I was away for a bit and still catching up on literally tens of dozens of legit e-mail and piles of post, so I haven't even begun to sort through and process my photographs. That'll have to wait until I've finished sorting myself out, and doing a tricky translation for a world-renowned art institution here in Berne.
In other words, almost no time to blog. But I must, while the news is fresh, share with you the great news just in from one of my clients/become friends, the increasingly famous Polish artist and painter, Pola Dwurnik. She is based in Warsaw, spent almost two years in Basel on a scholarship, which is when we met and I began to work as her translator. It's been such a privilege!
Here's part of her message -- heartening stuff that goes to show just how much positive impact one individual can have these days, especially if it's someone as creative and gifted and intelligent as Pola.
Congratulations, Pola, on your endeavour and success!!!
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[...]
The political situation in Poland before the elections was disgraceful. The Kaczynski brothers were destroying everything ... achieved by the former governments from 1989 (when Poland broke free of Soviet domination). I could not stand it any more... and then, suddenly, the parliamentary elections were announced. Since many of my friends did not vote in the last elections in 2005 (then Lech Kaczynski became the president) - I decided to launch a get-out-the-vote campaign urging them to vote this time.
I created posters*) in which I played a series of characters symbolising different social groups who often do not vote (since I always act as a blond in the Polish media, using a blond wig, all the women in the posters were blond and only the men had my dark hair. :) I sent those posters by e-mail to over 500 e-mail addresses all over Poland and the world. The images and the texts, light and funny, were saying that voting in elections is not anything difficult nor shady. It is something we can all do, just once in a while, without being very much interested in politics.
The results turned out to be great. The newspapers wrote about the project and I got to know many wonderful people from other pro-voting campaigns. What is of most importance -- most of my no-voting friends voted! (There were 3.886.000 more voting Poles than in the elections in 2005, which makes the voter turnout much higher than expected.) And -- the Kaczynski brothers' party LOST the elections!!!! Isn't that wonderful!
I would like to share my happiness with all of you -- by sending you the last poster from the project. It says, "Thank for voting in the elections on October 21, 2007":
© Pola DwurnikYou can also read about my project and other pro-voting campaigns in the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. Here are the links to the articles:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/world/europe/21poland.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/19/africa/poland.php
With best wishes from Warsaw,
Pola.
*) You can find all the posters here: http://grono.net/pub/u/45741/gallery/3973967/5/
--
P.D.
http://www[DOT]poladwurnik[DOT]com
[...]
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