WARSAW, Poland (AP) – An exhibition at a Polish state museum that opened on Friday features works by provocative artists in what organizers describe as a celebration of freedom of expression and a challenge to political correctness and ” cancel the culture “of the political left.
Some critics, however, accuse the organizers of providing a platform for anti-Semitic and racist messages with the pretense of defending freedom of expression.
“Political Art,” which includes works by about 30 artists, is the second exhibition at the Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art, led by director Piotr Bernatowicz, who was appointed by the ruling Polish populist conservative party in 2019.
Since coming to power in 2015, the Law and Justice party has taken advantage of the country’s cultural institutions on a mission to promote conservative and patriotic values, including the art center located in a rebuilt castle that has shown experimental art and avant-garde in Warsaw for 30 years.
The museum claims that the “Political Art” exhibition offers a space for rebellious artists who sometimes shy away elsewhere. The exhibition includes critical work with the authoritarian regimes of Russia and Belarus, works by Iranian and Yemeni women who criticize the oppression of the Muslim world, and others who use swastikas or symbols rooted in the Holocaust in a seemingly ironic way.
The most controversial person included is Dan Park, a Swedish provocateur who has been jailed for hate crimes in Sweden. In 2009, Park placed swastikas and boxes labeled “Zyklon B,” the gas used in the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust, in front of a Jewish community center in Malmö.
A demonstration took place outside the museum when visitors arrived at the opening, with protesters facing Park and a large banner saying, “State promotion of fascism.”
The Jewish community in Poland strongly protested the inclusion of Park. In an open letter to the museum director, rabbis and other Jewish representatives argued that the promotion of these artists offended all people in a country where 6 million Polish citizens, half of whom were Jews, were killed during the Second World War. World War.
“Free speech is essential for a democratic society, but free speech still has limits,” said Poland’s chief rabbi Michael Schudrich.
At a press conference on Friday, the director, Bernatowicz, said he could understand the position of Jewish organizations, acknowledging that some of the work is provocative and controversial. But he said Jewish representatives should see the exhibition before criticizing it.
“I’m not creating a platform that propagates any kind of Nazi or neo-Nazi vision,” Bernatowicz said. “I’m creating a platform to express art.”
Several artists at the press conference said they received emails from anti-fascists the day before, warning them that far-right artists were showing works.
Some said they were not worried about this message, including Emma Elliott, an anti-fascist artist whose works explore how women are often the first targets of fascist regimes. But she and the others present, including two Jewish artists, defended the exhibition as an important platform for different voices.
“Yes, I find some of the images here not only disturbing but offensive,” said Marc Provisor, an Israeli artist. “But I think it’s important that the writers of these letters face (and) what bothers him.”
Separately, an anti-fascist network in Poland he also condemned “attempts to use Polish artistic institutions to platform artists infamous for their neo-Nazi sympathies.”
Among Park’s works on display in Warsaw is a poster featuring Anders Behring Breivik, the right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in twin attacks in Norway, as an alleged model for the clothing brand Lacoste.
Another provocateur is Uwe Max Jensen, a Danish artist who performed at the inauguration on Friday in which he waved a Confederate flag, undressed, painted his body black with the help of another artist and he crawled to the ground as he repeated the words. “I can not breathe!” These were the last words uttered by George Floyd, the black man the murder of a police officer triggered a racial calculation in the United States.
Protesters surrounded him shouting “fascists!”
The exhibition also includes works by Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist who lives under police protection to make a drawing of a dog with the head of the Prophet Muhammad. The draw upset many Muslims in 2007 and led to death threats from extremists.
Prior to the opening, a Yemeni-British artist who has also received death threats for works criticizing Islam, Tasleem Mulhall, first met with Vilks. When she found out about his background, she hugged him and told him she admired him.
Also included in “Political Art” is a wall of photos of Ugandans holding identities. It is part of a project by Danish conceptual artist Kristian von Hornsleth, who convinced 340 Ugandan villagers in 2006 to legally change their name to Hornsleth in exchange for pigs and goats.
Hornsleth, the artist who helped apply the black pain to Jensen’s body, said the work was a critical commentary on the inability of Western development aid to help people in Africa, but some went consider his work to be racist.
Co-curator Jon Eirik Lundberg, a Norwegian who runs the Laesoe Kunsthal gallery in Denmark, denied that the show promotes racism and said its aim is to fight for freedom of expression in defense of democracy.
“The best way to protect any minority is to make sure there is freedom of speech,” he said.
Hornsleth, the artist who photographed Ugandan villagers, said: “Even if this show was right-wing and crazy, it should be allowed because it’s art. But it’s not, it’s really about creating a space where anyone can disagree on anything. “
“Political Art” runs until January 16th.