“A lifetime is not enough to thank Kazik”

     “Building a statue to show our gratitude to Kazik is what we are doing,” said an official of Duy Xuyen district, Quang Nam province about the construction of the statue of Polish architect Kazimierz Kwiatkowsky, who lived in Vietnam for 17 years and helped popularise the ancient town of Hoi An and the My Son Sanctuary.
“We often comfort ourselves that there is no tombstone or statue better than the tombstone and statue in our hearts. But the human life is short, a lifetime is not enough to thank Kazik for his love and effort for this land. Therefore, we will build a statue to express our gratitude and to commemorate Kazik’s work for My Son,” said Trinh Son Hai, chief of the Duy Xuyen district Department of Culture and Information, Quang Nam province about the construction of the statue of Kwiatkowsky, better known as Kazik, in the My Son world heritage site in June 2009.
Before and since architect Kazik, there have been many researchers and architects who have been closely attached to the preservation and restoration of My Son Sanctuary. Why does Duy Xuyen district want to build a statue of Kazik?
We will in time acknowledge the merits of other researchers and scientists involved with the My Son Sanctuary. But first of all, we have decided to build the statue of architect Kazik because his contribution was the latest and greatest, though his research and restoration viewpoint was not understood thoroughly sometimes. Time has passed and his research is still highly appreciated and his career is being followed by his two children.
What was the greatest contribution of Kazik to the My Son Sanctuary, in your opinion?
At that time, Vietnamese experts were inexperienced in the restoration of historical and cultural relics, especially works made of terra-cotta and stone like Cham towers. Kazik seriously obeyed the internationally-recognised rules in the restoration of My Son Sanctuary: Preserving the original relics and original elements, not making changes to relics, using technical consolidation measures to maintain the actual state, restoring piece by piece based on solid scientific foundations.
Based on this principle of restoration, towers in My Son Sanctuary were rescued and restored part by part while their characteristics and values were preserved.
Carefully observing the relics, one can see besides original elements which were consolidated and emphasised, there are elements made by restorers to prevent the relics from collapsing. As a world-recognised scientist and an architect, Kazik always thought very carefully and consulted with his colleagues before touching relics. He considered My Son like a special “patient”, a “patient of the past who will never return”.
Working in My Son, he was not discouraged by bombs and mines, hardships and the shortage of capital for restoration. He appeared in the wild My Son forest and mountains every dry season to restore the buried beauty. Eight members of his group died in My Son because of explosives, diseases, etc. In 1991, the Vietnam-Poland Cultural Agreement expired, the final legal and financial support for Kazik evaporated, but he called for funding himself to continue the restoration project. At the hardest moment, he said: “I can suffer anything, provided that I can live for the towers”.
Kazik’s contribution to My Son Sanctuary is great. Is it too late to build his statue now?
When architect Kazik passed away, not only the authorities of Duy Xuyen district but his friends and colleagues wished to build a symbolic tomb and statue in My Son. However, the general plan for the My Son area was not approved until December 30, 2008, and now that we have this plan, we can build his statue.
The one who will sculpt the Kazik statue is sculptor Pham Hong, who made the memorial relief of architect Kazik in Hoi An in 2005. Are you afraid the works will be similar?
The new work will also be a half-length statue but it will depict architect Kazik when he first arrived at My Son (1980s), not in the last year of his life like the relief in Hoi An.
Another difference is the material. We will use monolithic rock, perhaps sandstone from My Son. We suggested that the sculptor add some features of Cham culture into this work. One of the suggestions is placing a Cham tower relief behind the statue so visitors can differentiate that this is Kazik of My Son, not Kazik of Hoi An.
Underneath the statue we will not carve his biography like on the one in Hoi An, but a statement of his about My Son: “Ancient Champa people conveyed their soul in stone, soil. They worked with nature to create an inaccessible, magnificent and grandiose My Son. This is an invaluable museum of sculpture, architecture, art of humankind that we can’t understand thoroughly yet.”
That was a short, succinct and most beautiful speech by architect Kazik for My Son.
When will the work be completed?
The construction will be kicked off in June 2009, on the occasion of the Quang Nam – Itinerary of Heritage 2009, and the work is scheduled for inauguration on December 4, 2009 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of My Son Sanctuary as a world cultural heritage.
When I die, please bury me at My Son: architect Kazik
In the 1980s, both Vietnam and Poland faced great difficulties. Of around 10,000 staff members of Poland’s famous Union of National Relic Restoration Enterprises at that time, only one dared to volunteer to come to Vietnam to restore relics in this far country. That person was architect Kazimierz Kwiatkowski. He lived in Vietnam for 17 years and considered Vietnam his second home.
After French experts’ efforts, typically H. Permentier, in researching and preserving Cham towers before 1945, architect Kazik and his Polish and Vietnamese co-workers conducted a systematic and comprehensive research work of almost all the Cham relics after several decades of war and ruin. The work is invaluable for science and for the future.
When he worked in My Son, Kazik several times said: “When I die, please bury me in My Son. I live as a citizen of My Son, and when I die, I will live with My Son’s worms and crickets.”
But when he passed away in the central city of Hue (March 19, 2007), his remains were brought back to his home country, Poland, in a zinc coffin. Quang Nam people can only show their gratitude to him with reliefs and statues.