Meeting of the Seven Cultures of the Polish-Slovak Borderlands: From Ladislav Mednyánszky to Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz

The natural, historical and cultural communities of Spiš, Orava, Liptov, Podhale and the Sącz region are located in the Polish-Slovak borderlands around the Tatra Mountains, among the most beautiful and highest mountains of Central Europe. They share unique scenery and natural beauty and also a cultural heritage which is the result of centuries of mixing of Polish, Slovak, German, Hungarian, Jewish, Roma and Lemko cultural elements. In 1994 the transnational Euroregion Tatry was created by Polish and Slovak local governmental authorities. In 2006 and 2007 the Euroregion carried out a project entitled ”A Meeting of the Seven Cultures of the Polish-Slovak Borderlands: From Ladislav Mednyánszky to Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz”. The project was cofounded by the European Regional Development Fund as part of the INTERREG IIIA Poland-Slovakia program. In 2009 and 2010 the Euroregion Tatry carried out second edition of this project, which is cofounded by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund in frame of the Cross-border Cooperation Programme Republic of Poland – Slovak Republic 2007-2013.
The aforementioned patrons of the project are two outstanding artists of the Polish-Slovak borderlands, Ladislav Mednyánszky, a Slovak painter of the turn of the century associated with the chateau in Stražky and Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz, a contemporary composer and artist born in Nowy Targ. Although they come from different eras and reflect different life experiences and artistic styles, one can find in their work a similar inspiration born in the multicultural setting of the borderlands and in the interweaving of themes and motifs drawn from the various cultures of the region.