The Japanese Society for Aesthetics

Aesthetics No.16 (2012): 25-35

The Role of Art in the 21st Century:
Polish Contemporary Art
KASUYA Akiko

Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto

1. Introduction - the conditions and role of art in the 21st century
In this essay, I would like to explore the relationship between art, society, and politics. I
would especially like to focus on Mirosław Bałka, Artur Żmijewski and Zbigniew Libera whohave consistently produced work with a close connection to the social conditions in Poland
from the thawing of the Cold War to the present-day post-revolutionary period. What role does
art play in society, and what role is it expected to play? Here are a few suggestions regarding
the conditions and role of art in the 21st century.

2. The socialist resume in Poland after the end of World War II until 80s
The socialist resume that assumed power in Poland at the end of World War II can be
broken down into four periods: the Stalinist era (1948-55; Secretary General Bolesław Bierut),
the Reform and Reorganization era (1956-1970; First Secretary Władysław Gomułka), theOpening to the Outside World era (1970-80, Edward Gierek), and the Solidarity and Martial
Law era (1980-89; First Secretary Wojciech Jaruzelski). During the Stalinist era in particular,
ideology exerted a strong influence on Polish society. In 1947 and 1948, socialist realism
became compulsory in art and culture. In January of 1949, the Polish Writers’ Union resolved
to “make socialist realism the sole creative form,” and in June of that year, socialist realism wasalso officially adopted in the art world in an effort to further artistic research and develop in the“correct” manner. Art academies and schools were also expected to provide education based on
this policy[1].
Deeply dissatisfied with socialist realism, young Polish artists, who were educated in color
schemes that first became prominent before the war, struggled to find their own method of
expression. They organized independent study groups and devoted themselves to the works
and theories of Władysław Strzemiński (1893-1952), an avant-garde artist who was active
internationally between the two world wars. Along with Strzemiński’s book Unism in Painting,published in 1928, his Theory of Vision, a collection of his lectures that was posthumously
assembled by his students in 1958, was hugely influential.
Following Stalin’s death, Khrushchev assumed power of the Soviet Union in 1955, and thefollowing year, his criticism of Stalin led to a loosening of censorship laws, which allowed acertain amount of news from the West to enter Poland. In public places, realism was still the
only permissible form of expression, but toward the end of the 1960s, geometric abstractions
grew popular.

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KASUYA Akiko

Exhibitions in private spaces, such as small galleries, people’s apartments, and universities
became widespread, and anti-government events were also frequently held in these places.
Friends and acquaintances would gather for an opening through word of mouth, and often aguerilla-like approach was used to remove the works before the police arrived. And as the
Catholic Church was anti-communist, it provided a shelter for underground culture.
In the 70s and 80s, happenings and performances became more common. While theimposition of martial law in 1981 led to strict censorship, the Solidarity movement gained
momentum, and the push for freedom and liberalization grew stronger. While some artists
continued working in Poland, others left the country and settled (sought asylum) in the West.
Wojciech Fangor defected to the U.S. in 1966 (he returned to Poland in 1999 and continues towork in the suburbs of Warsaw), Roman Opałka is based in France, and the U.S.-based media
artist Krzysztof Wodiczko relocated to the West after graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts
in Warsaw. Wodiczko is widely remembered as the Polish representative at the 2009 Venice
Biennale. He focuses on minorities and attempts to give them a voice through his work. In
addition to works in which he projects images of the socially disadvantaged on publicmonuments, Wodiczko has recently created a series of dynamic indoor video installations.

3. Post-revolutionary period; Mirosław Bałka
Though somewhat restricted, in June 1989, the first free election to be held in the Eastern
Bloc took place in Poland. The Lech Wałęsa-led Solidarity Party won a landslide victory. This inturn led to the formation of a coalition government between the Labor and other parties, therevision of the constitution, a change in the officialname of the country (from the People’s Republic of
Poland to the Republic of Poland), and the introduction of a direct presidential election system. The
following year, the first president, Wałęsa, waschosen by the people and the government wascompletely transformed. This was an epoch-making
event and the socio-economic structure of thecountry underwent a dramatic change. As Poland
entered this tumultuous period, artists were also
directly affected and had no choice but to react. A
few years ago I examined this situation in a special
exhibition titled “Positioning – In the New Realityof Europe: Art from Poland, the Czech Republic,
Slovakia and Hungary”[2]. In that event, I focused

Fig.1 Mirosław Bałka, Remembranceof the First Holy Communion, 1985,
coll. Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi, Poland

on the extent to which each artist had accepted andreacted to this 180-degree shift, and further, thechanges that occurred in the country’s politicoeconomic status after Poland joined the EU in 2004.
Faced with the arrival of sudden freedom and a

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27

multitude of choices, some artists reacted with cynicism, while others resisted the notion of
dog-eat-dog economics and focused on the weaker elements of society by reexamining therights of minorities. Still others created work that dealt with the theme of memory and thescars of World War II, and the cycle of conflicts that arose throughout the world in its wake.
Mirosław Bałka (b. 1958), who began making figurative, three-dimensional work at the end of
the 80s, displayed a significant change in style in the 90s. Bałka, who made his debut with aplaster figure of a young boy receiving holy communion titled Remembrance of the First Holy
Communion [Fig.1] in 1985, had turned his hand to austere sculptural works using familiar
materials such as steel, cement, ash, soap and wood by the end of the decade, but in recent
years, a large percentage of his work involves video.
As with Bałka’s three-dimensional pieces, these later works make use of a simple
expression rooted in the ordinary and familiar which is loaded with ambiguous meaning andinspires the viewer to imagine another form.
Many of Bałka’s video works are extremely
simple and repeat over a short cycle of time,
giving this detached instant a symbolic quality.
Perhaps due to their simplicity, the works areimbued with strong symbolism and have theeffect of clearly stating the artist’s intention.
A notable example of this is Primitive (2008)[Fig.2], shown on a small monitor placed just in
front of the entrance to his solo exhibition,“Jetzt,” in Wrocław in 2008. This work, consisting only of a few-second-long, continuously
Fig.2 Mirosław Bałka, Primitive, 2008
repeating video, was taken from Claude the film
documents Lanzmann’s asks a variety of people directly involved or connected with these
events about their memories. These include the following exchange between the director andFranz Suchomel, a former SS officer who worked at the Treblinka concentration camp, in
Germany in 1970:
Suchomel: I’ll give you my definition. Keep this in mind! Treblinka was a primitive but
effective production line of death. Understand?
Lanzmann: Yes. But primitive?
Suchomel: Primitive, yes. But it worked well, that production line of death.
The scene was shot with a hidden camera and the quality of the film is rough. Suchomel’s
face looks unclear and it’s difficult to interpret his expression. The poor quality of the image
and the occasional interruptions of noise somehow remind the viewer of early video art works
and add emphasis to the horrible and vivid content of the conversation. Bałka has only taken asingle scene from the interview, and moreover, the segment was videotaped from Polish TV.
This has caused a further deterioration in quality, giving Suchomel’s face an even rougher

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KASUYA Akiko

appearance and creating the impression of an indistinct apparition. What remains audible in
the rough, horrible image are Suchomel words, “Primitive, yes.” – this single phrase is repeatedendlessly. Although the meaning of this alone, detached as it is from the original context, isunclear, there is a foreboding sense of something threatening, a terrible sensation of somethingunspeakably sinister. It’s as if the abstract concept of evil is being presented in a concrete form,
and as this exhibition’s organizer Piotr Krajewski writes, “...a glint of evil is captured,digitalized, and looped into infinity(Krajewski 2008).”
On a monitor outside the exhibition is Audi HBE F114 (2008) [Fig.3]. This is Bałka’s firstwork to make use of a slideshow of still images. The format is one we’re familiar with fromcomputers. Pope Benedict XVI ‘s (the German-born head of the Catholic church who waselected on April 19, 2005 pope as the successor to the Polish-born John Paul II) visit to the siteof the Auschwitz concentration camp was widely covered on Polish TV. Bałka photographed
these reports and created a slideshow out of 20 such still images. The Pope rides in a solemn
black car, and is surrounded by a group of guards dressed in black suits. The scene is aoverwrought spectacle. As the car approaches, it is shown in close-up and the logo on the front
becomes clearly visible: It’s an Audi. The“HBE” on the license plate signifies that
this is a police vehicle and also reminds theviewer of the Latin phrase, “Habemus
Papum!” (“We have a Pope!” – the declaration used to announce that a new pope has
been selected.) Audi is a German automobile manufacturer, but August Horchfounded the Horch company in 1901,
changing the name of the firm and the car
to Audi in 1910, and with the exception of abrief interruption during World War II,
the company has continued to manufacture cars ever since. In the 21st century, this same company transported the German pope
Fig.3

Mirosław Bałka, Audi HBE F114, 2008

through the barracks at a German Nazi camp on the Polish land. There’s no sign of people
anywhere – just a group of rugged-looking guards surrounding the car. Although the site wasonce populated with large groups of prisoners, it now looks empty and cloaked in silence. So
what is the Pope being protected from? The ghosts of the prisoners perhaps? The excess of
security and ostentatious spectacle are coupled with the heart-wrenching silence of Auschwitz
to create a peculiar sensation or cynical impression in this repeating cycle of straight-foward
still images.
After entering the exhibition, the viewer finds five works using projections scatteredaround the space that seem to be part of a single installation. The first one, DB (2008) [Fig.4],
consists of a projection on a white sponge placed on the floor. The sponge is a substitute for ascreen, giving the video image a sense of materiality and presence. The image is of a Euro-sizedpallet, but a light is also blinking underneath it. Shot in the artist’s atelier, the logo of theGerman railroad, “DB” (Deutsche Bahn) is branded on the surface of the pallet (though it’s

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Fig.4

Mirosław Bałka, DB, 2008

29

Fig.5 Mirosław Bałka, I Knew It Had 4 in
It, 2008

difficult to clearly detect this in the video). The viewer’s eyes are dazzled by the bright, blinking
light and the blurred image seems like a vague memory (that you can’t forget even if you tried!).
On the wall next to this is I Knew It Had 4 in It (2008) [Fig.5]. With Sun Ra’s “All ofEverything” playing in the background, the video goes in and out of focus as the number four
grows bigger and smaller, and nearer and farther in a work that is once again derived from
Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah. In the film, Lanzmann interviews the wife of a former teacher at a
German school in Chełmno who, when asked about the number of Jewish people who werevictims of the Holocaust, says, “Well, how many were there? I’m sure it had a four in it.
400,000? 40,000?” Lanzmann repeats “400,000,” and the woman replies,” Yes, I knew it was anumber that started with a four.” The viewer’s sense of fear is strengthened by the divergence
between the woman’s memory and the sobering number of victims, and her breezy manner of
speaking as she tries to recall the exact figure – her initially innocent-seeming guise gives way
to a sense of clear brutality.
In the rear of the exhibition room, Sundays kill more (2008) is projected from a highposition near the ceiling. Amid the images of a violent storm, intense wind and rain, occasionalbolts of lightning, and terrible din, one hears the voice of Charles Bukowski reciting his poem
“Sundays kill more men than bombs.” Bukowski, born in 1920 to a German father and PolishGerman mother, moved with his family to the U.S. in 1923. (He died in 1994.) The tone of thepoet’s low, robust voice and poem coupled with the sound and images of the storm fill theentire venue with a sense of disquiet. Like a somber ceremony, the repetition of his simple
words gradually takes on a magical air, and the work seems like a eulogy, with all of the sorrowand pain that go along with it.
Each of the works is related to the others and the entire display contains a loose coherenceof meaning. As the sound that accompanies the various works is combined (music, recitation,
noise of the storm and machines) with the flashing light in the dusky venue and general tumult,one has the sense that intense stimulation has been carefully avoided and restrained, and one
is lingering in a state of twilight. Along with the rough sense of the materials in the sound andimages, a strong physical presence is created, and while a variety of poetic and imagistic
quotations are used, memories of historical crimes are evoked and by locating these in a

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KASUYA Akiko

contemporary context, both true “evil” and common vulgarity are manifested. This seems to bea kind of omen for our chaotic age – and also corresponds to the Paul Celan poem. The title andmotto for the exhibition are based on Paul Celan’s poem, “Jetzt,” published in his final book,
Lichtzwang (1970). Bałka never makes direct reference to tragedy or sets out to produce bitter
silence. Rather, his work is an extension of daily life that uses familiar imagery and often
involves the repetition of a simple scene. Freud defined “the uncanny” as “something which issecretly familiar which has undergone repression and then returned from it,” and related it to
the “fear of being returned to things that were once familiar and ‘homely’(Freud, 1919/2005,
p.259)“. In Bałka’s works, this is exactly what the viewer experiences – the sudden transformation of something deeply familiar and of everyday experience. As personal memory is linked tocollective memory, the mourning rite proceeds. To Bałka, the past is “something that can betouched with the hand,” and is conveyed to the present by means of this physicality.
Prior to this solo exhibition, two of Bałka’s video works were included in the “Still/Motion”
exhibition[4], which considered the relationship between video and painting, and was held atthree locations in Japan. These works were BlueGasEyes (2004) and The Wall (2006) [Fig.6]. In
the former, a steel frame filled with salt isarranged on the floor and used like ascreen for the video, which is projected
downward from the ceiling. The projected
images are blue gas flames which, because
they are lined up in a pair, look like blues
eyes. The video, which seems to have been
shot with a handheld, home video camera,
shakes slightly and by being projected on
the crystals of white salt, evokes a strange
quality that couldn’t have been realizedwith a regular screen. The quiet sound of
Fig.6 Mirosław Bałka, BlueGasEyes, 2004/
the gas burning reverberates through theMirosław Bałka, The Wall, 2006
venue and occasionally the viewer can hear
the click-click of the burner being turned on, and from outside, the sounds of wind whispering
through the trees and small birds chirping. At first glance, it seems to be a tranquil, “aesthetic”
installation. Along with its literal meaning, the title suggests the “blue eyes” that along withblonde hair are one of the standard physical characteristics of the Aryan race, and are
frequently regarded as a symbol of beauty. But inserting the word “gas” in the middle of thephrase calls up the gruesome history of the Nazis’ mass execution of Jews in gas chambers
during World War II. Salt, a common material in Bałka’s work, represents physical traces suchas sweat, tears, and other bodily fluids, and a large quantity of salt suggests an ominous event.
In the light of the projector, the salt crystals sparkle, eliciting a beauty that tempts the viewer
into inadvertently trying to touch them. (In fact, regardless of appeals from the staff to refrainfrom touching the work, viewers frequently insert their fingers or feet, making it necessary toconstantly “restore the screen.”) On the other hand, there is a truly eerie sensation that appears
out of nowhere and the presence of something evil threatening to leap out. The Wall is a

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31

temporary wall, on which a video image of a wall is projected. This also seems to have been
shot with a handheld, home video camera using only natural light, and due to the slow shakingof the wall and the weather outside, the contrast in the image gradually changes. As the viewer
gazes at the work, the image slips out of focus, inviting us into a state of silence and meditation.
While projecting a moving image on the surface of a three-dimensional object andincorporating the element of time, this video work, which is perhaps closer to a liquid-crystal
sculpture rather than a liquid-crystal painting, undermines the qualifications of “here and now”
and spirits the viewer off to another place. Like a dream that one sees for a fleeting moment,time expands and contracts, making it unclear whether an expanse of time has passed or
merely an instant. As a quiet witness to this peculiar experience, the blue eyes continue towaver, and the video image of the “wall,” which demarcates a border that blocks the way toanother dimension, continues to shimmer.

4. Some attempts to influence society through art; Artur Żmijewski and Zbigniew Libera
By contrast, the works of Artur Żmijewski (b. 1966), who was a student at the Academy ofFine Arts in Warsaw at the time Poland underwent democratization, take an unflinching lookat social problems and attempt to participate in the political debate. In his early photographic
work An Eye for an Eye (1998) [Fig.7] people burdened with some kind of physical disability aretransformed into magnificent photographic subjects, gazing out directly at the viewer. As withthe video work The Singing Lesson 1 (2001) [Fig.8], which depicts a group of deaf students
singing the Kyrie in a church, Żmijewski’s powerful, humorous works set out to overturnprejudiced and stereotypical views of disabled people.
Them (2007) [Fig.9], is a significant and highly-acclaimed work that was first shown atDocumenta 12 in Kassel in 2007. To create it, Żmijewski conducted a workshop for a variety, or
more precisely, a number of completely different groups with diametrically opposed viewpoints,
including conservatives, Catholics, nationalists, members of the Polish Jewish Youth
Organization, and socialists. The results were captured on video and turned into this work. The

Fig.7 Artur Żmijewski, An Eye for an Eye,1998

Fig.8 Artur Żmijewski, The Singing
Lesson 1, 2001

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Fig. 9KASUYA Akiko

Artur Żmijewski, Them, 2007

session proceeds in a pleasant and polite fashion at the outset, but gradually the participants
lose their control, and become enraged, as thediscussion erupts into a quarrel and the calm
gives way to threats and intimations of violence.
The process is comical and at the same time,
one is struck by the idea that they are watching
an archetype of the conflicts that are currently
underway all over the world. In the final
segment, in which the picture catches fire andburns up as it overlaps with images of riots andconflict, laughter changes to fear and silence
overtakes the scene.
In his creative activities, Żmijewski attempts to form a link with the real world andbring about actual results. He says, “If I can’t
really influence society through art, why makeit?” Żmijewski also sees the widespread viewthat “art provides questions not answers” as away of avoiding the issue through “camouflage[5].” Even if autonomy is a desirous

quality for art, artists have an obligation toremain active according to the same criteria as
Fig.10 Artur Żmijewski, Democracies, 2009
the wider society.
In the past, Żmijewski has focused on minorities, and created photographic and video
works that demolish the viewer’s fixed notions. In recent years, however, he has become
increasingly active in society, and while joining the Krytyka Polityczna (Political Critique)organization, which is involved in politics and publishing, engages in direct intervention. The
work Democracies (2009) [Fig.10], consisting of images of various political demonstrations,documents the participants assembling in public spaces and making statements. Through theuse of people with completely different beliefs and backgrounds, the work reexamines theconcept of democracy.
Finally, I’d like to touch on the work ofZbigniew Libera (b. 1959). Also involved inphotography and video, as well as installations
which make use of a variety of objects, Libera isparticularly notable for the inclusion of politicalintent in his work, and controversial attempts
to make incisive statements against stereotypes
in contemporary culture. For example, his Lego
Concentration Camp (1996) [Fig.11] series,
created with Lego blocks, reproduces scenes

Fig.11 Zbigniew Libera,
Lego Concentration Camp, 1996

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33

from a concentration camp with a kit that is designed as a child’s toy. In addition, the work is
displayed to make it seem as if it is for sale as a packed product. While actually facing various
problems, including legal action by the Lego Corporation, Libera has refused to alter his
approach, and if anything has become even more radical.
In recent years, Libera has made many works with news photographs which he alters to
represent contemporary situations. These include the noted cameraman Nick Ut’s Pulitzer
Prize-winning photograph of a young
Vietnamese girl running from the scene ofa napalm attack by the U.S. army as she
screams with pain and fear (an image
which helped the anti-war movement gain
momentum in the 1970s). Libera, however,has changed this into a “positive” image,and replaced the Vietnamese girl with asmiling, nude European woman in a workthat calls up memories of the earlier image
but also functions to question the current
state of the world [Fig.12]. Other examples

Fig.12

Zbigniew Libera, Nepal, 2003,

include altering a photo of a group of
from the series Positives
Jewish people facing the camera just after
being released from a World War II concentration camp to give them happy expressions, animage of Che Guevara, and a copy of a picture foreign troops in Iraq (Poland assented to theAmerican request to provide military aid in that conflict).

5. In Conclusion - Art can help us share the pain of being
All of these works attempt to consciously deal with the socio-political structure, but indoing so, seem to transcend regular global standards (and contradictions). For example,Żmijewski describes himself as a “manipulator” and a “con man,” and while disturbing people
at times in his role as a trickster and destabilizing reality, views his expressive activities as akind of political diplomacy[6]. In our chaotic society, which is prone to a variety of moral
hazards, these works have been highly acclaimed for its invaluable contributions. Art has thepower to capture our fundamental tendency toward introspection, and even in today’s society,helps us discover what is truly important and continue to make an effort to convey these things
to others in the future. And moreover, as Bałka told, art can help us share the pain of being.

Notes
[1]
[2]

cf. Kępińska, 1981
“Positioning – In the New Reality of Europe: Art from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia andHungary”. The National Museum of Art, Osaka/Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art/

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KASUYA Akiko

Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2005-2006
Shoah, a French Documentary film 565 min. directed by Claude Lanzmann, 1985
“Still/Motion: Liquid Crystal Painting”, Mie Prefectural Art Museum/ The National Museum ofArt, Osaka/ Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, 2008
[5] 'Interview by Sebastian Cichocki' Art Forum April 2009, p.158[6] “Wagarując,” Artur Żmijewski, from the meeting with Artur Żmijewski, organized by Centrum
Sztuki Współczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski in the series of „Moja historia sztuki“. 2 April, 2008:
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This paper is based on my speech at The 18th International Congress of Aesthetics, Diversities in
Aesthetics, Beijing, China, 13 08 2010