“To Speak Not One's Own: Language in the Face of Others' Experience”

May 16, 2025, at 18.00


The International Cultural Centre and the Batory Foundation invite you to a meeting on the search for language to describe different ways of perceiving the world and other people's, difficult, experiences. The pretext for this discussion is the nominations for the Marcin Król Award.

The meeting will be attended by the nominees for the 2025 Martin Król Award: Eliza Kącka, author of “Wczoraj byłaś zła na zielono” (Wyd. Karakter) and Tomasz Szerszeń, author of “Być gościem w katastrofie” (Wyd. Czarne and Dom Spotkań z Historią), as well as Paulina Małochleb and Jakub Skrzywanek. The debate will be moderated by Edwin Bendyk.  

The Marcin Król Award is intended to support the development of public debate and encourage in-depth reflection on the phenomena, trends and challenges of today and the future. It has been awarded by the Batory Foundation since 2022. It also aims to support the creation of new ideas and attempts to describe reality, and to seek answers to the crisis of democratic values. The award is given annually for the best book in the fields of history of ideas and research on the future, philosophy and social and political thought, reflection on civilization and culture, which introduces new ideas, concepts and ways of thinking. The winning title will be announced on May 29.

A live broadcast translated into Polish sign language will be available on the Batory Foundation's Facebook profile.

Participants in the debate:

Edwin Bendyk – President of the Stefan Batory Foundation. Journalist writer, columnist for the weekly magazine “Polityka”. He deals with civilization issues and relations between science and technology and politics, economy, culture, social life. He co-founded the Center for Future Studies at Collegium Civitas. Member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. He has published, among others, “Miłość, wojna, rewolucja. Szkice na czas kryzysu” (2009), “Bunt sieci” (2012), ” W Polsce, czyli wszędzie. Rzecz o upadku i przyszłości świata” (2020). He runs the blog “Antimatrix”.

Dr. Eliza Kącka – writer, literary scholar, critic. She works at the Faculty of Polish Studies at the University of Warsaw. Author of prose books: “Elizje” (2017), “po drugiej stronie siebie‘’ (2019),  “Strefa zgniotu‘’  (2022),”Idiomy. Eseje” (2023) and academic books: “Stanisław Brzozowski wobec Cypriana Norwida” (2012), ”Lektura jako spotkanie. Brzozowski – tekst – metoda” (2017). She has compiled several selections of poetry (not only the latest). She is a columnist and contributor to “Tygodnik Powszechny”. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Society and the chapter of the Gdynia Literary Award (from 2019).

Dr. Paulina Małochleb – critic, literature researcher and lecturer. Laureate of the Prime Minister's Award, scholarship holder of the NCK “Young Poland”. Author of the book “Przepisywanie historii” and the ksiazkinaostro.pl blog. At the International Cultural Centre in Krakow, she heads the Communication Centre. She publishes in “Przekrój”, “Polityka” and Krytyka Polityczna. Lectures at the Jagiellonian University.

Jakub Skrzywanek – director, author of theater scripts, creator of performance installations, serves as deputy director for artistic affairs at the H. Modrzejewska National Old Theater in Cracow. He is a graduate of the Drama Directing Department of AST in Krakow, Polish Philology at the University of Wrocław and the DOKPRO course at the Wajda Master School. From January 2022 to the end of August 2024, he was deputy director for artistic affairs at the Contemporary Theater in Szczecin. He is the recipient of many theater awards, as well as the Polityka's Passport in the field of theater (2023).

Dr. Tomasz Szerszeń – essayist, cultural anthropologist, photographer. Author of the books “Być gościem w katastrofie” (2024); “Wszystkie wojny świata” (2021) (Literary Award of Significance, Academia Grand Prize 2022, nominated for the 17th Gdynia Literary Award); “Architektura przetrwania” (2017); “Podróżnicy bez mapy i paszportu” (2015); editor of the anthology “Oświecenie, czyli tu i teraz” (2021). Since June 2024, editor-in-chief of the quarterly journal “Konteksty”, assistant professor at the Art Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, where he leads the Laboratory of Cultural Anthropology and Audiovisual Arts. Author of photographic projects, co-author of theater projects, curator of exhibitions (including “Czym jest Oświecenie?” at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw). 

More information about the Award and a list of this year's nominated books here: https://www.batory.org.pl/forumidei/nagroda-im-marcina-krola/