Profile of Excellence: Maciej K'rol & Projekt 14!

Maciej Krol 

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Frydlantsky turaj 2012

 There are multiple levels of Modern Medievalist interpretation that exists today. They vary from someone wearing a Celtic patterned pajama bottoms, with a bed sheet slit open, and used for a tabbard, to those who do not just wear period clothing... but for a brief period of time live it.

"Hard Core"-Meaning in the context of this article, someone or some organization that settles for nothing less than your best efforts.

Maciej Krol- Is a person I have just recently come to know. In the course of almost a week, we held a series of conversation via Private Message on Facebook; who to me exemplifies the very definition of "Hard Core." In the interview below, he tells of himself and his efforts in the Modern Medieval world.

Q: When did you get started doing living history/reenactment?
A: I got really involved in 2009.  I was lucky, a friend of mine was already involved in project Interregnum.
Interregnum was a project involved in specific period of time in Polish history, which was a civil war for a crown in 1382 to 1385-It gathered people of a high level of reenactment. People who were interested in history, not just playing knights.

Q: Where did you go from there?
A:Well Interregnum was a fine project, but soon appeared to be a bit tight for myself and some other people.
We suffer from very little number of good events, I thought that definitely there are people out there who might the same point of view as we had., that's why me and my close friend Aiuto aka Brahenogobius Xantozonus (whose real name is Michal Sosnowski) brought to life Projekt 14.

Brahenogobius Xantozonus
at
Frydlantsky turaj 2012.

Q: How do you see it organized like?
A:It's something like franchise, which means events my be organized by different people, clubs, organizations; but what want to achieve is, that when you hear about a Projekt 14 event, you know what to expect.

Q:So for those who do not know, what this might mean, can you tell us a bit more?
A: It is living history. So everything has to be proven. Be it armour, clothes characters or events. Armour and clothes don't need an explanation I think-It's pretty simple: find the source. If you are not sure-ask us we'll be gladly help you. Now the events, everything has to come from history. Which means if you want to organize an tournament, it cannot be a tournament. It has to be THE tournament-meaning it has to be a proven event. Not a hypothetical one.

Frydlantsky turaj 2012

(L-R)
Szymon Markowski, Josef Tyechlowicz Bares, Stanislave Armin Beran, 

Sebastian Karlsson, Kare Moller.

Q: How has the response been by the European reenactment community"
A:Till now we had two events by Projekt 14-Honor Vincit Omnia-last year and Calisia this year. Next season we are back with HVO and another event, both in Poland. But we have already been asked about conditions to meet to organize events in The Czech Republic and Spain.-We are glad to hear that it seems there are more crazy people like us in the world, people who are interested in living history-not just playing knights.

Honor Vincit Omnia 2011
(L to R)-
Michal Karpinski, Maciek Zapasnik, Maciej Krol, Massimiliano Simonetti

Lorifactor L. Lewandowski, Kamil Gryzmkowski and Pawel Skowronski.

Q:It is funny you ended your last statement by saying "not just playing knights." What do you mean?
A: A very important thing, most events are for knights, but knights were a very small part of the population. That's why we want our event to get all the people involved i.e. when we had the siege of Vilnius, civilians were there to throw stuff at the attackers from the walls. We try to get everyone involved.

Q: Some of my friends decided to become living history reenactors, it soon became almost an obsession. How has this affected you?
A: So I have found myself really into it. So silk and quite complex clothes and plenty of details, like silver coated spoons instead of wooden one, or glass instead of clay ect. This hobby is endless.

Q: If you could sum up your attitude on reenactment what would you say?
A: We want to have our events to be something different from what you might find everywhere. If you aim, aim high.

I would like to thank Mr. Krol for his time. Considering we were often dealing with a six hour time difference, familial duties on both sides of the connection, and trying to organize our thoughts into a common language. His efforts on my part are greatly appreciated.-Thank You.

Links to Maciej Krol on Facebook can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/maciej.krol.3538
Links to Projekt 14 can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Projekt-14/116824485052688

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