Waiting room

Magdalena Barbaruk

Abstract

Marcin Giżycki died on 20 October 2022 in a clinic while waiting for a doctor’s appointment. As his wife, Agnieszka Taborska, wrote: “He coughed his way to death. He died the way he lived: not wanting to accidentally cause trouble by taking care of himself.” The clinic waiting room becomes for Magdalena Barbaruk a place-symbol of unpreparedness, the latter’s cruelty, and, at the same time, hope. Giżycki wrote limericks during the last moment of his life, his new books were published after his death, and the date of his passing is still being corrected in the English-language Wikipedia, thus giving him an extra day for activity, which M. Barbaruk calls “metaphysical activity”. The article is devoted not so much to reflecting on the copious oeuvre of the director, animation filmmaker, art critic and historian, film and media expert, but, first of all, tries to sketch the community revealed by the experience of being unprepared for his death (as testified in funeral speeches, farewells published in periodicals, a funeral diary written by Agnieszka Taborska, and in memoriam meetings). The point of departure of M. Barbaruk reflection on unpreparedness was the death of the anthropologist Ludwik Stomma and the reactions it provoked among his colleagues and friends (vide: Nie jestem przygotowany by Zbigniew Benedyktowicz, a commemoration book dedicated to Ludwik Stomma and published in “Konteksty” 2021, no. 1–2).