The Story of a Wave: Polish Postpunk in the 80s
/ Night of Museums. Prologue
/ 5:00-6:30 pm
In the footsteps of Polish postpunk | subjective walk with Rafał Księżyk
We invite you to take a walk through the permanent exhibition with Rafał Księżyk as your guide – a journalist, music critic, and author of books about Polish independent culture.
/ walk through the permanent exhibition
/ group of 25 people
/ ticket for 1 PLN → available at the ECS box office on the day of the event from 4:30 pm
/ meeting point opposite the box offices (ground floor)
The walk is called “subjective” because the trail is marked by personal stories – this time, less obvious threads: counterculture and alternative music in the era of Solidarity. We will talk about punk, reggae, and post-punk. How did informal groups cope with the oppressive reality? What happened outside the official circulation? How did the rebellion at the end of the Polish People’s Republic sound in clubs, basements, and on the streets?
Countercultures single-handedly laid the foundations of civil society – that is a fact.
Rafał Księżyk has been documenting the history of Polish music and independent scenes for years. He is the author of several books, including “The Śnialnia. Silesian Underground” (Wydawnictwo Literacie, 2023), “Wild Thing. Polish Music and Transformation 1989–1993” (Wydawnictwo Czarne, 2024), and “The Wave. 1984 and Polish Post-punk” (Wydawnictwo Czarne, 2025).
After the walk, we invite you to the library for a meet-the-author session.
/ 7:00-8:00 pm
The Wave. 1984 and Polish Postpunk | meet-the-author session
The conversation with Rafał Księżyk, author of the book “The Wave. 1984 and Polish Post-punk”, which premiered on 5 March 2025, will be moderated by Natalia Soszyńska.
/ ECS library
/ free admission
/ two books will be available for purchase at the ECS store (on the day of the event, 7:00–8:00 pm): “The Wave. 1984 and Polish Postpunk” (PLN 79) and “Wild Thing. Polish Music and Transformation 1989-1993” (PLN 59)
As Orwell’s 1984 continues behind the Iron Curtain, the best way to escape into a different reality is to start a rock band. Rafał Księżyk takes us on a journey back to that pivotal year of 1984. 1984 marked a turning point for Polish rock. It was the year when a generation raised under martial law found its voice – and those from smaller towns spoke the loudest. Ustrzyki Dolne, Łańcut, Rzeszów, Puławy, Zduńska Wola, Toruń, Bydgoszcz, Piła – these are the towns that set the rhythm of Księżyk’s story. From these places emerged the heroes of the new wave, setting off to conquer the country. Siekiera, Variété, 1984, and others – amateur bands navigating limited means with extraordinary determination. Their music is uncompromising, raw, intellectual – a liberating, defiant laugh bursting through the cracks of the system. And it captivated the crowds. So, as Siekiera sings: “It is good, it is good”. The wave has begun.
guest | Rafal Księżyk
Journalist, editor, and music critic. He collaborates with “Dwutygodnik” magazine.
In the 1990s, he co-founded the magazines “Brum”, “Plastik”, “Antena Krzyku”, “City Magazine”, and “Aktivist”. From 2012 to 2017, he was editor-in-chief of “Playboy”.
He is the co-author of the autobiographies of Tomasz Stańko, Robert Brylewski, Tymon Tymański, Muniek Staszczyk, Kazik Staszewski, and Marcin Świetlicki, and the author of two collections of essays – “23 Cuts for William S. Burroughs” and “Inverting Culture. On Dandies, Hipsters and Mutants”. In 2020, he published “Wild Thing. Polish Music and the Transformation 1989–1993”, for which he was nominated for the Literary Award of the Capital City of Warsaw, the Gdynia Literary Award, and the Kazimierz Moczarski Historical Award. For the monograph “The Śnialnia. Silesian Underground”, published three years later, he received the Upper Silesian Literary Award “Juliusz”. His latest book, “The Wave. 1984 and Polish Postpunk” (Wydawnictwo Czarne), premiered on 5 March 2025.
moderated by | Natalia Soszyńska
Creative copywriter, reading promoter, and founder of the Wszystkie Litery agency and the Gdańsk Book Club. She hosts meet-the-author sessions and works at literary festivals and on social campaigns. She has conducted conversations with, among others, Martín Caparrós, Małgorzata Rejmer, Urszula Jabłońska and Jakub Żulczyk, and interviewed Olga Tokarczuk, Mariusz Szczygieł, and Jacek Dehnel. Twice awarded in the “Dekameron 2020” competition; winner of the European Design Award and the DNA Paris Award.
