Actress, social activist and founder of the Fundacja “Mimo wszystko”, Anna Dymna won the Kazimierz Kutz Award. The award ceremony was held on 16 February 2021 – the 92nd anniversary of the patron’s birthday. The results were announced during an official gala at the Stanisław Wyspiański Silesian Theatre.
Award for socially engaged artists
The award aims to honour individuals for their remarkable artistic achievements which play an important role in public discourse, and contribute to creating a more democratic and tolerant society. This was the first edition of the award organised by the City of Katowice in cooperation with the University of Silesia in Katowice and the Stanisław Wyspiański Silesian Theatre. The award was initiated by the Mayor of Katowice Marcin Krupa, PhD, the Theatre Director Robert Talarczyk and the Rector of the University of Silesia, Prof. Ryszard Koziołek, who was also a member of the jury.
Nominees
The jury was not given an easy task, and as its members later confessed, the deliberations were heated. The nominees included excellent artists who combine artistic activity with social commitment.
- the winner – Anna Dymna,
- Horst Eckert (Janosch), German writer, author of children’s literature and the novel “Cholonek oder Der liebe Gott aus Lehm.”
- Tadeusz Sławek, poet, translator, essayist, literary scholar, Rector of the University of Silesia in 1996-2002 and winner of many prestigious awards (including Lux ex Silesia, the Adam Mickiewicz Award, the university award Pro Scientia et Arte, also the Gold Cross of Merit and the Medal of Commission of National Education awarded for his lifetime achievements and social commitment),
- Wojciech Smarzowski – screenwriter, and director of such films as “The Wedding”, “Volhynia”, “Clergy”,
- and Szczepan Twardoch – writer, graduate of the Inter-Faculty Individual Studies in Humanities at the University of Silesia, winner of, among others, Polityka’s Passport and the Kościelski Award, author of such novels as “Morfina” “Drach”, “Król” and “Pokora”.
Winner of the first Kazimierz Kutz Award – Anna Dymna
The laudation speech on the distinguished artist and social activist was delivered by the Rector of the University of Silesia, Prof. Ryszard Koziołek.
We have awarded an outstanding artist, who has played hundreds of theatre and film roles. Through them, she has contributed to the history of Polish culture of the last fifty years. She has been awarded and decorated many times, and she is admired by viewers of all living generations, which is something very rare and which makes her value even more objective. […] It is not enough to be an outstanding artist to receive a “Kutz”. One still has to convince us that life can imitate art. […] By founding the Fundacja “Mimo Wszystko”, which supports people with intellectual disabilities, she has demonstrated tremendous courage in living a life of art. It was as though, while playing the suffering and struggling characters on stage, she made a decision to stay with the characters after the performance was over. And she let us, the compassionate spectators of human misfortune, go about our business, knowing that most of us lack the courage and capacity for sacrifice.
Full text of the laudation speech
The winner received a financial prize of fifty thousand zloty and a statuette designed by Erwin Sówka.
Members of the jury
The winner was selected by the jury of 16 representatives from local communities. The jury consisted of, among others, persons associated with the University of Silesia: Rector, Prof. Ryszard Koziołek, Dean of the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School of the University of Silesia, Assoc. Prof. Krystyna Doktorowicz, Professor of the University of Silesia, as well as an academic lecturer, publicist and literary critic, and graduate of the University of Silesia Jerzy Illg, PhD, and media expert from the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Silesia, Prof. Andrzej Gwóźdź.
All members of the jury:
- Ryszard Koziołek,
- Iwona Świętochowska-Kutz,
- Ewa Niewiadomska,
- Olgierd Łukaszewicz,
- Halina Bieda,
- Prof. Antoni Cygan,
- Prof. Krystyna Doktorowicz, Professor of the University of Silesia
- Andrzej Gwóźdź,
- Jerzy Illg, PhD,
- Aleksandra Klich,
- Dariusz Kortko,
- Marcin Krupa, PhD,
- Jacek Siebel, PhD,
- Edyta Sytniewska,
- Robert Talarczyk,
- Piotr Zaczkowski.
