Travel Love Poland Magazine – March 2021

The roles of the wife and mother are of course extremely
important, but no less than that of a romantic lover or an
artist who brings her projects to life. Whenever these are
book illustrations, series of linocuts, or "motanki"
(traditional, magic Slavonic dolls). She is able to combine
modernity with tradition in an interesting way because by
being interested in classical art as well as abstract, and
especially conceptual one, she can use her tool to work on
traditionally Slavonic themes.
Illustrating our lives differently, I train in sword fighting and
boxing, and Kasia trains yoga or the so-called Slavonic
gymnastics. This is probably a good illustration of who we
are together and each one individually. Kasia runs the
household and says she regrets that she does not have so
much time to be able to give it entirely to the children
because she remembers how lucky she was to have her
mother for herself when she was at home and took care of
children. Besides, Kasia has a head full of ideas, pushing
themselves to be implemented, but everything cannot be
done at once. I know that today there is even a compulsion
for self-realisation in the first place, but it is quite an
immature attitude if you have kids. We remain ourselves, we
create something, but we must also sacrifice something to
be together and to create a wonderful home in which not
only ourselves, but also our children would feel safe and
develop. But, this is exactly what we want! Our choice is to
be together and create something together, our world. I can
assure you that nothing came easy and each of us was
somehow disadvantaged. We want it to be good and we fight
for it. People often forget about it, and then melt over
internet memes with slogans that at the end of life it turns
out that only family, loved ones, and time are important. So
if you feel touched with such a picture, then apply it! You can
have both, a happy marriage, a happy family and selffulfilment.
But it costs a lot, a lot of work.
We are also lucky that, apart from numerous trips, we work
at home, partly on our own tasks, partly together, for
example on a paper to be published or preparing shows. For
example, I am writing a book or dealing with formal or
technical matters, while Kasia is working on illustrations or
promoting our books. We spend almost all the time together
and yet we are not bored. When, for example, during my
writing work, I leave my office and Kasia is between her
activities, we catch each other for a moment and talk about
something – not only about domestic matters (I do not even
mention it) but about culture, music, art, people, or society.
We are a married couple who can argue about the meaning of
a picture or performance, haha, seriously!
lovePoland: If someone visiting Poland is interested in the
topic - where should he direct his steps?
To the most famous places like Biskupin or Wolin, or perhaps
to another one? I don't think I know any more.
Igor: Of course, Wolin, to be precise, the Wolin-Jomsborg-
Wineta Center of Slavs and Vikings. If someone likes mass
events, of course, then at the beginning of August we have
the world's largest early medieval festival, about which you
wrote in your magazine a few issues ago. Before the festival,
there are workshops, which means incomparably fewer
people, also fewer performers, but much greater access to
them, and there is live craftsmanship. Besides, the museum is
open from April until October.
Biskupin is, of course, an icon of Polish archaeology. The
most famous are the long houses, the embankment and the
gate of the reconstructed settlement from the Bronze Age,
but probably not everyone remembers that there was also an
early medieval settlement found in Biskupin and a few years
ago. It was also reconstructed exactly on the site of the
original one, preserving the original urban layout in its
entirety. Where there was a house, there is a house now, in
the places of workshops, there are workshops, and where
there was once a hearth, there is a hearth now. On top of all
this, there is also the reconstruction of Neolithic houses,
from the Younger Stone Age. In individual segments, there
are reenactors, reconstructing old activities- even the fields
are ploughed with oxen. The archaeological festival takes
place in September and lasts 9 days with a rich educational
program. If someone is in southern Poland, there is a socalled
"Karpacka Troja", a beautifully situated archaeological
open-air museum in Trzcinica. These are probably the most
important reconstructions, not to mention all the museums,
as well as historical festivals, staging battles across Poland
and regarding all historical periods, ranging from the Stone
Age events, through antiquity, the long Middle Ages,
Sarmatian Poland, until world wars, and beyond. You just
need to look them up in a calendar to check where the
seventeenth-century Swedes are besieging a castle and
where the fifteenth-century Poles and Lithuanians are going
to slaughter the Teutonic Knights. Cedynia, Grunwald,
Malbork, in winter Pomerania from 1945- you may take your
pick.
lovePoland: Your books are published mainly in Polish, but I
know that some of them are also available in English. Which
ones? Are you planning to translate other of your titles?
Igor: Yes, some of my books and others from Triglav
Publishing House are available in English- for example the
entire series Viking and Slavic Ornamental Design, Vol. 1, 2,
and 3, and Vendel and Dark Age Ornamental Design. I have
already talked about Borek and the Slavonic Gods.
19 TRAVEL.LOVEPOLAND