[spectre] Open letter re: conviction of Dorota Nieznalska

[Andreas Broeckmann]

[we had to omit the attachments from this post, but the images can be
viewed online at http://www.spam.art.pl/nieznalska/ ; -a]



Dear Friends and collegues,

art in Poland is facing a lot of pressures and attempts of censorship
by public, cleric and corporate bodies. But the court case against
Dorota Nieznalska is extremely dangerous as it sets up a precedent of
consoring art and artists by courts.

I strongly urge you to sign this letter or just say that you agree to
add your name to the list -  and send it back to
<mailto:wyspa_mode at wp.pl>wyspa_mode at wp.pl .

With best regards,

Piotr Rypson


Dear Friends,
below you will find the description of the court case against artist
Nieznalska and a reproduction of the piece - so you can get a closer
picture of what happened.
best regards,
dr Piotr Rypson
mindworx Polska
tel. (+4822) 828 86 51
fax (+4822) 826 36 36
www.mindworx.com.pl
www.e-akademia.pl
www.e-dukacja.com.pl

----- Original Message -----

From: Aneta Szy"ak
To: Piotr Rypson
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2003 1:35 PM
Subject: Wysy"anie wiadomo¶ci e-mail: Pasja Nieznalska
Below is the desciption of her work and the context of conflict. It
is the fragment of my text just published in n.paradoxa. A week ago
Nieznalska was sentenced guilty of the violence of the religious
feelings. The charge is 6 months of limited freedom (she won't be
able to travel outside of Gdansk) and has to work for some charity
organization. We has to cover the entire cost of the lawsuit. She
does not have any money to do so. The are trying to defend her due to
the civic consitutional rights, such as freedom of speech and the
freedom of the artistic expression. Attached is the image of the
work. More information you can find at www.hysterics.art.pl or
www.spam.art.pl/Nieznalska . Please do not hesitate to contact us if
you have any questions.
Best regards,
Aneta Szylak
curator
Gdansk
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nieznalska who exhibited her new work Passion (2001) at the Wyspa
Gallery in Gdansk was accused for the violence of religious feelings
and recently is having a lawsuit with the right wing nationalist
party called the Polish Families, League that brought the charge to a
public prosecutor. The party and its youth called Mlodziez
Wszechpolska (All-Poland Youth) announced a countrywide crusade
against the art targeting the religious symbols and chasing not only
the artists, but also everyone who is carrying the mark of the Other.
But what really happened? The installation Passion consists of two
elements: the object in for of the Greek cross made of metal,
suspended from the ceiling, and covered in its front by the color
photo of men’s tights, hips and genitals. The cross is exposed on the
silent, single channel video projection of the face of the man
lifting weights in the background. Filmed overhead, he shows to the
spectator only his head and shoulders. We can see the grimace of
torment on his face. It would be hard to realized without written
information, what this person is doing at the moment – the feeling of
torment may come from some other kind of activity.
Since her study time Nieznalska for years has been interested in the
cultural model of masculinity and the impact of Catholic religion in
implementing this phenomenon She explored from the gendered
perspective the Biblical myths of Adam and the original sin in Vitium
Originis and Absolution (1999), discussed the control over the body
in contemporary consumerist culture in Female and Omnipotence.
Gender: Male (2000), searched for antic models of masculine sexuality
in Potency and drawn the portrait of statistic rapist in Modus
Operandi (1998). The subversive power of her art lies down in
applying gender categories to Christian religion, observed here more
as cultural paradigm than system of belief. Nieznalska is
investigating the plots of control, discipline, guilt, punishment and
an unspoken pains and pleasures of victimization. As we can realize
from her works, she sees both women and men as the victims of
cultural taming, not even fully able to define the origins of torment
they willingly expose themselves to. She looks for the roots of it a
voluntary self-sacrifice in the basis of our civilization.
The charge in the court concerns the juxtaposition of the form of
cross the Polish Families League recuperates as only religious symbol
they want to protect with the representation of men’s genitals,
considered as an offense of religious feelings. The opponents of
Nieznalska, among them many women were arguing, that the woman should
not use a picture of men’s genitals, still one of the most forbidden
images. “Shame on you” they were screaming”. Some of them were very
caring: “I am sorry for you, you must be mentally ill”. In the
Internet discussion many activists of Mlodziez Wszechpolska,
including acting member of the City Council of Gdansk, suggested the
exemplary punishments that should be performed on the artists,
including shaving a head (like those who slept with the Nazis during
WW II) and a group rape. This shocking opinions sound familiar to
those who observe Polish art scene. In 1999 one conservative male
publicists also known as Christian mystical poet suggested, that
Katarzyna Kozyra should be punished by the public flogging and shut
down in prison. Although also male artists were strongly attacked
both by politicians and critics but only women were considered such
humiliating and sexually dependent way.