I Am a Political Animal. Jerzy Giedroyc and Kultura 1947-2000

In the year of Jerzy Giedroyc established by the Senate of the Republic of Poland, the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature in Warsaw presents an exhibition devoted to one of the most important figures of twentieth-century Polish intellectual life and to the Literary Institute and the monthly Kultura that he created.

The exhibition shows Jerzy Giedroyc’s work at the meeting point of politics, literature and social life. It leads the visitor through the successive stages of his biography - from the experiences of his youth and his journalism in the interwar period, through wartime exile and the founding of the Literary Institute, to more than half a century of the Paris-based Kultura, which became one of the most important independent centres of Polish political and literary thought in exile.

Literature and the circle of writers gathered around Jerzy Giedroyc hold a special place in the narrative of the exhibition. Visitors can see photographs, archival documents and manuscripts connected with the most eminent authors published in Kultura and by the Literary Institute. Another important element of the display is Giedroyc’s correspondence with writers and intellectuals - a record of relationships that went beyond publishing collaboration and formed a broad network of contacts gathered around the idea of a free culture and independent thought.