Talent, passion and the limits of challenging yourself
Interview with Aleksandra Czechowicz-Woźniak – Deputy Director of the Museum of Sport and Tourism in Warsaw
Ewa Kotus: The “Wall of Fame” is the most important place in the Museum of Sport and Tourism, as it displays plaques commemorating all the medals won by our Olympians. I observed people who saw this exhibition for the first time. They admired each medal with delight, aware that these were awards for real victories, achieved through enormous effort and determination. There was no question of pretending or luck being on their side. These athletes truly defeated themselves. How do you feel when you hang another gold medal on the „Wall of Fame”?
Aleksandra Czechowicz-Woźniak: Above all, it is enormous pride, and not only with the gold medals, but with each one… Indeed, the road to success is usually paved with enormous effort and sacrifice, but luck also plays a role here. Luck in the sense of circumstances that are beyond the control of the Olympians, such as how the competitors perform.
photo: Maciej Przybyszewski
wearing official national team uniforms designed especially for the occasion.
photo: Paweł Oprządek, Museum of Sport & Tourism
photo: Paweł Oprządek, Museum of Sport & Tourism
photo: Paweł Oprządek, Museum of Sport & Tourism
photo: Paweł Oprządek, Museum of Sport & Tourism
photo: Paweł Oprządek, Museum of Sport & Tourism
E.K.: But today, there are no longer Olympic medals for poetry or music, are there?
A.C.W.: That’s right – after 1948, medals for winning the Olympic Art Competitions were no longer awarded. The competitions were initiated by none other than Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games and a man fascinated by the ancient world, when the beauty of the human body was as important as spiritual beauty expressed, among other things, through art.
However, it took until the 5th Summer Olympic Games in 1912 for him to get the Art Competitions included in the programme. Works with sports themes were judged in the fields of music, architecture, sculpture, painting, graphic arts, literature… We had our successes – for example, during the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, Kazimierz Wierzyński won a gold medal in literature, and in 1924, Olga Boznańska and Karol Szymanowski were among the jury members of the Paris Art Competition. After the Paris Games, Poland began organising national competitions to select works to be submitted to the Art Competitions of subsequent Games. Many of the works awarded in Poland can be viewed at the Museum of Sport, and several at the National Museum in Warsaw and in Kraków.
In the last year of the Competitions – 1948, during the XIV Summer Olympic Games in London, we won gold in the field of music thanks to Zbigniew Turski’s ‘Olympic Symphony’.
But then came 1949, and with it the International Olympic Committee’s decision to abolish the competitions.
photo: Archive of the Museum of Sport and Tourism.
E.K.: All the exhibits, and the overall atmosphere of the Museum of Sport and Tourism inspire both sport and tourism. Both fields require concentration, courage, good decisions and control over one’s own life. After all, today’s tourists are increasingly ambitious, striving to live in harmony with nature, wanting to live healthily and setting themselves interesting goals to achieve.
A.C.W.: Today, we have much better opportunities to travel the world than before, and the same goes for the equipment and information needed to prepare for a trip. However, we are still looking for the same challenges or simply a good adventure…
E.K.: The Museum of Sport and Tourism is the organiser of the Wanda Rutkiewicz Festival. I always choose a difficult film that stays in my memory for a long time, leaving me with a question that has no answer: what is the limit of trying to overcome oneself? This year, it was the film ”The Last Mountain”, directed by Chris Terrill, about Alison Hargreaves (1962–1995), a mountaineer considered one of the best climbers in the world. In 1995, she became the first woman in history to climb Mount Everest solo, without oxygen or the support of Sherpas. Three months after her success on Everest, in August 1995, while attempting to climb K2 – the second highest peak in the world – she lost her life during a descent in a storm. She was only 33 years old and the mother of two children – a son, Tom, and a daughter, Kate. The children were still young and did not fully understand the tragedy. But it seemed that as they grew older, they would begin to realise that their mother’s passion had been pointless.
photo: Wanda Rutkiewicz Festival
photo: Wanda Rutkiewicz Festival
Meanwhile, her son Tom Ballard (1989–2019) also became an outstanding climber. In 2015, he became the first person to solo climb the six highest north faces of the Alps in a single winter season. But he also paid for his passion with his life, as he died in 2019 while attempting to climb Nanga Parbat, the eighth highest peak in the world, located in Pakistan.
photo: Ewa Kotus
photo: Wanda Rutkiewicz Festival
A.C.W.: The beautiful yet difficult film ”The Last Mountain” won first prize at the 32nd Wanda Rutkiewicz Festival. We are delighted that we managed to invite the film’s director, Chris Terrill, who is such a close friend of the Ballard family. We knew that guests would want to meet him. And indeed, despite it being a weekend and the film being screened in the morning, numerous guests came to the meeting to talk about Alison Hargreaves and find out what she was really like… Her son Tom was very proud that his mother did not give up difficult climbs even when she was pregnant with him, and he was happy that he had inherited this passion in his genes. No one could have imagined that he would also die. We tried to understand certain decisions that often seem very incomprehensible. But we respected them.
E.K.: The Gala Ceremony of the 20th Jubilee edition of FilmAT – the International Festival of Tourism Films, Television Documentaries and Corporate Films – will take place in March. This is a special time for Poland, as the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition has opened the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Chopin Competition, which will take place in 2027.
It is worth mentioning here, that the Competition was established by Professor Jerzy Żurawlew, who strongly emphasised the importance of preserving the proper style of performing Chopin’s music. And so, a competition of the highest international prestige was born, which brought together the greatest piano talents from the farthest corners of the world and gave the winners the highest rank in the world of music.
A.C.W.: We are delighted to join those promoting tourism in Mazovia in the footsteps of the great Fryderyk Chopin, and the Festival Gala will be a wonderful opportunity to do so.
photo: Paweł Czarnecki
E.K. The jubilee edition traditionally covers three themes: tourist films, corporate films and television documentaries, and we have opened all themes to Fryderyk Chopin and his music. The museum is a co-organiser of the Festival, and you are a member of the international jury. How do you rate this year’s films?
A.C.W.: They are very diverse and interesting… Many of them were created based on original ideas, using interesting presentation techniques. They reflect what the world is concerned with today – both problems and solutions.
E.K. During this edition of the Festival, we would like to present additional statuettes featuring a bust of Fryderyk Chopin, similar to the Tourist and Tourist Owl statuettes created by renowned artist Jacek Podlasiński. They will be awarded to well-made films about Fryderyk Chopin, the power of his music, the Chopin Competition, and to institutions that are strongly involved in promoting Fryderyk Chopin, his music and Chopin tourism. And, of course, to the jury. Thank you for the interview.
Complementing the jubilee ceremony, as has become tradition, will be laureate diplomas adorned with butterflies from Ewa Kotus’s extensive collection, highlighting not only the artistic, but also the ecological and humanistic dimension of the Festival.
photo: from archives of FilmAT Festival
translation: Wojciech Jaworek