era. One
year, some guys in Slav costumes also appeared as guests,
and when I looked at them and compared them with foreign
reenactors, I thought that it could not be like that- that we
need to recreate "ours", but at a level presented by our
foreign colleagues. So in 1998, I started working on the
design of a Slavic costume and I directed my first steps to
the library of the National Museum in Szczecin. Then
everything went rather quickly. The squad was formed, then
participation in the festival in Wolin (which soon changed its
name to the "Festival of Slavs and Vikings"), and later the
trips to events in Torgelow in Germany, Moesgaard, and
other places in Denmark and Fotevikien in Sweden.
In 2000, I graduated and was about to start a normal
professional career, but it turned out that the team was
growing and there was so much demand for shows,
presentations, and other forms of popularising the history
that I had to choose- either DGT becomes a small group and
sometimes we do something together or I develop it and try
to be a pro. It was a breakneck idea- but the world belongs
to the brave and young! Everyone tapped their foreheadshow
come? You have to earn your living! Get a normal job!
However, these voices died quickly when it turned out that I
got more work than I can do.
12 TRAVEL.LOVEPOLAND