THE MEDALS OF THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR CULTURE - PRESENTED FOR THE FIFTEENTH TIME AT TARGI KIELCE’S SACROEXPO

This year’s Per Artem Ad Deum laureates

The solemn ceremony when the  Per Artem Ad Deum Medal granted by the Pontifical Council for  is presented - the ceremony was held at the 20th International Exhibition of Church Construction, Church Fittings and Furnishings and Religious Art SACROEXPO  The Medal bestowed to people who largely contribute to the to promotion of dialogue between the diversity of cultures in the contemporary world and thus promote man as an individual.  The medal laureates are presented the distinction by the Chapter members and the church high-ranking dignitaries. The medal has been awarded since 2005; since then it has been recognised as a very special distinction for artistic milieus whose works relate to sacrum and the Church.   This year the Medal Chapter is chaired by HE Bishop Marian Florczyk. The Per Artem ad Deum Medal has been bestowed upon the three people who represent different fields of art:

• Marcin Bornus-Szczyciński is awarded the Per Artem ad Deum Medal for  "tradition promotion and dissemination, for creating the space where spiritual and secular element are brought together"

He is a singer, the researcher-scientist into early music, an educator, a lecturer of traditional liturgical singing at the Dominican Philosophy and Theology College in Krakow and Warsaw. In 1981 he founded the "Bornus Consort" ensemble.  For over ten years, he was responsible for the international festival of early music "Song of Our Roots" 
in Jarosław,  now he is the festivals’ artistic director. He has cooperated with many renowned bands around the world.  Together with the "Węgajty Theatre Schola" and "Schola Gregoriana Silesiensis" he has created a series of liturgical dramas.  He was also an initiator of the Lenten Holy Masses in Warsaw’s Bielany and the Advent masses in Zalesie Górne- the male choirs performs Gregorian chant at the liturgical services.  He collaborated with a French musician and singer, Marcel Pérès,  with the Dominican brothers he recorded the three albums with the Gregorian chant: In Epiphania, In Nativitate oraz In Assumptione. He specializes in liturgical monodies.  He calls himself a traditionalist - he recognizes, preserves and disseminates local traditions.

•  Tadeusz Boruta is presented the Per Artem ad Deum Medal  for  "creativity which spurs today’s man search for an individual relationship with God"

A painter and arts critic born in Krakow, an educator and philosopher.  Painting and drawing are his main domains, the artistic achievements were presented at 60 individual and over 200 collective exhibitions in Berlin, Frankfurt, Wrocław, Warsaw, Krakow, Gdańsk, Opole, Częstochowa, Kielce.  His paintings are displayed in, inter alia the National Museum of Gdańsk, Krakow and Wroclaw, in the Silesian Museum in Katowice, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Radom, the Museum of the Archdiocese of Warsaw, as well as in private collections abroad. He is the author of several monumental realizations of religious and spiritual nature, these include altar paintings, polychromes and stained glass windows.  He is also a laureate of many artistic awards and distinctions.  In 2011 he was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit.  A member of the Arts Council at the Ministry of Culture and Arts. He also publishes texts on arts, including those on the “Aesthetics and Critics” where he offers a special focus on old art. His papers have been published in  "Tygodnik Powszechny" and "Znak"; recently collected and published in the "School of Sight" volume, 2003).  Since 2004 Boruta has been associated with the University of Rzeszow, he works at the Faculty of Art, the Monumental Painting workshop (since 2010 he has been the head of the Department of Painting).  In 2003 he defended his doctoral dissertation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, two years later his postdoctoral thesis at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. He is the author of books about art:  "Szkoła Patrzenia" [School of Looking]" (2003), "O Malowaniu duszy i ciała [On the painting of the soul and the body]" (2006), "Figur-racja" (2009).

• Alexander Kornoukhov is presented the Per Artem ad Deum Medal for  "fusion of science and tradition expressed inspired art forms"  

 The most outstanding contemporary mosaicist. The studios he works in are located studios in Moscow, Georgia, Ravenna and Rome. A laureate of many prestigious awards, world competitions including those in Ravenna (Italy), the Golden Medal of the Russian Academy of Artists (2002). Creator of mosaics in the cathedral in Tbilisi and in the churches: Voronezh Mitrophe, Transfiguration in Tuszyn, Znak in Krasnogorsk.  For his mosaic in the Transfiguration church in Tuszyn he was awarded the State Russian Federation Award.  The arrangement of the New Jerusalem mosaic made of 100 million elements in the Vatican chapel is his most famous achievement.  The project is ranked among one of the most ambitious artistic undertakings of the 20th century.

(JL)