The Grande Place at Night, 2020
acrylic on canvas, 130 × 100 cm

“Once more we all meet at 2.00 at the Square – Brussels Convention Centre. We sign the declaration calling the European University of the Seas – SEA EU into being. A conference begins on European universities. Thousands of participants, and three times we hear: Gdańsk, Solidarity, and SEA EU.

We finish at 7.30 in the evening. Jan has gone off to get to know fellow students from other countries. I go back with Piotr to the hotel for our luggage and then go on to another one. We look for the way. We get lost. I’ve no internet connection in my telephone, and Piotr’s battery is fading. Piotr demonstrates Stoic calm. Intuitively, we turn right. And suddenly it’s as if I was looking at a mountain of diamonds. We stand in the very centre of the great illuminated square. The Grande Place, out of which lead seven streets. That’s how I saw it the first time. In the evening when the buildings are splendidly lit up.

And I was speechless with admiration.

Come on. We’ll come back another time, I hear.”

SEA EU Maritime Universities
in the Paintings of Aneta Oniszczuk-Jastrząbek, Gdańsk 2022