Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Gliński awarded the Medals For Merit to Culture Gloria Artis to recognized representatives of the world of Polish culture, distinguished in the field of artistic creativity, cultural activity and protection of culture and national heritage, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage announced.
Gold Medal, the highest departmental decoration was awarded to Zbigniew Makarewicz;
Jerzy Werszler received Silver Medal For Merit to Culture Gloria Artis.
Bronze Medals were awarded to: Andrzej Dudek – Dürer and Witold Liszkowski.
The Badge of Merit for Polish Culture for people distinguished in the creation, dissemination and protection of culture was awarded to Eugeniusz Józefowski.
- Zbigniew Makarewicz is a sculptor, an art critic, a contemporary artist associated with the neo-avant-garde formation, an organizer of artistic life, a social and political activist and and an oppositionist. In the years 1978-1981 and 1989-1994 he ran the ‘X’ Gallery in Wrocław. Through various means of expression: sculpture, installation and happening, he compiles multi-layered works, combining various stylistic formulas and genres, such as theater and fine arts. The artist’s actions are often ironic, they are a biting and bitter commentary on the official forms of culture and art.
- Jerzy Werszler is an artistic and utility graphic designer, in particular neon advertising designer. He graduated from the Faculty of Artistic Ceramics at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Wrocław. He is a designer of hundreds of neon signs, as well as recognized projects in Wrocław and in the cities of Lower and Upper Silesia. His neon signs, especially those created in the late 1960s and 1970s, have become a permanent fixture in the urban landscape of Wrocław and Lower and Upper Silesia.
- Andrzej Dudek-Dürer is a photographer, a performer, a media artist, a composer, and a musician experimenting with instruments (also of his own design) and electronic media. He creates sculptures – artistic installations. He presented his work and gave lectures, e.g. at The Art Institute in Chicago, Academy of Art. College in San Francisco, Conservatorio National de Musica in Mexico City. In the 1970s, he was an organizer of an independent artistic movement in Poland and abroad, through his activity in the global movement of performance and Post Art.
- Witold Liszkowski is an artist dealing with happenings, performances, street actions, photography and painting. He graduated from the Faculty of Painting, Graphics and Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. Participant of many nationwide exhibitions, seminars and art festivals. In the years 1977-1980, an activist of the creative group ‘Art and Theory’. Since 1995, he has been creating painting and installation cycles “Personal Structures” as well as projections and happenings ‘Phenomenal Art’ both in Poland and abroad
- Eugeniusz Jozefowski’s work has been presented at over 80 individual exhibitions and several hundred collective exhibitions in the country and abroad. He has conducted over 380 artistic realizations in the form of creative workshops. He is the author of several hundred scientific and popular science publications, including monographs, articles, catalogs from exhibitions and creative workshops.