DYMNY Wiesław

Born on 25 February 1936 in the village of Połoneczka (near Baranowicze, now Baranavichy, Belarus); son of the teachers Wiktor and Janina. After the end of the Second World War, he, his mother and siblings were repatriated (to use the official terminology of the time) to Poland. He initially lived in Nowogród and Miastkowo (in the Łomża region) before moving to Zapasieki (in the Cieszyn region) and then, finally, to Jaworze Nałęże, near Bielsko-Biała. He attended the TPD (Children's League) Grammar School (No. 3 – now named after Stefan Żeromski) in Bielsko-Biała. During this period, he started writing poetry and (unpublished) short stories, as well as creating his first works of art. He completed his advanced secondary education in 1953 and began studying painting at the Academy of Fine Arts (ASP) in Krakow. He was accepted to the Association of Polish Artists and Designers (ZPAP – Związek Polskich Artystów Plastyków) but was later expelled for failing to pay his membership fees. He abandoned his studies at ASP but remained active as a painter and sculptor, while also moving into stage design and photography. In 1956, he co-founded the Krakow cabaret group Piwnica pod Baranami, writing song lyrics and monologues for the group, as well as performing with them and designing sets for numerous shows. He made his debut as a poet in 1957 with the poem Szyba (Window Pane) and as a prose writer the same year with the short story Przypowiastka prawdziwa o wielu bardzo sprawach (A True Tale about a Great Many Things), which appeared in the periodical "Zebra" (no. 6). In subsequent years, he also wrote scripts for two relatively autonomous theatre groups Teatr STS and Teatr 38, as well as for his own cabaret group Remiza, which was founded in 1961 and performed for around six months at the Piwnica pod Jaszczurami club. He devised the Opera strażacka (Fireman's Opera) programme for Remiza. He wrote the lyrics for around 300 songs, with several of them receiving awards at the National Festival of Polish Song (Krajowy Festiwal Piosenki w Opolu), including Czarne Anioły (Black Angels), with music by Zygmunt Konieczny and performed by Ewa Demarczyk, which won a prize at the inaugural festival in 1963. In 1964, he founded the beat band Szwagry, remaining as the group's artistic and literary directory until 1969, also serving as the band's master of ceremonies. He received a special prize for his lyrics for the band from the jury of the inaugural Polish Review of Popular Music (Ogólnopolski Przegląd Zespołów Muzyki Rozrywkowej) in Gliwice in 1965. The same year he received an award from the Geneva-based Kościelski Foundation. In 1967, he started writing film scripts, while also featuring in eighteen films as an actor, primarily in minor roles. He published his poetry in the weekly "Szpilki" (intermittently between 1970 and 1978). He published one edition of an illegal periodical, contributing drawings and song lyrics. Many of his drawings and texts were destroyed as a result of a house fire in 1977. The rest of his private archive was left in the care of the actress Anna Dymna, née Dziadyk, whom he married in 1971. He suffered from health complications as a result of his increasingly severe alcoholism. He died on 12 February 1978 in Krakow, where he is buried at the Salwator Cemetery. The Wiesław Dymny Cultural Foundation was established in Montreal in 1987.