Creator and the legendary leader of the Orange Alternative
Chief ideologist of the movement
 Major Fydrych with Presidents of Poland, Georgia, Moldovia, Lithuania and Deputy Prime-Minister of Ukraine Schuman Parade in Warsaw, May 2004 (click on the image to see it larger scale) |
 Major Fydrych with the Ukrainian President Yushchenko signing the Orange Treaty of Friendship on April 12th 2005 at the University of Warsaw during Yushchenko's first official visit to Poland. (click on the image to see it larger scale) |
Waldemar "Major" Fydrych, born on April 8th 1953, is a graduate of History and History of Art at the University of Wroclaw. He has been recognized worldwide for his numerous cultural actions and publications. Fydrych began his independent public activity in nineteen seventies. Following August 80 events, he launched in Wroclaw the Movement for New Culture. Finally, in 1981, he created Orange Alternative.
During the Martial Law, Poles have made acquaintance with Waldemar Fydrych’s work through his picturesque dwarf images painted on building walls (over the paint spots covering anti-regime slogans). Starting in 1986, he began organizing an endless chain of happenings - over sixty in the period 1986-2005, which became known under the name of “Orange Alternative”.
 Major Fydrych at the Wroc³aw University - 1981 (click on the image to see it larger scale) |
 Major Fydrych during the first student strike - Wroc³aw, 1981 (click on the image to see it larger scale) |
It is precisely for this work, that he was honoured subsequently by numerous awards : in 1988 he received the Solidarity Award of Puls in London and of Polkul in Australia. The regional bureau of the Ministry of Interior Affairs had kept a tight watch on Waldemar Major Fydrych and his activity. In March 1988, having distributed on the street women’s hygienic napkins (an item greatly missing in those days) he was arrested and sentenced by the Court of Justice to three months of inprisonment, from which he was released following general public uproar.
A controversial man - loved, hated and admired, Waldemar Major Fydrych has never lacked in fantasy nor imagination. Since very early, he manifested a strong taste for mistification. At the time of the communist regime, when called upon to fulfill his military service obligation, he appeared before the army commission dressed in a uniform of a major. Though unwilling to enter the army, quite on the opposite - he pretended to be very eager to enter the service, simulating madness. When asked to keep a deferent language when speaking to his superiors, Waldemar began to address his interlocutor per “colonel”, at the same time describing himself as a “major”…. A nickname, which remained with him ever since.
Copyright (c) 2004- La Papesse
