On the occasion of the Year of Stanislaw Lem in Poland and the 100th anniversary of the writer's birth,

on October 27 the Polish Institute in Sofia presented the exhibition "Lem's Bestiary according to Mroz" - illustrations by Daniel Mroz to the works of Stanislaw Lem. Audio-visual experiment of Ivaylo Ivanov and Nina Foltinovich.

The Sejm of the Republic of Poland declared 2021 the "Year of Lem". Extremely popular among his compatriots, Stanislaw Lem is also one of the most eminent Polish writers in the world, translated into 41 languages ​​and published in millions of copies. The literary genre in which he achieves the greatest success and which he makes wonderful use of, glorifies and elevates to artistic heights is the science fiction novel. Stanislaw Lem's work is a global phenomenon, with great influence and role in the formation of culture. His interests include such important issues as the ethical issues associated with the emergence of self-aware robots and artificial intelligence, as well as legal issues arising from the achievements of modern medicine (is a person with multiple organ transplants still the same person?). In his novels, which are very popular, he manages to include a whole arsenal of problems arising from the collision of the humanities and medicine with engineering and futurology.

The graphic from Krakow Daniel Mroz gives the most perfect graphic form to the characters from Lem's works. For most fans of the writer, Mroz's illustrations and Lem's texts have become an inseparable whole.

The exhibition, entitled Lem's Bestiary According to Frost, presents the results of the collaboration between these two great artists. In this bestiary are presented emancipated machines, a little sinister and at the same time grotesque, carefully drawn by the master of the brush Mroz and combined with their descriptions, found in the novels and stories of the master of the word Lem.

Yves_O vs Nina F audio-visual experiment

A deep, atmospheric, cosmic journey through synthesizer sounds, dark visualizations and contrasting styles of music, inspired by the exhibition and films based on the works of Stanislaw Lem.

Ivo Ivanov is a teacher, translator and cultural manager. Visionary and organizer of some of the most avant-garde events in the country, including the Sofia Underground International Performance Festival. He has been playing music professionally since the end of the last century, and under the pseudonym Yves_O (from French: Iv_O) he has been experimenting with visualizations for the last fifteen years. He has participated in many events on several continents and is a big fan of Stanislaw Lem's work.

Nina F (Nina Foltinovic) is from Silesia, the mining part of Poland. She has been involved in music since she was a child and follows the development of the Polish electronic scene. Her selections are eclectic and functional, not subject to stylistic and genre categorization. A few years ago, she moved to Sofia, where she discovered new interesting sounds and artists.

The material was provided by the Polish Institute in Sofia.