Through a montage of archival footage from climbing exhibitions and interviews with those involved, the documentarians tell a story on the essence of Himalayan mountain climbing – overcoming one’s own weaknesses. “I could never allow myself to return empty handed,” admits Jerzy Kukuczka, a Polish mountain legend.
“I always tried again. Sometimes it defied common sense but it followed some kind of internal conviction.” “Art of Freedom” is a record of a struggle with the inner self, a tale of the need for freedom, of passion and of a hunger for challenges.
This is also one of the most highly awarded films on mountaineering in recent years. Marek Kłosowicz’s and Wojtek Słota’s movie has been honoured at the festivals in Bilbao, Vancouver, Kathmandu, Chicago, Zakopane and Domzale.
The adventures of Poland’s Himalayan mountain climbers has also recently become the material for the graphic novel “Lodowi wojownicy” [Ice Warriors] written by Jerzy Porębski and Jan Gogola and illustrated by Marek Berger. Delving into the journals of Krzysztof Wielicki, the graphic novel’s creators recount the first winter ascent of Mount Everest, accomplished in February 1980 by the team of Leszek Cichy, a 29-year-old engineer and land surveyor from Warsaw, and Krzysztof Wielicki, a 30-year-old electronic engineer from Wrocław.
Exhibition author—Sylwia Wysłowska, publisher Culture.pl
