We are people by Galeria Labirynt

JESTEŚMY LUDŹMI WE ARE PEOPLE 24.06–11.10.2020

EXHIBITION PARTICIPANTS:

/ AGATA AWRUK

/ ALEX KIYASCHENKO

/ MARIUSZ TARKAWIAN

/ MIROSŁAW BAŁKA

/ PAWEŁ KORBUS

/ GRZEGORZ TOMCZYK

/ EDNA BAUD

/ JERZY KOSAŁKA

/ FILIP TUŁAK

/ ANATOLY BELOV

/ DANIEL KOTOWSKI

/ JULIANNA WIŃCZYK

/ PRZEMEK BRANAS

/ JAN KOWAL

/ KATARZYNA WÓJTOWICZ

/ KAROLINA BREGUŁA

/ GRZEGORZ KOZERA

/ BOŻNA WYDROWSKA

/ ANNA CHMIELNIK

/ KATARZYNA KOZYRA

/ KATARZYNA WYSZKOWSKA

/ IVAN DAVYDENKO

/ EWELINA KOŻUCHOWSKA

/ MONIQUE YIM

/ MICHAŁ DOBRUCKI

/ KORNEL LEŚNIAK

/ HUBERT ZNAJOMSKI

/ TOMASZ DOMAŃSKI

/ KRYSTIAN LIPIEC

/ PAWEŁ ŻUKOWSKI

/ MONIKA DROŻYŃSKA

/ JAROSŁAW MANKIEWICZ

/ EVA & ADELE

/ KRZYSZTOF MARCHLAK

/ SEAN FADER

/ RAFAŁ MILACH

/ LUDOMIR FRANCZAK

/ IZABELA MACIEJEWSKA

/ DANIIL GALKIN

/ PAWEŁ MATYSZEWSKI

/ MARTYNA GART

/ ANNA NAWROT

/ THE ARCHIVE OF PUBLIC PROTESTS (AGATA KUBIS, MARTA BOGDAŃSKA, KAROLINA SOBEL, ADAM LACH, CHRIS NIEDENTHAL, WOJTEK RADWAŃSKI, RAFAŁ MILACH)

/ GABRYŚ THE PRINCE

/ NO_PIC_NO_CHAT

/ GILBERT AND GEORGE

/ ANNA NOWAKOWSKA

/ WOJCIECH GILEWICZ

/ KRZYSIEK OLEKSIAK

/ ZHANNA GLADKO

/ AREK PASOŻYT

/ MIKOŁAJ GRABOWSKI

/ KATARZYNA PERLAK

/ IGOR GRUBIC

/ MAGDA PIEKARSKA

/ ŁUKASZ HORBÓW

/ LILIANA PISKORSKA

/ ALEKSANDRA IGNASIAK

/ KAROL RADZISZEWSKI

/ BARTOSZ JAKUBOWSKI

/ JÓZEF ROBAKOWSKI

/ ANNA JANKOJĆ

/ DANIEL RYCHARSKI

/ MARCIN JANUSZ

/ PREM SAHIB

/ MAR KACZMAREK × CURA

/ SERGEY SHABOHIN

/ NIKITA KADAN

/ KAROLINA SOBEL

/ KAMIL KAK

/ MAGDALENA SOBOLSKA

/ ANTON KARYUK

/ BART STASZEWSKI

/ ANASTASIA KASHTALIAN

/ PRZEMYSŁAW STEFANIAK

/ BARTEK KIEŁBOWICZ

/ ELWIRA SZTETNER

/ FILIP KIJOWSKI

/ WALDEMAR TATARCZUK FT. AGATA WIATR

/ MARTA BOGDAŃSKA, SARA HERECZYŃSKA, MARTA MALISZEWSKA / PAMELA BOŻEK, DANUTA MILEWSKA, KATARZYNA TUŻYLAK / GRUPA BERGAMOT (VOLHA MASLOUSKAYA, RAMAN TRATSIUK) / INDEPENDENT STUDENTS (JULIA ADAMSKA, MONIKA BRYK, JOANNA BURY, ROBERTO CURA, KAMIL DRUK, KRZYSZTOF FISCHER, WERONIKA GUENTHER, MARTA JABŁOŃSKA, MARTA KACZMAREK, SONIA KAŹMIERCZAK, JOANNA KLIKOWICZ, MATEUSZ KOWALCZYK, RAFAŁ KRUSZKA, ANNA NOWAKOWSKA, ANNA OLEJARCZYK, PAWEŁ OLEJNIK, KRZYSZTOF OLEKSIAK,

OSKAR PAWEŁKO, ZUZANNA PIETRUSZEWSKA, JULIA PODBORĄCZYŃSKA, ALEKSANDRA SIECZKO, KATARINA ŠIMEKOVÁ, NATALIA TRUSZCZYŃSKA, JULIANNA WIŃCZYK, WERONIKA ZALEWSKA) / MARTA JALOWSKA, EDKA JARZĄB, SEBASTIAN WINKLER / KEI MILLER, BARTOSZ WÓJCIK / PAWEŁ LESZKOWICZ I TOMASZ KITLIŃSKI / JACEK PONIEDZIAŁEK, PAWEŁ TOMASZEWSKI, ŁUKASZ KONIECZNY / MACIEJ PAŁKA, MACIEJ TUORA, JAKUB GAWRON / ALICJA SIENKIEWICZ, KAJA ZMYSŁOWSKA / SYRENY TV (EWA MAJEWSKA, ALEKA POLIS) / THAI FLOWERS (BARBARA GRYKA, FILIP KIJOWSKI) / WE WILL EAT YOUR CHILDREN. WITH ONION (DOROTA BATOR, GRZEGORZ GRECAS, ADA TABISZ, ROBERT TRACZYK, PIOTR ADAMCZYK, TOMASZ JEZNACH, MARTA BARTCZAK, KATARZYNA JANEK, ANKA KIECA, HUBERT FIEBIG, JANEK NIEMCZYK, PAWEŁ PACYNA, MAŁGORZATA POLAKOWSKA, KRZYSZTOF SATAŁA)

TO INCREASE EVIL, IT IS ENOUGH NOT TO SEE IT

Is it necessary to remind in the 21st century that a human being, regardless of origin, skin color, sex, sexual orientation or anything else, is still human? The answer to this question is no longer obvious when we hear from the president of the country the words “We are being persuaded that LGBTQ+ are people. But that’s just an ideology”, and from one of his staff members, “Let’s defend ourselves against the LGBT ideology and finish listening to these idiocies about some human rights or some equality. These people are not equal to normal people and let’s finally end this discussion”. The exhibition “We Are People” is a reaction to current events and related threats. When words that undermine the inherent equality of all people are uttered by leading politicians, and when they put a question mark where it should not be, it is difficult to remain indifferent. “Auschwitz did not fall from heaven,” recalled in his speech at Auschwitz Marian Turski, a historian, journalist and former concentration camp prisoner. It started with small, seemingly innocent steps, such as the ban on the use of benches. In this way, quietly, slowly, evil crept in its most monstrous form. A bench – it’s nothing important, you can pretend that nothing is happening and live on... Then there were swimming pools, shops, public places... We know the rest of this story. At present, we ignore many hateful statements, blaming them for raising the temperature of the public debate on the eve of the elections. When we do not protest, we get used to them, we accept their existence. “Monsters are real, but too few to be a real threat. Ordinary people are much more dangerous, officers ready to believe and act without asking questions,” wrote Primo Levi. Hannah Arendt wrote a treatise on the banality of evil. Her words are still relevant: “Evil is banal because one can overlook it, one may not think about it and one can multiply it endlessly, focusing attention on something else”.

Sylwia Hejno

/ Descriptions accompanying individual works were written by Sylwia Hejno, the artists or sent by them.

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AGATA AWRUK WHO IS THE FIRST TO THROW A STONE VIDEO, 4:17 Music: Drowning in dreams, Ed Harcourt

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While Agata Awruk’s photographs are most often a de-dramatised journey through everyday life and contemplation of ordinariness, this time one should reckon with a brutal overcoming of reflective boredom. The heroes were caught in passing during ordinary household activities in gestures and poses without meaning. Whether they are sleeping, getting up or ironing, they don’t flex when they stand in front of the camera. They cringe and turn their faces away, look the other way or close their eyes. The next shots are a study of cobblestones. The grey, mute monochrome of the pavement. Some missing tiles. Where is this action? What do these young people have to do with the depicted pavement? The answer is provided by the newspaper headlines presented in successive frames of the artist’s statement. It is about the equality march in Białystok, i.e. the festival of violence and hatred that swept through the city in 2019, the reports of which resembled those from the battlefield. The messages freeze into aesthetic images and, next to people and cobblestones, become the third part of Awruk’s visual story, who also took part in the march herself. However, her artistic statement does not bear any signs of a report. Awruk trusts the viewers, believes in their intelligence, does not dazzle with obvious images of violence, but plays with understatement very skilfully. The frail faceless heroes become everyone - me and you. LGBT? Maybe not? The juxtaposition of stones torn from the ground with fragile bodies is enough to stir an avalanche of associations and emotions: the terror that the most ordinary element of the urban fabric suddenly becomes a murder weapon. That equality is understood as compulsory, banal, matched puzzles. Despair that I, a friend of mine or a stranger can get hit by a stone or by a firecracker. And finally anger, rage, being pissed off at the attacker. So, the question arises: when they throw stones, is not one middle finger not enough?

Karolina Szulejewska

/ AGATA AWRUK Born in 1983. A graduate of the Institute of Polish Culture at the University of Warsaw and the Sputnik photography program. Winner of many competitions, incl. TIFF Festival and National Geographic. She has exhibited her works in Białystok, Warsaw, Milan and Sofia. She has published the photo publication “Rest under my glory” published by Brutofnzn (Milan, Italy) and “M + P + B” published with the aid of an artistic scholarship (Białystok, Poland). She has published in Polish and foreign magazines, including “Wysokie Obcasy”, “I-D Italy, “The Calvert Journal”,”Varsovie Magazine”. In 2018, she was awarded by the magazine “Szum” for exposing intimacy in photography in a bold way. In 2020, Delphian Gallery (London) listed her among the most interesting discoveries.

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MIROSŁAW BIAŁKA CATEGORIES 2007 INSTALLATION 6

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The slowly rotating threads have the colors used to mark prisoners in Nazi camps: a red triangle for political prisoners, green for criminals (e.g., stealing a loaf of bread), black was reserved for the so-called asocial (The Romani belonged to this category), purple for Jehovah’s witnesses, pink for homosexuals. The threads were created as a result of destruction and elimination. The artist first sewed colored triangles, which he then unraveled. Each color seals human fate. The artist has placed the threads in the corridor, and everyone who enters runs the risk of rubbing against them − being symbolically, without his will or knowledge, “marked”.

Sylwia Hejno

/ MIROSŁAW BAŁKA He was born in 1958 in Warsaw. He lives and works in Otwock and Warsaw. A sculptor, he also works with drawing and experimental film. In 1985, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where since 2011 he has been running the Studio of Spatial Activities at the Faculty of Media Art. In the years 1986–1989, together with Mirosław Filonik and Marek Kijewski, he formed the artistic group Świadomość Neue Bieremiennost. He received the Mies van der Rohe Scholarship awarded by the Kunstmuseen in Krefeld. He is a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. He participated in important international exhibitions, his works are in the most important museum collections in the world.

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EDNA BAUD SCISSORS_03 2020 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 40 × 40 CM 8

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/ EDNA BAUD Born in 1991. A graduate of cultural studies at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, a finalist of the 12th Polish Geppert Competition and winner of the Rector’s Award of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. She works mainly with painting and sound.

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ANATOLY BELOV SEX, MEDICATED, ROCK-N-ROLL 2013 VIDEO, 10:42 10

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Anatoly Belov is a Ukrainian artist who takes up the issue of loneliness of homosexuals in a homophobic society. The film is a story about love, but also about the consequences of exposing further cultural and social prejudices. The main character tries to show the couple of observers the diversity of interpersonal relations. As the film progresses, their initial mocking attitude changes to a more reflective one. The title of the work refers to the cult song by Ian Dury “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll”. The artist draws attention to the differences in meaning resulting from the translation of the word “drugs”, which is used to describe both drugs and medicines.

Author’s own text.

The video is available on the Internet: https://vimeo.com/user8271198

/ ANATOLY BELOV Born in 1977 in Kiev, where he lives and works. In 1995 he graduated from the Faculty of Painting of the Taras Shevchenko State Higher School of Art in Kiev, and in 2004, the Printing Department of the Kiev University of Technology, with a specialization in book design. Belov presented his works, among others at the individual exhibition In the Darkness at the Hudgraf gallery in Kiev and in a number of group shows, incl. as part of the Feminist Queer Festival, Vienna, and also at: Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev; Visual Culture Centre, Kiev; Arsenał Gallery, Białystok; MOCAK, Cracow. In the years 2004–2005, he was a co-founder of the group R.E.P. (Experimental Revolutionary Space).

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ANATOLY BELOV DRAWING

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ANATOLY BELOV DRAWING

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ANATOLY BELOV DRAWING

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ANATOLY BELOV DRAWING

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PRZEMEK BRANAS FAITH AND HEART ARE GAY SIGNS IN PART 2012/2013 PHOTOGRAPHY, 150 × 100 CM 16

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Nudity and pain are the “attributes” of St. Sebastian, who was sentenced to be stitched with arrows for his dissimilarity, i.e., being a Christian in the Roman Empire. His defenseless and at the same time sensual body and martyrdom on the verge of ecstasy made the saint an icon of the queer movement. The artist recalls the figure of St. Sebastian, the gay patron, mutilating himself. The cross and heart pierced by an arrow are scarifications (the so-called scar tattoos). The suffering that accompanies this process has something of an initiation in it, and at the same time it breaks the taboo of homosexuality and faith.

Sylwia Hejno

/ PRZEMEK BRANAS He graduated from the Intermedia Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, currently he is a PhD student at the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Studies at the University of the Arts in Poznań. He works in the field of objects, installation, sculpture, video, photography and performance. His works cover various topics: from sexuality and religion to art history and institutional criticism. Scholarship holder of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in 2013, winner of the Gray House Szara Kamienica Foundation Award (2015). Second prize winner in the Spojrzenia 2017 competition. The artist has participated in group exhibitions, including in the “Embodied Action” festival, Hong Kong (2016); “GUYU ACTION Performance Art Festival”, Xi’an, China (2016); “Polish Performance Night”, Le Lieu Gallery, Quebec (2014). He created individual exhibitions, including “Moro”, Galeria Wschodnia, Łódź, in 2013 and the exhibition “Czkawka” as part of the Photomonth in Cracow at MOCAK in 2014. He lives and works in Jarosław.

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KAROLINA BREGUŁA LET THEY SEE US 2003 PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES, 93 × 70 CM EACH 18

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One of the most famous equality campaigns in our country. A series of photos of gay and lesbians couples created for the Campaign Against Homophobia sparked a discussion about intolerance towards sexual minorities. The idea for the photos presented in galleries and on the streets was simple: they are ordinary portraits of couples holding hands. The people shown on them are smiling and they are happy. Despite the lack of controversy, the billboards were devastated. Several years have passed since Karolina Breguła’s action, but it raises still current issues − how we perceive same-sex couples, what kind of image of them is disseminated by some channels of communication and their right to use public space, which after, all belongs to everyone.

Sylwia Hejno

/ KAROLINA BREGUŁA Born in 1979. Multimedia artist, author of installations, happenings, videos and photography. A graduate of the State Higher School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź, PhD student at the same university. Her works have been shown, among others, at the National Museum in Warsaw, at the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, at the Jewish Museum in New York, and at the 55th Venice Biennale. Winner of the second prize in the Spojrzenia 2013 competition and third prize winner of the Samsung Art Master 2007. Winner of many scholarships, such as the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage scholarship, the Young Poland scholarship and the Visegrad Fund scholarship. The author of such projects as “Fire-Followers” (2013), “Art translation agency” (2010) and “Let them see us” (2003). She lives and works in Warsaw.

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ANNA CHMIELNIK IN FRONT OF THE TV 1 OIL ON CANVAS, 140 × 200 CM

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And if I [...] understand all mysteries, and all knowledge and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. (1 Corinthians 12, The Way Of Love)

Author’s own text.

/ ANNA CHMIELNIK In 2004, she graduated from the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań (diploma in easel painting in the studio of prof. Jan Świtka and in architectural and urban painting with Prof. Jan Gawron). In 2002–2003, she studied at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Lyon, France, under the Socrates - Erasmus program. She currently lives in Lublin.

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IVAN DAVYDENKO IT’S A MATCH! 2019 COLLAGE, 42 × 30 CM Excerpt from the zine “Dirt”

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The title of the work refers to a notification that appears on a famous dating app. On the other hand, in English, match has also a different meaning − a short piece of wood used to light a fire. It refers to the way the self-made explosive which the marriage brought to the counterdemonstration during the Second Equality March in Lublin was made. The newlyweds depicted in one of the photos used in the collage stand in front of the monument commemorating the victory over fascism in Kiev, which is a reference to a moral tradition popular under the USSR, still popular in Russia and still preserved in some post-Soviet countries. The collage was created during the “Zines against fascism” workshops as part of the Anti-Fascist Year celebrations at Galeria Labirynt and appeared in the post-workshop zine “Dirt”.

Author’s own text

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MICHAŁ DOBRUCKI SELF PORTRAIT AS A FACE MASK 2020 T-SHIRT 24

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The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has pushed me into a poor financial situation. Lack of income resulted in an improvised Instagram campaign to sell T-shirts with the overprint of my lockdown work.

Author’s own text.

/ MICHAŁ DOBRUCKI He graduated from the Intermedia Department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, diploma in 2015 at the Performance Art Studio. He is interested in the wild aspects of culture and its drives. Selected activities and exhibitions: “Communis – Renegotiating Community”, Galeria Labirynt, Lublin; “Rozmowy z roślinami”, Księgarnia/Wystawa, Cracow; “INTERMÉDE FESTIVAL”, Szpitalna 1, Cracow; “CIEMNA MATERIA ŚWIATA SZTUKI #1”, Bomba Club, Cracow; “KINO LAB / Intermedia. mov”, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw. Theatre cooperation with Michał Borczuch (“Paradiso”, Łaźnia Nowa Theatre, Cracow; “Apokalipsa”, Nowy Teatr in Warsaw; “Dupki”, Komuna/Warszawa in Warsaw; “Wszystko o mojej matce”, Łaźnia Nowa Theatre, Cracow) and with Jacek Poniedziałek (“Kto się boi Virginii Woolf?”, Polonia Theatre, Warsaw; “Laleczka”, Studyjny Theatre in Łodź; “Bydło”, Studio Theatre, Warsaw).

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MICHAŁ DOBRUCKI SELF PORTRAIT AS A FACE MASK 2020 PHOTOGRAPHY, 105 × 100 CM 26

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TOMASZ DOMAŃSKI SELF-PORTRAIT 1986 PHOTOGRAPHY, 177 × 102 CM 28

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Over the years 1983–1986, expressive paintings and sculptures in the aesthetics of the Neo-expressionism of the 1980s were created as well as many youth photographic series. Starting from the fascination with the work of Edvard Munch and the reinterpretation of his painting in contemporary arranged photographic episodes, through a series of self-portraits that go far beyond the canon of the genre and ending with the photographic experiment in search of identity of one’s own body, physical implication in the assigned sex and fantasies about hermaphrodite.

Author’s own text.

/ TOMASZ DOMAŃSKI Born in 1962 in Giżycko. In the years 1985–1988 he was an auditing student at the State College of Fine Arts in Wrocław (currently the Academy of Fine Arts), then, from 1988, a full-time student (Sculpture Department at the Faculty of Painting and Sculpture). He obtained his diploma in the sculpture studio of Professor Leon Podsiadły in 1993. He lives and works in Wrocław. Tomasz Domański works in the area of sculpture, objects, installations, video, photography and performance. The creator held multiple scholarships of, among others: The Minister of Culture and Art, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (USA), the Montag Foundation (Germany), the Joseph Beuys Foundation (Switzerland), the Industriedenkmal Foundation (Germany). His works are in the collections of, among others: Fundacion Gruber Jez (Merida-Cholul, Mexico), Nature Art. Museum (Kongju, South Korea) Kronan Sculpture Park (Luleå, Sweden), the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko. In the years 2000–2004, the artist was a member of the Programme Council of the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko.

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MONIKA DROŻYŃSKA LAUGH AT THE ENEMIES 2018 HAND EMBROIDERY ON FABRIC, 35 × 150 CM 30

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/ MONIKA DROŻYŃSKA Born in 1979. Author of individual and collective projects, including: 2004–2010 “Punkt”, 2008– 2009 “Sewing a local cultural centre”, 2010–2011 “Urban embroidery”. She participated in exhibitions and projects (including the Centre of Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Contemporary Arts Centre Łaźnia, “Kronika” Gallery, Warsaw Grand Theatre National Opera, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Cracow). Works in the collection of the Gallery of Contemporary Art Bunkier Sztuki and the National Museum in Cracow. A scholar of the Ministry of Culture (2010) and the Visegrad Artist Residency Programme (2012). She is the finalist of the following competitions: “Culture Vulture” by the Polish Radio 3 (2011), “Kulturalne odloty“ by the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper (2008). Nominated for Paszporty Polityki award (2012, 2013). Founder of School embroidery for ladies and gentlemen “Hands of gold“. Member of “Hands of Gold“ Collective. Works with the Gallery Exhibition Bureau / Polish Modern Art Foundation.

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EVA & ADELE BELLS BRIDES 2004 VIDEO 62:00 32

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“The video work ‘Hellas’ tells the story of the marriage of the artistic duo Eva & Adele. It is a story of an eternal bride and constant waiting, [...] a story of marriage and fulfillment. Eva & Adele transform the common beginning into a common life and work and culminate [...]: two brides are looking at the camera, bells are ringing, rose petals are sparkling,” writes Margit Zuckriegl in the chapter “The Journey as a Becoming of the World Hellas and the Beginning of a Shared Being” from the book “Eva & Adele: Rosa, Rot” (Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Museum der Moderne Salzburg; 2008). Using a 62-minute video without cuts, Eva & Adele also show another important part of their performance – its durability. During the film, Eva & Adele smile, being aware of the power of their work. The work “Bells Brides” was also shown at the exhibition “L’amour Du Risque” in the Collectors Room in Berlin, attracting many visitors. The video, which is a sequence of an ongoing performance by Eva & Adele duo, evoked the audience’s fascination.

/ EVA & ADELE A couple of female artists, who live and create across gender boundaries. Their life motto is “wherever we are, there is a museum” and the term they are trying to impose on humanity is “futuring”. EVA & ADELE work in the public space as a work of art. Artists treat their bodies as a living sculpture, streets as galleries, and great artistic events as museums. Behind their well-detailed makeup and costumes hides the figure of a little woman and a tall man whose spiritual femininity has conquered physical masculinity and has been legally recognized as a woman. The artists have been performing together since 1991, when they appeared at the opening of the Metropolis exhibition in Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin. Since then, they have traveled all over the world, they are currently present at the most important cultural events, such as the Venice Biennale, Documenta in Kassel or the Art Fair in Basel. Their artistic activities are documented and discussed by viewers and random pedestrians. The couple collects photos and videos taken by the audience.

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SEAN FADER INSUFFICIENT MEMORY 2019–2020 GOOGLE EARTH PRESENTATION 34

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“Insufficient memory” analyses the period between 1999 and 2000, when the Hate Crimes Prevention Act was first debated in the US Congress (and has not been adopted). In 2018, I discovered the old Sony Digital Mavica – the first commercial digital camera sold in 1999-2000, whose technology of taking ⅓ mega pixel images saved on a 3.5-inch floppy disk was game-changing. It was then that I started to reflect on what is sometimes overlooked, invisible or erased at the time when digital cameras began to revolutionise depiction. Reconstructing stories from local newspapers and activist research, I have travelled to more than 80 locations where hate crimes have occurred. As the majority of local news services expressed lack of interest in these stories, and the queer news services were not digitised, many of them disappeared. The places were often unmarked and anonymous, and the crimes were forgotten. In a few months, I travelled more than 24,000 kilometres, taking photos at the scene of every hate murder from the 1999-2000. I photographed these places with an old Mavica digital camera that I found. I created large-format images with the grain-effect that are characteristic of the complete lack of resolution and digital information (in comparison with today’s digital photography). While the murder of Matthew Shepherd (white, middle class, great future) drew attention to the need for legislation on hate crimes towards gay community, I wanted to focus on the stories of those who went missing in his shadow. The queer stories presented in my work relate to extremely diverse group of people, often non-white people with fewer opportunities. They were all victims of the cruel crimes that occurred while the US Congress debated whether queer people should be covered by hate crime legislation at all. The social progress that we feel today would not be possible without the devotion and struggle of the queer community – even if their stories were unknown to us so far.

Author’s own text.

Video available on the internet: https://earth.google.com/web/data=Mj8KPQo7CiExRGJJSnVvOGxRc3ktd2ROTVdTSllaWGRMbjRjX1dSS3oSFgoUMDM0ODc0NjEyNTExNzZFMjZEM0M?authuser=0

/ SEAN FADER Born in 1985. He graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in digital arts and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Participant of many individual and collective exhibitions.

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His last solo exhibition “# 365ProfilePics” was created during his residency at Yaddo, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art and Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. In recent years he has received, among others, the Flash Forward award from the Magenta Foundation for emerging photographers. He lives in New York, Brooklyn.

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LUDOMIR FRANCZAK Ø 2020

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“Ø” (Danish word for an island) is a project that refers to a series of photographs purchased by accident in autumn 2012 in a vintage shop on Bornholm. It is a collection of eleven black and white films showing the family life of the inhabitants of one of the towns on the island in the 1950s. The photographer focused on social events, trips, landscapes. Photographs freeze a certain moment in history, without clearly indicating the place where they were made. In fact, these photos could have been taken anywhere in Western Europe of those years. There are no famous buildings or important events in the background. They show ordinary life, carrying a baggage of mystery and understatement – we do not know who the people depicted in the photos are, what were their earlier and later lives like. They are figures suspended in a specific timelessness. From the moment of purchasing photographs, he has been working with the collection, creating on that basis text narratives, visual and sound works, and installations developing the theme of particular performances. Among the collection of photographs, there are several that show their author – most often the face is visible from below on the first frame made after stretching the film. However, the most mysterious is the series of 5 frames in which he and his friend changed into dresses. There is something disturbing about their characters, a kind of embarrassment, and at the same time relief – as if we were just watching a kind of coming-out taking place at a family party in Denmark in the 1950s. This is especially visible in the characters in the group photo. The emotions on their faces may simply be caused by the presence of the camera, but the two men in the dresses give the whole a new meaning, a kind of uncertainty about the status of the people in the frame and their mutual relations...

Author’s own text.

More about previous editions: https://lfranczak.blogspot.com/2018/06/news.html https://lfranczak.blogspot.com/2015/02/1958.html

/ LUDOMIR FRANCZAK Born in 1974 in Słupsk. Visual artist, theatre director, curator. His works were shown in galleries, theatres, public spaces, and festivals in Poland, and abroad. He is a scholar of the Visegrad Foundation (VARP), the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2014), and a three-time scholar of

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the Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. Nominated for the title of “Culture Vulture of 2013” by the journalists of the Polish Radio 3. Winner of the “Placówka” programme of the Theater Institute (2016), awarded by the Sobole Foundation in the Design Alive Awards 2016. His main interest is the issue of memory, identity and activism. By means of intermedia actions, he creates complex projects, using both visual arts and history, or literature. He is the author of artistic publications.

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DANIIL GALKIN BROKEN WINDOW, 2016 View of the exhibition When They Came, Pracownia R5, Białystok, 2016

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DANIIL GALKIN FIRST THEY CAME, 2016 View of the exhibition When They Came, Pracownia R5, Białystok, 2016

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Documentation of works from the exhibition “When They Came” (Pracownia R5, Białystok, 2016) referring to the famous quote from the German pastor Martin Niemöller, with which he tried to explain the inaction of German intellectuals and their inability to oppose the Nazis.

Artist’s own text.

/ DANIIL GALKIN Born in 1985 in Ukraine. He graduated from Dnipropetrovsk Theatre and Art College and was a student of Dnipropetrovsk Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture. Since 2009, he has been working on “2222” experimental art group which comprises alter-egos of one author – himself. The art group was nominated for Kandinsky Prize in 2013. Winner of the Grand Prix of MUHi 2011, nominated for Pinchuk Art Prize 2011 and 2015. Participant of the first International Contemporary Art Biennale in Kyiv ARSENALE 2012. Sergiy Kuruhin 2012 Award winner. Winner of the Special Prize of Pinchuk Art Centre Prize 2013. Finalist of Malevich Art Prize 2014. His works have been exhibited at individual and collective exhibitions in South Korea, Berlin, London, Moscow, Bratislava , Prague and Kyiv. He lives and works in Dnieper (Ukraine).

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MARTYNA GART THE QUEER ART OF FALLING WIDEO, 01:40 46

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The video work, “The Queer Art of Falling” is inspired by Jack Halberstam’s book “Queer Art of Failure”. My falls have been recorded for several years in various places in Poland. I contemplate space, place and its relation to a non-normative, non-binary body. The last excerpt breaks the collapse convention, giving a signal to “rise”, resistance and disagreement. At the same time, my rising is hidden between the scenes. The form of the fall is also a symbolic reference to the artist Bas Jan Ader. Part of the film was shown this year in the Hague at the exhibition “Wild Wild Æst”. I also participated in the previous edition of Pomada. I am a non-binary artist and, apparently in Poland 2020 I have to add that, I am human.

Author’s own text.

/ MARTYNA GART Multimedia artist, activist, queer reality. Recently, she collaborated with the KEM collective and was a co-creator of the space “Dziwnowo” in Jazdów in Warsaw. Owner of the adopted dog, Pieróg. Her works were shown, among others, during the Pomada festival, the Night of Black Milk organized by Paul B. Preciado and Viktor Neumann at MSN and recently in The Hague as part of the “Wild Wild Æst” exhibition.

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GABRYS THE PRINCE UNTITLED PHOTOS AND VIDEOS FROM INSTAGRAM 48

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I am a newly qualified BA, as I graduated in culture studies at the University of Warsaw in June this year – and in October I intend to continue my studies to obtain a master’s degree. In terms of research, I am mainly interested in queer issues, broadly defined human sexuality or gender – I am happy to compare them with my long-time hobby, which is cinema, and with contemporary products of pop culture. The aspects to which I am definitely partial are the gay culture and masculinity, which was reflected, for example, in my BA thesis about the latest coming of age cinema with heroes with homoerotic desires. These interests, combined with personal uncertainty about my own gender identification in a common binary system, resulted in the idea of creating a drug character that would give me the possibility of non-heteronormative self-expression. Loving to tempt and at the same time pretend innocent, the twinky Gabryś the Prince made his social media debut at the end of April this year. Author’s own text.

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GILBERT AND GEORGE QUEER 1977

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GILBERT AND GEORGE NAKED LOVE 1982

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GILBERT AND GEORGE FUCK ALL NAZIS 1998

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GILBERT AND GEORGE THE WORLD OF GILBERT & GEORGE, 1981 WIDEO, 72:05 Producer and director: Philip Haas. Thanks to the courtesy of the artists and the White Cube gallery

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“Art has to be thrown in the face of people,” think Gilbert and George. In their works, they deal with social issues such as fear, death, sex, religion, gender, race, being an outsider and taboo subjects. They are not afraid of vulgarisms, scatological humour or playing with artistic convention. They use their own bodies, including secretions, becoming living sculptures themselves. Male nudity is shown by them as something fragile rather than an emanation of strength. Purpose of art: to expose the bigot rooted in the liberal and free the liberal in the bigot. They keep repeating that there are two people, but one artist. They have been creating and living together for over half a century. They got married in 2008.

Sylwia Hejno

/ GILBERT AND GEORGE Two British avant-garde artists who create performances and photographs. Gilbert Prousch (born on 17 September, 1943 in San Martin de Tor, Italy) and George Passmore (born on 8 January, 1942 in Plymouth, UK) met while studying at the St Martins College of Art in London. They have been living and working together since 1968. They have been associated with “living sculptures” since 1970 when they painted their bodies with golden paint, both stood on a table and played pantomime to the song Underneath the arches. In 1977, they gave up showing the performance “living sculpture”, however they still considered themselves living sculpture, analysing their life as a work of art. Their identification marks are large collages made of fragments of photographs on the background of a black grille. They were distinguished by very clear colours and were supposed to resemble stained glass. Gilbert and George have become the most famous British avant-garde artists of their generation. Their works traveled all over the world, causing discussion. In 1986, they were awarded the Turner Prize. Gilbert and George live and work in London, United Kingdom. They got married in 2008.

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WOJCIECH GILEWICZ THEM 2 #111 2020 VIDEO 56

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While working on the series of photographs “Them 2” (2007-) I am looking for intimate relationships with people. In this series, I almost completely cover the person with whom I am working on the photo with my body. This physical overlap is almost perfect, but there is always one or two details that reveal the presence of the person behind me. I often “borrow” fragments of her/his body from her/him, for instance “Me and Miłosz, Them #98” (2012), it is not me shaving my beard, but my friend from New York, Miłosz, standing behind me, shaves me, while in the photo “Me and Fazal, Them #86” (2011) there is my friend Fazal from Pakistan. He holds a bunch of grapes in his hand and puts them in my mouth. Thanks to this very simple procedure (which is not a technical manipulation, nor a trick or the use of Photoshop), I allow the people I work with in a particular photo session to be physically present in the photo. The process of taking a picture creates a big bond between us, because working on it is more about establishing relationships, sometimes even friendship, or at least honest and often intimate conversation during the photo shoot, not just pressing the camera shutter. During work we exchange experiences. Each photo is strongly marked with the personality of the other character, who in fact is almost invisible in the photo, but at the same time very present there. Recently, in addition to a camera, I also use a video camera to record a particular photo shoot. The series “Them” (2002–2007) was originally created using a graduated filter and double exposure without the use of Photoshop or other technical manipulations.

Author’s own text.

/ WOJCIECH GILEWICZ Born in 1974 in Biłgoraj. He lives and works between Warsaw and New York. He is a painter who understands painting as an action and process rather than a flat decorative object. Gilewicz is also a photographer. In 2009, the Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw published an art book by Wojciech Gilewicz, entitled “Oni / Them”, presenting a photographic series of double self-portraits created since 2002, which is continued until today. Wojciech Gilewicz is also the author of installations and videos. The artist himself often appears in front of his camera. In 2020, the book “Visitor / Intrude” will be published by Galeria Labirynt in Lublin in cooperation with Galeria Arsenał in Białystok, presenting Gilewicz’s video works made in Asia between 2008 and 2018.

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ZHANNA GLADKO PORTRAIT FROM THE SERIES INCITING FORCE 2014 PHOTOGRAPHY 58

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ZHANNA GLADKO SELF-PORTRAIT FROM THE SERIES INCITING FORCE 2014 PHOTOGRAPHY 59

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ZHANNA GLADKO SELF-PORTRAIT FROM THE SERIES NOT ALAIN DELON 2006 PHOTOGRAPHY 60

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Two self-portraits and one portrait (2014–2016) are part of a cycle of self-portraits from the series “Inciting force” (2011–2020). Since 2011, the artist has been working on a series of self-portraits, in which she re-updates many painful themes, heightening their topic by including the strength category. The artist uses strategies in which the self-portrait is not only a means of self-identification, but also a critical tool in working with other topics – culture, religion, politics, gender, etc. The subject area of the series is based on the theme of a blurred, fragmented identity. One of the aspects of the series shows the attitude of society, transcoding well-known culture icons in art, literature, cinema, music, mass media, etc.

1. Portrait from the series “Inciting force”, 2014. The portrait of a friend, the famous Belarusian artist Sergey Shabohin, in the painting by Zhanna Gladko is a direct attempt to impose her individuality and identity on another person. 2. Self-portrait from the series “Inciting force”, 2014. In order to create this look, Zhanna Gladko puts on make-up, a wig and a costume in the style of one of the most famous drag queens – Divine.

3. Self-portrait from the series “Not Alain Delon”, 2016. The series “Not Alain Delon” is part of a series of self-portraits that belong to the project “Inciting force”. Zhanna Gladko tried to depict the features of a certain person who has power over her. By imitating and copying Alain Delon's paintings, the artist wanted to get closer to someone who has a powerful and influential role for her – in this case, it is about the desire to be like a father. According to the artist, as a young man, her father resembled the famous French actor, a sex symbol of the 1960s–1980s. – Alain Delon. Parody-based self-portraits such as Alain Delon (in father’s clothes) form the main part of the series.

Author’s own text.

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/ ZHANNA GLADKO A representative of the young generation of Belarusian artists. Using a variety of means of expression, she deals with the subjects related to gender in the context of, among others, the current theory of feminism. He lives and works in Minsk (Belarus). In 2002–2009, she studied at the Belarusian State Academy of Arts. By their ambivalence, all of her works aim to rethink/deconstruct important concepts such as gender politics and patriarchy, religion and culture, the art system and society. Moreover, by exploring topics related to her own experiences, Zhanna Gladko also stresses their importance. In order to criticise the patriarchal system of Belarus, she creates a series of self-portraits that reflect the currency of many painful topics, creating a personal collection of objects and documentation of actions. Thanks to this, the relationship and conflict between Zhanna Gladko and her father is re-evaluated.

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MIKOŁAJ GRABOWSKI SALAM 2019/2020 64

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The project was created last year and consisted of anti-fascist graphics in social media on the occasion of Independence Day. They contained an equality and anti-fascist lettering designed by me. The inspiration for the project was the style of Polish neo-fascist organizations, in other words, a sharp gothic font on a black background with a white cheesy contour. The ticket sewn to the cap is the word “‫[ ”سلام‬salam], meaning “peace” in Arabic. The unusual style associated with the European culture put on the Arabic language has provoked interesting associations in me, which is why I believe that the visual aspect of this sign is interesting and ambiguous. For many years I belonged to the scouting organisation. We got the merit badges that were the evidence of the skills and virtues of each of us. With a sewn-on ticket, the cap is for me a kind of uniform. On the other hand, universally thinking, I come to the conclusion that it is quite a disturbing commentary on Polish street culture. A culture that often uses the language of peace, referring to higher values, but discriminates and uses physical violence. I would like to check what “salam” means on the headgear popular among local hooligans. Is it a cap for a hooligan, or rather for a contemporary knight-defender of the victims? Or for Robin Hood, who hides among the neo-fascist young groups? Or is it a threat of the approaching Islamization of Christian culture? I want this image to ask who I am, if I put my cap on and look in the mirror. ‫السلام عليكم‬

Author’s own text.

/ MIKOŁAJ GRABOWSKI Born in 1996, student and worker of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He works in various media, from painting to performance, creating in the conceptual sphere. He is interested in problems of the individual and the community, their struggles and a common functioning. His favourite books are “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” by Yukio Mishima, and “The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco.

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IGOR GRUBIĆ EAST SIDE STORY 2008 VIDEO, 14:00

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The work, whose title refers to “West Side Story”, is made up of two projections, the first documentary and the second performative. The documentary captures events occurring during Equality Parades in Belgrade in 2001 and in Zagreb in 2002. The viewer is in both cases confronted with the sometimes hard to watch violence that members of ultranationalist milieus commit against the marchers, including police. The brutality of these scenes, in which ordinary passers-by also take part, is contrasted with a dance performance. The dancers seamlessly perform the movements of those taking part in the march, and also of the aggressors. In “East Side Story” we can see how, not only in the former Yugoslavia, but all over Europe, a new “internal enemy” is coming into the socio-political arena, meaning sexual minorities.

Sylwia Hejno

Film available on the Internet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqGA1duVfJA

/ IGOR GRUBIĆ Born in 1969 in Zagreb. One of the most outstanding and globally recognised Croatian artists. His works contain site-specific interventions in public space, photography and film. He also works as a producer and author of documentaries, TV reports and socio-engaged commercials since 2000. He represented Croatia at the 58th Venice Biennale by realizing the long-term project Traces of Disappearing (in three acts). Grubić has taken part in many important international exhibitions. His works are among others in the collections of TATE Modern, Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade and Zagreb, Kadist Collection Art Museums, Kontact Collection and Art Collection Telekom.

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ŁUKASZ HORBÓW I LEARNED HOW TO CRY 2020 VIDEO, 2:38 68

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Male crying is one of those things that is undesirable in a patriarchal culture. Although there are exceptions - for example, the emotional tears of footballers, a crying man evokes embarrassment. Are male tears a revolutionary act? Definitely, they disturb the set order. The artist has used artificial tears to practice the ability to cry on demand, as a manipulation opportunity. As he notes, however, although the tears were artificial, they now appear more real than ever.

Sylwia Hejno

Film available on the Internet: https://vimeo.com/392482690

/ ŁUKASZ HORBÓW Born in 1995, lives and works in Warsaw. He studies at the Department of Media Art of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He concentrates his artistic practice on the analysis of the basis of society’s behaviour and its relations with wider systems. His works have been exhibited worldwide including New York, Düsseldorf, Rotterdam, Prague, London, Warsaw and Beijing.

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ALEKSANDRA IGNASIAK VIRTUAL UN-GREYING 2020 PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION OF THE PERFORMANCE, 20,5 × 410 CM (COLLAGE OF PHOTOS) Photo by Zbigniew Olszyna, technical assistance: Andrzej Sieczkowski Realised as part of the scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage –Culture on the Web

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A significant part of my artistic work has long been filled with water. Literally and figuratively. I colour puddles, fill vessels with coloured liquids and use them as paintings. As part of “Virtual Un-greying” I took on the task of creating 6 works inspired by what happens after it rains. The original plan was to pour water coloured with ink onto the canvases and let it dry... however, I used glass vessels which, being transparent, provide a closer association with the initial theme. These are first trials...The glass gleams beautifully. It reflects the image of the surroundings. I feel like the worlds are mixing. The one I have painted and the one I find myself in.

Author’s own text.

/ ALEKSANDRA IGNASIAK Born in 1982. In 2007, she graduated with distinction from Painting at the Department of Graphics and Painting and in 2011 from Jewellery at the Department of Textile and Clothing at the Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. In 2018 she wrote her doctoral thesis “Painting in space”. An exhibition with the same title was realised at the East Gallery in Łódź. Since 2017 she runs the Workshop of Painting Activities in Public Space at the Department of Painting and Drawing at home university. She is involved in painting, installation, and creates objects using enamel. Since 2011 she has been active in public space as a painter, performer and author of permanent and ephemeral installations. All her projects are dominated by colour, which she uses to complement existing phenomena. Inspired by urban spaces populated by human emotions. She is the author of the “Re-greying the City” project, which has become her life motto. Finalist of: Lumen Festival, Yicca, Combat Art Prize, Incubarte, Social Art Award. Works in the collection of : Davis Museum in Barcelona.

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BARTOSZ JAKUBOWSKI ZELIM BAKAEV – SLAVE 4U 2020 PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEO, 4:15 Author of the text: Paweł Świerczak

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The identity of twenty-five-year-old Zielimkhan Bakayev has been a permanent subject of speculation. The Chechen singer did not make a coming out, but he also did not dissociate himself from the LGBTQ+ community, regardless of the threat from the state apparatus. Bakayev has avoided making a declaration, and that may be the reason why his pieces about love have raised suspicions that they are not necessarily about heteronormative relationships. However, an image browser shows Bakayev embracing Ramzan Kadyrov - the head of the Chechen Republic, a mafioso suspected of encouraging the persecution of minorities. The riddle of Bakayev’s identity has not been solved, though one fact is clear - since August 8, 2017 the singer’s location still remains unknown, after he was last seen in the Chechen capital, Grozny. The media reports provide inconsistent information, while Bakayev’s friends and family get supposed messages from him about his new locations, all of which are unequivocally dismissed as falsified or forced. At the same time, the world is surrounded by allegations of the functioning of detention camps, torture and murder of non-heteronormative people in Chechnya. Just under two years later, in early 2019, it appears that another purge has begun. It is unknown how much to estimate the number of unexplained disappearances. The work Zelim Bakaev – “Slave 4U” consists of mixed fragments of the last published work of the artist and a text by Pawał Świerczak relating to the reports of anonymous witnesses of Bakaev’s kidnapping and press articles on this topic, filled with ambiguities. The song functions as a constantly replayed statue of Bakayev, but also of all who are systemically persecuted because of their non-normative identity. Available in karaoke clubs in Berlin, Montreal and Moscow, the song is not only a grassroots form of remembrance opposing the memorialisation of majority memory, it also addresses the non-institutional cultural circuit. The gay club has been and still is a place for the creation of an identity of freedom and liberty, being also a source of wider social change. The sensual interaction with music steadily updates Bakayev’s unfinished story, resonating with listeners who become media of remembrance for those who have been silenced by history. Author’s own text.

Film available on the Internet: https://vimeo.com/391814408

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/ BARTOSZ JAKUBOWSKI

Visual arts artist; he creates photographs, videos and sculptures. He studies Intermedia at the University of Arts in Poznań. In his artistic practice, he usually brings up issues of sexual minorities, violence and social norms.

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ANNA JANKOJĆ RAINBOW PLAGUE 2020 VIDEO, 04:17 76

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On March 1, 2020, took place a protest against Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski, a well-known opponent of LGBTQ+ people, feminists, atheists and environmentalists. On that day, he was celebrating a mass for the intention of the Polish Cursed Soldiers at the parish of St. Padre Pio at 1 Fieldorfa Street in Warsaw. This video shows the protests and statements of people who were present at the event. Archbishop Jędraszewski in 2019 at Wawel Castle Cathedral during a mass on the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising said: “The Red Plague is no longer walking on our soil, but a new one has appeared, a neo-Marxist one that wants to take control of our souls, hearts and minds. Not red, but rainbow”. Although there have been many notices to the public prosecutor’s office related to this speech, the clergyman remains innocent, because under the law the Criminal Code provides for no penalties for public abuse based on sexual orientation.

Author’s own text.

Film available on the Internet: https://online2020.asp.waw.pl/teczowa-zaraza/

/ ANNA JANKOIĆ She graduated in Philosophy at the University of Warsaw (2013), studied Physical Theatre in Edinburgh (2015) , and is currently a student at the Department of Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. She took part in the production of the play “Kitchen Porters” at the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival (2016). In her work she is inspired by aesthetic theories (especially phenomenology), theatre, visual arts and critical art.

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MARCIN JANUSZ AUTONOMOUS NERVOUS SYSTEM OIL ON CANVAS, 190 × 150 CM 78

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The painting is a reinterpretation of the scheme of action of the human autonomous nervous system. It is the part of the nervous system that innervates the internal organs and causes reactions of the body independent of human will. Autonomous nervous system is composed of two parts: sympathetic (excitatory) and parasympathetic (inhibitory), acting in opposition to each other. The sympathetic part becomes active, e.g. during stressful situations, when the body is ready to fight or run away. Also, it stimulates orgasm. The parasympathetic part is responsible for calm vegetative actions such as feelings of relaxation and rest, and also activates sexual arousal. Both sympathetic and parasympathetic systems complement each other in action. The composition of the painting is divided into the two parts described above. The painting includes internal organs of the human body such as two brains, dilated and narrowed pupils, a burning heart, butterflies in the stomach, a kidney throwing out adrenaline and noradrenaline sparks, as well as phalluses and flowers looking like vaginas. The painting is a metaphor reflecting how each human being is affected by impulses, urges or emotions beyond control. The feeling of fear or infatuation forms part of the physiological processes that impel a person to life.

Author’s own text.

/ MARCIN JANUSZ Born in 1991. In 2013 he graduated from the bachelor’s degree in Medical Rescue Department of Health Sciences at the Jagiellonian University Medical College. He graduated from the Department of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. His individual exhibitions among others are: “90% juice, 10% sugar”, Galeria Labirynt | Plaza in Lublin (2018) and “Lukier po wierzchu”, Bookstore | Exhibition in Krakow (2016). He has participated in projects and collective exhibitions including “Ten Guys In One Car”, Sesama Gallery, Yogyakarta (2017), “Pink TV Show” as part of Antwerp Art Weekend 2017, Antwerp (2017), “Wróble ćwierkają pro grecku”, Thrialida cultural centre, Athens (2016). In 2017 and 2018, he was a finalist in the Artistic Journey of Hestia competition.

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MAR KACZMAREK × CURA MY SONG 11 2020 VIDEO 80

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The video is focused on the topic of exclusion caused by age and physical condition. In the figure of the elderly man we can see a questioning attitude. At the moment of losing his physical condition, he undermines the model of masculinity that has been implied in him for years and lets himself create a new identity, which also facilitates his acceptance of this state of affairs. Through his portrait, questions are simultaneously raised about the degree to which we are defined by social constructs and the degree to which we can free ourselves from them.

The CURA To be a man, you have to be this, that and dress that way. To be a man, you must be yourself, but only if that being yourself correlates with that which is predetermined by some being I have not yet met. Any deviation from what has been predetermined will be punished. Any divergence should make you feel like less of a man. There is no place for individuality in a world that honours aggression.

Author’s own text.

Film available on the Internet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DaBsuxzIYA&feature=youtu.be

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NIKITA KADAN CONTROLLED INCIDENTS 2013 WATERCOLOUR ON PAPER, PRINT ON FABRIC, 140 × 200 CM 82

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At a press conference on 20 May, LGBTQ+ Pride organisers cancelled a march planned for that day in Kiev because police claimed they could not protect participants from potential violence caused by neo-Nazi and nationalist groups planning a protest at the same time and place. After the press conference, five men beat Kiev Pride organisers Svyatoslav Sheremet and Maksim Kasyanchuk. Authorities opened an investigation but did not manage to identify the suspects despite video footage of the attack. Neither did the investigation take into account the sexual orientation of the activists or the organisations they were associated with. In June, an unidentified man asked Taras Karasiichuk nearby his home about his sexual orientation and then beat him, breaking his jaw and causing a concussion. Investigators were later unable to identify the assailant. On July 2 and 9, neo-Nazis and nationalists verbally attacked LGBTQ+ activists and ripped up their posters. This happened during a protest in Kiev against two draft laws on the “promotion of homosexuality” in public space. In “Controlled Incidents” (2013) the bodies of citizens are free, probably shown during a demonstration. They can still escape, nobody knows anymore what they were protesting against. The dynamic of victim and abuser at the point of contact, the separate parts of the torso, the leg kicking the chest. It seems that Kadan is using the rule of experiment to check how certain components interact with each other in purely laboratory conditions. But the attack is motivated by politics rather than bodily function. The arm of the policeman with the truncheon and the cheek hit with it are understood as a synecdoche - a rhetorical figure in which the whole is replaced by the part. The torso to be hit belongs to the citizen and can represent Ukrainian society, the forms of relationships, the expressions of political life and its created institutions and practices. Police and rebellion. It is enough to focus on the fact that everyone realises that police officers break the fingers of detainees, knowledge of bribery is equally widespread, the letter of the law rarely seems to apply - eventually a deal can always be made, and finding a scapegoat is just as easy. As a result, more or less all are parties to a relationship in which force dominates. Physical aggression is nothing more than one of many regular activities. No other behaviour is possible. In order to behave differently, great difficulties have to be overcome. No one is happy with such forms of relationships, tensions rise, and rebellion becomes visible. At first a few people protest, their rebellion is attempted to be violently subdued…

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/ NIKITA KADAN Born in 1982 in Ukraine. An artist living and working in Kiev. In his practice Kadan uses painting, graphic design and installation, often in interdisciplinary collaboration with architects, sociologists and human rights activists. His work comprises a critical examination of the experience of modern Ukrainians and their relationship to the Soviet past. He is a member of the artist group REP (Revolutionary Experimental Space) and a founder member (Art Committee) of the curatorial-activist collective Hudrada. Kadan’s artworks have been exhibited worldwide, including exhibitions at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Kunsthaus Zurich, Palazzo Reale Milano, MUMOK Vienna, M HKA Antwerp, and at the 14th Istanbul Biennale and the 56th Venice Biennale. He is the winner of the Pinchuk Art Centre Prize (main prize) in 2011, the Future Generation Art Prize (special prize) in 2015 and the Kazimir Malevich Prize in 2016.

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KAMIL KAK EMERGING 2019 LITHOGRAPHY, 55 × 40 CM EACH 86

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A work composed of five double-sided lithographs. By highlighting the prints from behind, an interpenetration of the obverse and reverse occurs. The cycle reacts with the changing light and time of day, exposing or concealing the body parts reflected on the reverse. The prints are processed, particular body parts lose legibility but retain their biological character. The reflected figure is my life partner, who appears from behind the rainbow gradient only under appropriate, controlled conditions. Emergence is coming-out. Interesting is the change in the perception of the rainbow as a symbol that has occurred in Polish society in recent years; recent days seem to be a critical point of revaluation - the reflected parts of the body form an image of a human being, a fact that the Polish president has recently tended to forget.

Author’s own text.

/ KAMIL KAK He graduated in Graphic Design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk and is currently studying at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. He is interested in socio-political and activist themes. In his work he comments on the current situation in Poland.

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ANTON KARYUK CONCERTO NO 1 FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA IN B-FLAT MINOR 2018 VIDEO 11:53 88

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The piece “Concerto No 1 for Piano and Orchestra in B-flat Minor” is a symbolic “anthem” addressing the absurd situation in Ukraine of the struggle for human rights, especially against discrimination based on sexual orientation. The video is composed of nine interview clips and public speeches by politicians, activists and researchers promoting ultra-conservative changes in modern Ukraine against the background of shared aspirations for European values. The speeches are filled with hatred speech and ridiculous statements. Their absurd character is underlined by the rank positions occupied by the persons presented, who manifest their personal convictions as public opinions. The video features: Ganna Turchinova (Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor. Head of the Department of Foreign Languages at Mikhail Drahomanov National Pedagogical University, wife of the former Acting President of Ukraine, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council); Adrian Bukovinsky (Doctor of Philosophy). Head of the Department of Foreign Languages at Mikhail Drahomanov National Pedagogical University, wife of the former Acting President of Ukraine, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council); Adrian Bukovinsky (Doctor of Philosophy). Expert on Family Policy and Family Relations, Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Charity Foundation); Illya Kyva (Chairwoman of the Socialist Party of Ukraine, Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine); Oleg Barna (Member of Parliament of Ukraine); Yuri Miroshnichenko (Member of Parliament of Ukraine); Yevgeny Muraev (Member of Parliament of Ukraine); Ruslan Kukharchuk (Journalist); Konstantin Vasilets (Deputy Head of the Odessa Svoboda Regional Organisation); Volodymyr Groisman (Prime Minister of Ukraine). The music for the piece was composed by one of the most distinguished pianists of the 20th century, Svyatoslav Richter, winner of many awards, including a Grammy (he was the first Soviet musician to receive it). The Ukrainian pianist was in a marriage of convenience with a woman, to avoid drawing the attention of authorities chasing homosexuals. The title of the work was taken from the name concert. Svyatoslav Richter and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra: Peter Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23

Film available on the Internet: https://antonkaryuk.com/Concerto-No-1 https://youtu.be/FjINoafZP-A

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/ ANTON KARYUK Born in 1988 in Ukraine. He studied architecture at the Prydniprovsky State Academy of Construction and Architecture. He currently lives and works in Kiev and Vilnius. In his artistic practice Anton uses various media - from performance and installation to abstract painting. Since 2015, Anton has been advancing his artistic practice, focusing on the theme of social relations in the world of modern media. His most significant works include the video “Concerto No in B-flat Minor”, the installation “Friendship of Nations” and the project “Personal Flag”, which addresses themes of identity and marginalisation. Anton’s practice intervenes in the wider public space, not limiting itself to museums and galleries. The artist looks for an abstract visual language and minimalist execution, exploring personal and socially sensitive themes. Anton has presented his work in individual and group exhibitions in Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey and Ukraine.

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ANASTASIA KASHTALIIAN NOTES 2019–2020 FINELINER, PAPER, 12 × 12 CM, 10 × 15 CM 92

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My name is Anastasiia Kashtalian. I am 21 years old. I am Ukrainian. I am studying in Lublin at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, faculty - artistic education in fine arts. Taking notes of my erotic fantasies gives me great pleasure. I am against homophobic behaviour. I think that nobody can prevent me from dreaming about love with women or men, as well as prevent me from realizing these dreams. We are human, our inner freedom starts in our heads through our dreams and fantasies.

Author’s own text.

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BARTEK KIEŁBOWICZ DISENCHANTING 2020 RELIEF, STANDSTONE, 40 × 60 × 3 CM 94

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An attempt to weaken the nationalist slogan. The phrase “Poland for Poles” engraved in ten languages of nationalities which Poles fear most.

Author’s own text.

/ BARTEK KIEŁBOWICZ Born in 1985. In 2009, he obtained a diploma in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (Prof. Jarosław Modzelewski, Paweł Boltryk Heban). Since 2020, he has been an assistant at Studio 55, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (workshop of Prof. Paweł Boltryk Heban). He creates paintings, drawings, videos, murals and installations. He is an inquisitive observer of everyday life, which he regularly comments on in his drawing diaries. He collects stories and objects from the past, which he often draws inspiration from. In his works, he mixes a spontaneous and often destructive visual gesture with very precise work and long hours. He is interested in obsessively repeated motifs. Recently, he has been collaborating with choreographer Livia Bargieł.

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FILIP KIJOWSKI RAINBOW POSTCARDS 2020 INSTALLATION

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FILIP KIJOWSKI RAINBOW POSTCARDS 2020 PERFORMANCE Photography by Monika Bryk

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The work “Rainbow Postcards” is a one-man performative action using banal methods to simplify the medium as much as possible. In the work, the artist invites random passers-by to carry out a simple deed, write and design a postcard to the President of Poland. And in the card to express their feelings, with reference to Andrzej Duda’s words “LGBTQ+ is not People, it’s an ideology”. A simple request to design a card, rapidly transforms into a conversation about life, safety, hatred, violence, family and love. A dialogue with the recipient emerged during the performance, which made it possible to document a series of interviews with the authors of the cards. The cards expose the emotional feeling we have every day, towards how the authorities behave and the way we think about ourselves. Drawing the cards with crayons, invites recipients to enter the imaginative world of their inner child. More than 1000 people have participated in the project so far. The performance was repeated in several Polish cities, so that the project also acquired the character of an evergrowing archive of postcards and audio talks. The project T”Rainbow Postcards” is presented as a performative action and video.

Author’s own text.

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FILIP KIJOWSKI AND ADRIANNA DRAS, IZABELA GAWĘCKA, PRZEMYSŁAW MROWIŃSKI, MICHAŁ RACHWALSKI, JAN ZNAJOMSKI ASYLUM 2020 PERFORMANCE The performance took place on 10/10/2020

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The performance is the result of an interdisciplinary creative workshop, the goal of which was to initiate a common dialogue and to give the opportunity to develop freely without pressure from the group. The participants created together a space that became an area of their creative experimentation. The inspiration for the activities was the “Rainbow Postcards” project including personal stories of LGBTQ+ people and their friends. Using improvisation techniques, creative writing and voice work, participants worked both individually and in groups.

Author’s own text

/ FILIP KIJOWSKI Born in 1994. He is a choreographer, performer and dancer. In his everyday life he works with all kinds of improvisation. His university professor described him as an “absurd humanitarian”. In art he looks for answers among the community with which he shares the common space. As a nomadic, dancing dreamer, he wants to invite the world to serious conversations by playing, through the language of tenderness and empathy.

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ALEX KIYASCHENKO SELF-DEFENCE 2018 COLLAGE OF PHOTOS 1 02

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The “Self-defence” series is a part of a wide artistic activity. For last four years I’ve been making diary entries on our life together containing photography of interiors, people, couples and self-portraits. Photography by small and medium format cameras constitutes a direct part of communication. From communication to an event, from an event to a photo. This allows me to avoid the occurrence of conditional boundaries such as “before” and “after”, sustaining me within my work. In my work I don’t try to fix attention on the pseudo-socially significant phenomena and on false dichotomy between “one’s own” and “another’s” in contemporary society. I represent the queer community (LGBTQ+) both as an object and a subject of universality and confrontation. Universality is a sort of a feature that is expected of everyone no matter their sexual orientation, nationality and beliefs. Confrontation is an internal phenomenon, a specific lack of boundaries between internal and external contradictions. Author’s own text.

/ ALEX KIYASCHENKO

He was born in Ukraine. He studied at the Victor Marushchenko’s School of Photography from 2015 to 2017 and he graduated from the Photobook Course from Image Threads Collective. He lives and works in Kyiv.

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PAWEŁ KORBUS A FEW SIMPLE WORDS IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE 2016 VIDEO PERFORMANCE, 2:11 1 04

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I wish all of us peace and love instead of tension, hatred and necessity to fight for our rights. I sing a song about love in my very own characteristic style. “My love is an Arab and I am from a city in eastern Poland.” This work is an expression of disagreement with the world in which nationalistic tendencies arise and politicians feed divisions and… deny others humanity. Is it a good and well-written song? It was created in any possible form for that time. I had to sing “a few simple words in a foreign language” full of emotions and with a portion of self-mockery. I wrote it in 2016 as a protest song video performance. It was exhibited in over a dozen European countries and America as a part of a programme Performance Voyage MUU Gallery from Helsinki.

Author’s own text.

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PAWEŁ KORBUS LOVE 2010 INSTALLATION 300 × 60 CM

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A word “love” seems quite troubling. On the one hand it is a part of the Polish-Romantic myth, on the other, it accompanies chanted slogans (“Make love, not war”, “Love is love”). It is used in public debates about who has the right to love and to be loved. “Love” has become something suspicious and bashful even though, at the same time, it is constantly glorified in the stereotypical mass culture. The neon, that was originally situated at the top of the street during Night of Culture, brought intimacy into the public space. Today, destroyed and devastated, it can ask us whether we are able to look at love as a feeling, with no prejudice.

Author’s own text.

/ PAWEŁ KORBUS Born in 1983. Graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University. in Lublin. He’s a visual artist, performer, video and installation artist. He carried out projects with homeless, seniors and children within the art programme “Uwaga Człowiek! Napięcia miasta” of the Art Factory in Łódź. Scholar of the Visegrad Performing Arts Residency, 2016. Resident at AGÜSAD Antakya Contemporary Art Association in Turkey (2012). Conducts interdisciplinary educational activities in which he combines techniques of work with body, voice and techniques of visual arts. These are performance workshops, stuttering workshops, stage design, light and theatre workshops. Since 2004, he’s been cooperating with the Chorea Theatre in Łódź and he forms the Cekmece (Chekmedje) group together with Maria Wrońska and Emrahem Gökdemir.

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JERZY KOSAŁKA HALINA KOSAŁKA 2017 PHOTOGRAPHY

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A portrait from a series that shows the artist in makeup and women’s clothes. On the one hand it’s a historical reference to a photo “Rrose Sélavy” by Marcel Duchamp disguised as a woman. On the other hand, taking into account the current socio-political events in the country, the photography becomes a manifesto of solidarity with persecuted sexual minorities. It’s an expression of human’s freedom to choose one’s sexual identity and a protest against authoritarian dictating of custom standards.

Author’s own text.

/ JERZY KOSAŁKA A multimedia artist born in 1955 in Będzin. He obtained a diploma in painting in 1981at the PWSSP in Wrocław, where he worked as an assistant for a few years. While working at the university he joined the editorial office of a magazine published by students “Magazyn Psychoaktywny LUXUS”. After having created a group “Legendarny LUXUS” he took part in most of its artistic events. He has exhibited individually from 1995 taking part in various collective projects at the same time. He uses different technologies and medias in his artistic work, he builds objects, models, installations and realisations in public space. He practices performance.

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DANIEL KOTOWSKI I READ OUT LOUD II 2019/2020 PERFORMANCE

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The normalisation of everyday life is a problem for me. As a Deaf person, I do not use speech on a daily basis. Most people do not accept my norm. The normal perceive my inappropriate element or my deficit and they want to fix it, complete it. They expect from me to fully belong to their zone, the zone of normality. I decide to rule over my speech, my voice and my message. I use them to satisfy the expectations of the normal. There may be a situation when a group, compatible with its norm, expresses a firm opposition towards me that I should not use speech. They may feel discomfort, feel bad, ridiculed or they may get offended due to my disrespect of speech. I highlight the ambivalence between conformism and nonconformity in my oral activity. During the performance I read aloud 222 pages of the Polish Anthem. Their number is related to the year of the creation of this patriotic song in 1797 by Józef Wybicki. I read the anthem pronouncing words very accurately each time. After having read every page, I let it go. The fact that I use MY speech is significant as it is faulty, it is a speech disorder in which the movements of the speech organs do not function properly. I am aware that I am not able to speak for a very long time. I show my effort in verbal activity. Author’s own text.

/ DANIEL KOTOWSKI Born in 1993. A graduate of Faculty of Interior Design of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (2018) and Faculty of New Media Art of the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw (2016). He works with installation art, photography and design, he creates objects and videos. He is interested in biopower, interpersonal communication and social politics. He leads a cycle of meetings “Zachęta miga” at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art.

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JAN KOWAL THE FRUIT OF THE WORKING PEOPLE 2020 VIDEO, 4:20 112

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The video is a record of an on-camera performance. The goal of this action is to show my condition triggered by the present political situation. I would like to show how much I am sick of this obnoxious bashing towards LGBTQ+ community. I’m sure that many of us have felt the same recently. We’re all people!

Author’s own text.

Video available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIwZvqv-SKg&t=7s

/ JAN KOWAL Born in 1997, he is studying at The Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice. He works with graphic design, painting and ceramics. He experiments with inter-media realisations. He is constantly looking for new ways of expression. He tries to speak up through techniques and matters that he doesn’t know yet as it seems more interesting to him.

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GRZEGORZ KOZERA GRZEGORZ AND MICHAŁ IN SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA 2018 GRZEGORZ KOZERA’S PHOTO ARCHIVE

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GRZEGORZ KOZERA MI, I’M WRITING A LETTER TO YOU... 2017 COLLAGE 115

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GRZEGORZ KOZERA ANOTHER VISION 2019 GRZEGORZ KOZERA’S PHOTO ARCHIVE Layout: Agam Gut

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GRZEGORZ AND MICHAŁ IN SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA In 2018, we managed to realise our dream – a walking trip to Santiago de Compostela. The legendary pilgrimage route has more aspects than just the religious one, it is important for recreation, sports and, especially, culture. 518 kilometres of Camino del Norte was a great adventure without a trace of exclusion, stigmatisation or hostility from other travellers nor the Spanish residents. It’s a pity that even a short walk with Michał held by the hand around Monte Casino street in Sopot, Piotrowska street in Łódź or Krakowskie Przedmieście street in Warsaw and Lublin evokes totally opposite emotions… WIDZENIE POWTÓRNE In 2019 together with Michał we went on a journey to South America following the steps of Józef Czapliński, who headed there in 1955. The direct impulse and the source of information about his travel was his long-time correspondence with a close friend – Ludwik Hering (Józef Czapski, Ludwik Hering, Listy 1939–1982, Gdańsk 2015). In a collage composition we expose the archive of our private photos from the expedition with addressing symbolically its patron, the author of the Eye, for whom homosexual experience was “very secret” as he confessed it in his talk with Piotr Kłoczowski in an interview “Świat w moich oczach” (2001, pp. 98–100). MI, I’M WRITING A LETTER TO YOU... A collage composition from Czech postcards is a work dedicated to my boyfriend Michał. In 2017, I took part in a project on Czech surrealism, part of which was a trip to Prague. Due to professional reasons, Michał couldn’t come with me, but he got this poetic epistle. I refer in it to a poem by the Czech surrealist Oldřich Wenzel, “I’m writing a letter to you...” to which I add a personal dedication. The work was presented at the Šestsil exhibition at the Zachęta Project Room in Warsaw

Author’s own text.

/ GRZEGORZ KOZERA Born in 1983. A graduate of Art History at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. He studied at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, graduating with a Diploma with Rector’s Distinction in the Painting Space studio of Professor Leon Tarasewicz and Paweł Susid PhD in 2011. He creates easel painting and collage. Since 2017, he has been a PhD student at the Environmental PhD studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow.

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KATARZYNA KOZYRA SUMMER TALE, TRAILER 2008 VIDEO, 2:50 118

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The summer tale is a colourful contemporary fairy tale that, in its message, contains Kozyra’s artistic statement on the role and value of the male element in (her) world. The structure of the tale resembles patchwork, it is composed of fragments of numerous fairy tales. The summer tale combines idyllic aesthetic with elements of horror and horror movies. The framework of the story resembles a fairy tale about Snow White (although, as the inscription at the end of the film suggests, no specific fairy tale was a prototype for it). Male dwarfs become female dwarfs, while the princess takes a triple form: Maestro (Grzegorz Pitułej, singing teacher), Gloria Viagra (Berlin drag queen) and an artist disguised as Alice in Wonderland. The calm and idyllic atmosphere of the female dwarf world is disturbed with the arrival of the aforementioned trinity (male figures). However, the status quo must be restored, whatever the means used. The summer tale as a part of a larger project “In art dreams come true” has a unique function of a moral parable. While the remaining parts are mainly about a kind of artistic challenge, it is not only about impersonating a fairy-tale character, but about conveying certain content: refusing to eliminate the Other in the form of capricious and often unbearable men.

Description based on: Katarzyna Kozyra, Casting, kat. wystawy, eds. M. Sitkowska, H. Wróblewska, Zachęta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki, Warsaw 2010 Source: http://katarzynakozyra.pl/projekty/summertale/ Video available online: https://zacheta.art.pl/pl/kolekcja/katalog/kozyra-katarzyna-opowiesc--letnia-summertale-2/galeria

/ KATARZYNA KOZYRA Born in 1963. Sculptor, photographer, author of performances, films, video installations and artistic actions. A graduate of the Faculty of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In 1998, she completed post-graduate studies at the Hochschule für Graphik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, in the New Media studio under prof. Helmut Marek. Kozyra’s actions contributed to the creation of the so-called critical art and had a significant impact on the shape of contemporary culture, often being the starting point for a wider discussion. Laureate of, among others awards of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (Warsaw 2011) and the Paszporty Polityki award (Warsaw 1997). A DAAD scholarship holder (Berlin 2003) and the Kościuszko Foundation (New York 2000). In 2011, she obtained a doctoral degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Over the past decades, Kozyra’s works have been exhibited in museums and institutions around the Word.

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EWELINA KOŻUCHOWSKA IDENTITY LIMITS GRAPHICS, SLIDESHOW

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The series of graphics “Identity Limits” refers to important questions that we ask ourselves about our identity nowadays. The way we perceive ourselves, the way we make decisions and the way we experience them daily – it all forms our identity. It is good to ask questions such as: should identity be free and represent ourselves apart from any stereotypes? Who creates the limits of our identity? Do such limits exist at all, or should they exist? Through the graphic series “Identity Limits” I am trying to show the need of asking questions about identity of a contemporary person. The ability of joining the exhibition “We are people” is important to me because through my engagement and my artistic message I would like to express my solidarity with other artists, who do not give their consent for attacks, discrimination and any other forms of abuse towards people connected with LGBTQ+. Joint cooperation with a motto “We are people” and the ability of taking part in it is a form of turning attention on creating changes through enlargement of awareness and tolerance that is very needed nowadays in our society. Why does it bother me at all? We live in such a world and not any other and there is so much to do on many levels. I would like my friends who identify with LGBTQ+ not to be afraid of showing their identity in a country like Poland. That is why participating in the exhibition is an action that gives attention to a group in our society that really needs our support here and now. It is always worth it to stand in defence of other people! Together we can fight for their freedom in order to allow LGBTQ+ people to live normally to the fullest. I am aware that I am not able to change homophobic opinions, but I can take part in the exhibition that supports LGBTQ+ people in order to show that their uniqueness is not necessarily difficult. This is the time to stand for these people and, through artistic activity, show that there are people around whom they can be themselves and may feel fully safe.

Author’s own text.

/ EWELINA KOŻUCHOWSKA Visual artist and graphic designer. She works with visual art, photography, illustration and interior decoration making consistent but eclectic creations mainly in a form of characteristic black and white drawings. She tries to combine art with design and education analysing such topics as identity and instability of the world around us.

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KORNEL LEŚNIAK IMMODESTY 2019–2020 NOTEBOOK, 12 × 12 CM 1 22

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On New Year’s Eve 2019, I started to keep a notebook on thoughts that were a shame to share. Which I did not want to burden anyone with, for which there was no room in the world of my hetero and cis-normative friends. There have always been greater problems and more pressing issues than mine. I have not done any works on queer issues, because when you do them, you have to think about all this mess, and the weight in your stomach keeps the ground running faster and faster. I first came across the concept of minority stress a few weeks ago. I understood why one of my friends suffers from chronic abdominal pain and why I compulsively write down the pages. The same day I came across a comment saying that “homophobia and transphobia are persuaded by the left wing to itself, because in reality there is no such thing, and they kill themselves later”. Disgusting gaslighting. I disagree with treating my community this way. I do not consent to our suffering. Looking through my records for the last six months, I can see that nothing has changed. I want to talk about it (because I am afraid that an interview with someone’s mother will appear in the newspaper again tomorrow).

Author’s own text.

/ KORNEL LEŚNIAK Born in 1999, tattoo artist, painting student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice. In his works, he explores themes related to belonging, divisions and privacy. He explores human skin and tattoos as a medium for communicating with the environment.

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KRYSTIAN LIPIEC FROM THE SERIES BETWEEN US 2019 ANALOGUE PHOTOGRAPHY, 69 × 103 CM

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/ KRYSTIAN LIPIEC Born in 1989 in Stalowa Wola. He later moved to Kraków, where he received formal photography education at the Academy of Photography. He is an organiser of many exhibitions, and his works have been presented several times at collective exhibitions in Poland and abroad, they have also been published in the press numerous times.

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JAROSŁAW MANKIEWICZ SCANDINAVIAN LOVING 2019 COMPUTER GRAPHICS, 70 × 70 CM

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This work was inspired by a several-day visit to Denmark and Sweden, a visit for a very specific reason – to get married... it is an illustration of the situation of LGBTQ+ people in Poland, who, in order to get married officially, must go abroad. Their homeland does not accept them, it does not see them as full-fledged citizens and does not give them the opportunity to do it in their country. The documents are accepted all over the civilised word the world. Obviously, Poland does not belong in this world yet, here we are still formally strangers to each other without any rights. Description of the process (as of December, 2019): Before completing and sending the form, you should have scans of several documents: 1. ID card/passport 2. Certificate of marital status – available at the city district office – currently you do not have to provide the exact purpose of issuing the certificate – just enter “private use” + certified translation 3. documents/information/photos confirming that the persons concerned know each other. In our case, these were certificates with translations of the registration, as we have already lived together and are registered at one address. In order to fill in the form, we chose the option – Application with SMS login – in the next step we gave the phone number to which we received a text message with the login code. You do not need to complete the form in one go. When filling out the form, you can save it and come back to it later – we log in using the same phone number each time, so we do not lose previously entered data. In the form, you should indicate where you want to get married. We chose Copenhagen, the city is very nice, the town hall where the ceremony takes place is antique and beautiful. It is near to Malmo, which is cheap to get from Poland by plane, low-cost airlines fly to Copenhagen too. Trains run frequently between the cities. After completing the form and attaching all attachments in the appropriate places, everything must be printed, signed by hand and scanned. Finally, you need to log in to the form again and add the scanned and signed pdf. In the next step, we can pay the fee immediately, or pay later by bank transfer, but the first option is faster. The fee is DKK 1650, about PLN 950. After sending the form, each individual received an e-mail confirming the submission of the appli-

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cation. The office has 5 working days to process the application. After exactly 5 days, we received an email with a link to document with the issued consent. In this document there is a link to the website of the city hall, which we chose in the form, where you should make an appointment for the wedding ceremony itself. We have 4 months to do that. After this time, the consent to the wedding expires, the fee is forfeited and the whole process has to be started all over again. After booking the date of the wedding, we received an email confirming the date and useful information. The day before the wedding at the latest, you should come to the office (in Copenhagen there is an information desk with a shop on the left side just outside the door of the town hall) and show your identity documents. We took the originals and translations of all documents used at the time of submitting the application with us, but they were not needed. We left our identity documents for a few hours at the office and went sightseeing. After three hours, we returned to take the documents. On the day of the wedding, you should go directly to the hall where the ceremony takes place (hearts laid on the floor led to it). Exactly at the agreed time, the wedding clerk came out and invited us inside. The ceremony takes place in English, Danish or German - we chose the language the day before, while submitting the documents for verification. The whole event lasts about 15 minutes, is ceremonial and formal, and at the same time the atmosphere is quite cheerful and friendly. At the beginning of the ceremony, we need to provide our first and last names. After the official speech, the clerk asks each of you if you take Mr X/Ms X as your husband/wife. We answered “Yes I do” :) Finally, we sign the document if we have our guests, and we want them to be witnesses - we are asked about it then. If not, we get witnesses from the office, two additional officials are present at the ceremony all the time. We immediately receive two copies of the marriage certificate in several languages. After the ceremony, it is good to walk around the town hall building, which is very nice and antique, and take a photo session there. It was one of the most beautiful days of my life.

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/ JAROSŁAW MANKIEWICZ In 2004, he graduated from the Department of Graphic Art, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. In 2007/2008, he participated in typography course organised by KTR with Martin Majoor. From 2009 to 2013 he was working for CANAL+ Poland as Graphic and Motion Designer. In 2013 he obtained two prizes: PROMAX BDA 2013 – Best Channel Branding – GOLD, KTR 2013 – Motion Graphics – GOLD, Identity Silver. Since 2017, he has been a co-owner and a board member of Czwarta Rano Animation Studio. Since 2020, he has lived in Lisbon, Portugal.

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KRZYSZTOF MARCHLAK DREAMER: PIOTR, DREAMERS SERIES, 2020 DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY, 70 × 50 CM 1 30

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KRZYSZTOF MARCHLAK DREAMER: VITTORIO FRANCO, DREAMERS SERIES, 2019 DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY, 70 × 50 CM 1 31

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KRZYSZTOF MARCHLAK DREAMER: JAN, DREAMERS SERIES, 2020 DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY, 70 × 50 CM 1 32

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KRZYSZTOF MARCHLAK DREAMER: JAKUB, DREAMERS SERIES, 2019 DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY, 70 × 50 CM 1 33

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Series of gender fluid men or gay men, who do not fit the stereotype of a man. Inspired by individual stories, passions and insecurities of models, I have created a dream alike photographs, which present them as superheroes in reality that does not exist. The imaginary and timeless places are metaphor of a dreamland where all problems disappear, and individuality takes first place. I am inviting everyone to participate in this project. All my models contacted me by themselves via Instagram account. The will of participation coming from models is an important part of this series. Because of my photographs, everyone can see themselves in their dream. The aim of this series is a word: BEAUTY. Everyone is beautiful on his own, nice way. I just help them notice it.

Author’s own text.

/ KRZYSZTOF MARCHLAK Born in 1987. Painter, photographer, creator of art installations. He obtained the PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in 2018. Previously, he had graduated from the second-degree studies at the Painting Department of the same university (2012). He is currently working as an assistant at the Institute of Painting and Artistic Education at the Faculty of Art of the UP in Kraków. He is the author of several individual exhibitions as well participant of group shows in Poland and abroad.

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RAFAŁ MILACH AND BIANKA NWOLISA STOP CALLING ME MURZYN 2020 1 36

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A 10-year-old Bianka Nwolisa was one of the multitude of people who protested in front of the embassy of the USA in Warsaw against the brutality of American police towards the citizens. The girl was telling in interviews how she had cried in school while discussing “Murzynek Bambo”. “Stop calling me Murzyn” has become an emblematic motto and has started a discussion about stigmatising and exclusive language. “Murzynek Bambo” “Brownie”, “Makumba”, “Chocolate”, “Working like Murzyn” to have a right to something “like a white person”, these are only some of the wordings used on a daily basis, and which convey verbal racism. And it’s not about censoring language but about simple empathy.

Sylwia Hejno

/ RAFAŁ MILACH Documentary photographer, graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice and ITF in Opava. He obtained a scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage twice, as well as scholarships of the World Press Photo foundation and the Magnum Foundation. He has been implementing projects devoted to transformation in the Russian-speaking countries for over a decade. He is a co-founder of the Sputnik Photos collective, with whom he has been documenting the changes taking place in Central and Eastern Europe for over six years. Since 2011, he has lectured at the Institute of Creative Photography at the University of Silesia in Opava, Czech Republic.

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IZABELA MACIEJEWSKA NIGHT WILL FALL 2015 HAPPENING DOCUMENTATION 1 38

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The title of that action “Night will fall” was purposely borrowed from a document with the same title, directed by Andre singer, which was screened in Poland in 2015 for the first time and impressed me in a great way. There are very important words in the end of the film: “Unless the world learns the lessons these pictures teach, night will fall”. I still have them in my mind… did the world learn the lessons? We all can see what has been going on in Poland for the last years – this festival of hostility towards LGBTQ+ people.

Author’s own text.

/ IZABELA MACIEJEWSKA Born in 1975. A graduate of Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. She defended her diploma thesis in 2002 in the Multimedia Department and Photography Laboratory at the Visual Education Faculty. A graduate of the National Film, Television & Theatre School in Łódź, where she defended her diploma thesis in 2007 in the Creative Photography Laboratory at the Cinematography and Television Production Department. The scope of her activities encompasses installations, video art, photography and sculpture. She combines various media in her works. The major theme of her formally diverse productions is a human being and the idea of metamorphosis, transgression, penetration of forms and co-existing of various realms. In her socially engaged work she speaks up against fascisation and exclusion.

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PAWEŁ MATYSZEWSKI LOVE AND HARMONY HOME DECORATION 2010/2011 EMBROIDERED SMALL TAPESTRY, 60 × 70 CM 140

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PAWEŁ MATYSZEWSKI GOOD APPETITE 2010/2011 EMBROIDERED SMALL TAPESTRY, 60 × 70 CM 14 1

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PAWEŁ MATYSZEWSKI WHERE THERE IS LOVE THERE IS HARMONY 2010/2011 EMBROIDERED SMALL TAPESTRY, 60 × 70 CM 142

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PAWEŁ MATYSZEWSKI COLD WATER MAKES YOU HEALTHY 2010/2011 EMBROIDERED SMALL TAPESTRY, 60 × 70 CM 14 3

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The embroidery depicts single-sex couples and non-heteronormative families. It is embroidered with cream-coloured thread on cream-coloured canvas, showing the invisible and neglected in equal treatment by the Polish state, non-heteronormative citizens. They show everyday life, set in the convention of popular in the past small tapestries with evocative texts.

Author’s own text.

/ PAWEŁ MATYSZEWSKI Born in 1984 in Białystok. In 2009, he obtained a diploma at the Faculty of Painting (in the studio of Piotr C. Kowalski) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, where he is currently a PhD student. Paweł Matyszewski’s works have been shown at numerous solo exhibitions, among others, in Arsenał Gallery in Białystok, Biała Gallery in Lublin, Piekary and Starter Galleries in Poznań, and Centre for Creative Activity in Ustka. The artist has also taken part in many collective exhibitions. He has won a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage “Młoda Polska”, artistic awards of the Painting Biennial “Bielska Jesień” and the Young Art Biennial “Rybie oko”.

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ANNA NAWROT FROM THE CYCLE: ONE 2020 OBJECT

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Anna Nawrot’s works from the cycle “One” refer to women, their image, perception and functioning in the social and private space. Anna Nawrot refers to the cultural way of representing a contemporary woman and refers to cultural and mental clichés.

Author’s own text.

/ ANNA NAWROT Born in 1960. Graduate of the Institute of Artistic Education (currently Faculty of Art) of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. Since 1985, she runs Biała Gallery in Lublin with Jan Gryka.

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NO_PIC_NO_CHAT LUBLIN SHROUD I 2020 PRINT ON A TOWEL, 75 × 125 CM 148

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NO_PIC_NO_CHAT LUBLIN SHROUD II 2020 PRINT ON A TOWEL, 75 × 125 CM 14 9

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NO_PIC_NO_CHAT 2020 The performance took place on 10/10/2020

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In several cities of the Republic of Poland, in 2020 during the global coronavirus pandemic, Polish archaeologists have made important archaeological discoveries. Artefacts of the same origin were discovered in Lublin (11/09/2020), Cracow (31/08/2020) and Warsaw (04/08/2020). These items have a yet unexplored power – during the excavation works in Lublin, the scientists who conducted them wiped sweat from their foreheads with towels purchased in the nearby *******. On the same day, strange images appeared on the towels, initially indistinct, but fully materialised after a few days. Since then, called “Lublin Shrouds”, they have been presented to a wider audience at Galeria Labirynt.

Author’s own text.

/ NO_PIC_NO_CHAT Visual arts artist who creates films, photographs, objects. He deals with the representation of masculinity and intimacy in photography. His work is based on Joseph Campbell’s monomyth theory (“The Hero with a Thousand Faces”) and the work of Carl Gustav Jung (“The Red Book”). He makes his artistic statement referring to collective archetypes through videos and the creation of objects and performative situations.

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ANNA NOWAKOWSKA ALL EQUAL 2020 COMPUTER GRAPHICS, 70 × 100 CM

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We are different: we have different sexual orientations, sometimes the biological sex we were born with does not match our gender identity, sometimes we feel that no gender defines us, we have different skin colour, but despite this, we are equal and deserve the same rights, acceptance and respect. I do not agree with any discrimination, including homophobia and transphobia, which recently, thanks to politicians, has taken the form of a legal smear campaign in the media and public space. It is important now that we do not remain indifferent and that we publicly manifest disagree with hatred and support LGBTQ+ community.

Author’s own text.

/ ANNA NOWAKOWSKA A student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw majoring in Media Art.

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KRZYSIEK OLEKSIAK ALL RIGHT, SERIOUSLY, KNUCKLE DOWN II 2020 POSTER, 70 × 100 CM 1 54

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The original work was created with a view to the growing threat of climate catastrophe, but time passes, and more threats are arising. A simple slogan enclosed in a simple form is a direct appeal to politicians who openly dehumanise the LGBTQ+ community and at the same time a call to stop playing political games at the expense of people.

Author’s own text.

/ KRZYSIEK OLEKSIAK Born in 1999 in Warsaw. Student of the Faculty of Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Visual artist using mainly photography, video and graphics in his works. He deals with relations between sounds and images, seeks visual and audiovisual answers to sociological, psychological and identity problems. Scholarship holder of the Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

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AREK PASOŻYT IMAGES FROM THE SERIES STRIKING IMAGES 2020 PHOTOGRAPHY, 40 × 60 CM At the demonstration: We will not be intimidated #stopthenonsense, Toruń, 10/08/2020, photo by Marek Krupecki

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AREK PASOŻYT IMAGES FROM THE SERIES STRIKING IMAGES 2020 PHOTOGRAPHY, 40 × 60 CM One-man walk-protest with a Rainbow Striking Image, Wrocław, 02/09/2020, photo by Yuri Biley

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At the demonstration: We will not be intimidated #stopthenonsense, Toruń, 10/08/2020, on a reproduction of the painting “Storks” from 1900 by the Polish realist Józef Chełmoński. One-man walk-protest with a Rainbow Striking Image, Wrocław, 02/09/2020 on a reproduction of the painting “Landscape with bridge” from 1835 by the American landscape painter Thomas Doughty. In Wrocław, I went on a one-man walk-protest with a Rainbow Striking Image. I walked around places where there had been recent protests or events with which I wanted to sympathise or comment. I started at the Provincial Police Headquarters at Podwale, where the demonstration “Supportive of Margot” took place, then I went to the Pregierz at the Market Square, where two demonstrations “Supportive of Belarus” took place, and finally I went to Elbing. Here, in front of the Church of St. Michael the Archangel, there was a transphobic attack on the pro-ecological municipal action “Change your oven”. Paintings from the cycle of “Striking Images”, which are painted in response to current protests, demonstrations and social movements in the public space. At a time of escalating lawlessness and injustice of the ruling party, to which the socio-political street movements are responding, as an artist it was, and still is, an appropriate idea to take to the streets to protest with the paintings he paints in his studio.

Author’s own text.

/ AREK PASOŻYT In 2010, he formulated a “Manifesto of Parasitism” presenting the idea of his actions as a parasitic artist, thus critically referring to the status of the artist in society. According to the “Manifesto”, Arek Pasożyt lived and worked as a parasite for four years in several cities, cultural institutions and all places connected with culture. At the core of his work is a belief in the therapeutic role of art and the conviction that through it people can improve their situation. Since the beginning of his activity as a parasite artist, he has painted pictures in the background, which over time have become an increasingly important part of his work. Apart from formal parasitism, they become an attempt a voice on the condition of man and the world, as well as, with time, a direct comment on the current socio-political situation. At the turn of 2017 and 2018, with the intensification of street protests, he began to go out with his paintings for demonstrations (“Striking Images”).

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KATARZYNA PERLAK NIOLAM JA SE KOCHANECZKE (I ONCE HAD A MISTRESS) 2016 VIDEO 1 60

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“Niolam Ja Se Kochaneczke” (2016) considers the potential of queer utopias in the context of analysing the relationship between history and power structures. This project was made in collaboration with (anonymous) female singers from Lublin and Sanok, as well as with Assia Ghendir, a French singer of Algerian origin, who is the film’s main protagonist. In collaboration with the singers, traditional hetero-normative songs about love were transformed into their queer equivalents, depicting the relationship between two women. This procedure aimed at recovering invisible stories and (re)producing archival material that represents queer love in folk and historical narratives. The work argues against the homogenous idea of tradition which excludes sexual and ethnic minorities as “foreign” and not belonging to the Eastern European/Polish identity.

Author’s own text.

Video available on the Internet: https://vimeo.com/251156407

/ KATARZYNA PERLAK An artist living in London whose practice encompasses video, performance, sound and installation. Perlak’s work is driven by politics and emotion. She explores queer subjectivity, migration and the potentiality of affect as a tool for recording and archiving both present, ongoing and past historical moments. She is currently exploring methodologies of “bargaining craft” and the relationship between notions of utopia, hope, horizon and the concept of “landscape of wishes”. Perlak has a degree in philosophy, which she studied in Poland, and media art in the UK (Camberwell College of Arts and Slade School of Fine Art, London).

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MAGDA PIEKARSKA NO TITLE 2020 PHOTOGRAPHY 1 62

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It is amazing how metaphorical this view is. On the one hand, it is saddening, because this is exactly how lonely LGBTQ+ people can sometimes feel, but on the other hand, even though it is only one flag, it is uplifting and warms our hearts. Someday things will be normal again and we won’t have to explain to anyone that we are human!

Author’s own text.

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LILIANA PISKORSKA STRONG SISTERS TOLD BROTHERS 2019 VIDEO, 30:00 1 64

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The manifesto and at the same time revolutionary poem is a call for solidarity, empathy and fighting for one’s rights. The artist addresses the problem of social invisibility of non-heteronormative people and, at the same time, the hyper-visibility of privileged groups in patriarchal society. “I wear my pink triangle everywhere”*, she says, while pointing out that many people don’t know what it means. This activist work gives strength, hope, arouses anger and prompts awareness of the other person. The atmospheric nature and the calm voiceover are in strong contrast to the text. Emotions in it are thrown out with the force of a machine gun. The artist based on three queer declarations – “The Woman Identified Woman” from 1970, “Dyke Manifesto” from 1992 and “The Queer Nation Manifesto” from 1990.

*A way of labelling homosexuals in Nazi concentration camps, and since the 1970s a symbol of the struggle for equal rights.

Sylwia Hejno

Film available on the Internet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKLIyQDFIOY

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LILIANA PISKORSKA FIFTH COLUMN 2019 METAL CASTING, ENAMEL, 4,5 × 5 CM 1 66

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The slogan “Hetero c’est Collabo” comes from radical lesbian French feminists and means that whoever is straight collaborates. The title is a reference to popular conspiracy theories, according to which the policy of equality would be aimed at establishing a communist model and breaking up the family. A decorative, flower brooch becomes a symbol of belonging, confirmation of the enemy’s existence and diversion, which can be interpreted in various ways.

Sylwia Hejno

/ LILIANA PISKORSKA Born in 1988, visual artist, PhD of fine arts. A graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, in 2011 she studied at the University of Warsaw. In 2017, she defended her PhD thesis at the Toruń University of Life Sciences. From 2013, a member of the Group on the Vistula. Finalist of the Forecast Forum at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin in 2017. Audience Award Winner at Views 2019: Deutsche Bank Award. Her works are in private and public collections (including the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art). In her artistic activity, she analyses social issues from the perspective of radical sensitivity, the feminist-queer and feminist-posthumanist theory rooted in practice.

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KAROL RADZISZEWSKI GOD HATES FAGS, GOD LOVES EVERYONE, EVEN BLACKS 2002 PHOTOGRAPHY 1 68

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Using authentic quotations, the work tackles the problem of the mutual relations between homosexuality and faith. The artist exposes the hypocrisy of apparent religiosity, which, by affirming the speech of hatred rejects the idea of love and God’s mercy towards all people. The cluster “God loves/God hates” shows the discretion with which we approach the principles of the Christian Ten Commandments, which order us to “love your neighbour as yourself” and makes no exceptions to this principle. Karol Radziszewski shows how the language referring to faith can be used to exclude people from society and from a religious community.

Sylwia Hejno

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KAROL RADZISZEWSKI FAG FIGHTERS: PROLOGUE 2007 PHOTOGRAPHY 170

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Their trademark are pink balaclavas knitted by their grandmothers. It is in these that the gay militia spread fear in the city, for wherever they appear, sex, destruction and graffiti are prevalent. The fictional gang of pink vandals is an emanation of the vision of aggressive gays shattering the social order, fuelled by the radical right. The line between fear and hidden fantasy becomes fluid... In one of the photos we can see the artist sitting with his grandmother on a patterned sofa – she is the one who made on the knitting machine the balaclava in which his grandson proudly presents himself. This scene shows how the political becomes private and the private becomes political.

Sylwia Hejno

/ KAROL RADZISZEWSKI Born in 1980 in Białystok, he lives and works in Warsaw. He graduated from the Faculty of Painting of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. Creator of films, photographs, installations, author of interdisciplinary projects, Publisher of magazines and books, creates fashion and curatorial projects. He is the founder, publisher and editor-in-chief of DIK Fagazine, published since 2005 – the first and only Central and Eastern European art magazine devoted to homosexuality and masculinity. Winner of the main prize of the 3rd edition of the Samsung Art Master competition (2007) and winner of Paszporty Polityki Award (2009). In 2015, he founded the Queer Archives Institute, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the research, collection, digitisation, presentation, analysis and artistic interpretation of queer archives with a special focus on Central and Eastern Europe. The first QAI exhibition inaugurating the project took place in Videobrasil (São Paulo) in 2016.

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JÓZEF ROBAKOWSKI THE TOUCH OF JOSEPH 1989 VIDEO, 17:14

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The film tells the story of the artist’s three encounters with homosexuality at different stages of his life, for which the visual background is provided by images of a gay couple he met in Montreal.

Author’s own text.

Film available on the Internet: https://vimeo.com/201111784

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JÓZEF ROBAKOWSKI 6,000,000 1962 VIDEO, 4:36

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Józef Robakowski’s first experimental collage film, made using the found footage method. The “six million” in the title refer to the estimated number of Jews murdered during World War II. The compilation of documents depicting the times of the Holocaust has the form of an impression, and in the background we can hear Frederic Chopin’s music brutally cut through by the sounds of bombing and church bells which herald the tragedy. Calm landscapes give way to views of war barbed wire, emaciated bodies on the brink of life and death, executions, the camp orchestra, the collapsing city. The penetrating gaze of dark, female eyes opens and closes these sequences. Do we see only images in these monstrous scenes, how deep is our perception, is the fear of history repeating itself justified?

Sylwia Hejno

Film available on the Internet: https://vimeo.com/193115516

/ JÓZEF ROBAKOWSKI Pioneer of video art in Poland, his works from the 1970s and 1980s entered the canon of Polish modern art. He is a professor at the Łódź Film School, where he heads the multimedia studio. For 36 years, he has been running Galeria Wymiany – the longest existing private non-commercial gallery in Poland, whose programme and collections are created through exchanges with artists. Artist, art historian, author of films, photographic series, video recordings, drawings, installations, objects, conceptual projects and initiator of many important events and multimedia artistic actions.

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DANIEL RYCHARSKI THE ISLAND 2018 VIDEO, 4:24 176

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“The Island Project” was realised on Jeziórki in Sierpc, a body of water in the town centre. In the middle of the pond, on a small island, a fragment of scenography from the film Pokłosie has been set. The artificial matzevot were additionally decorated in the form of a floral rainbow, in which the number of flowers was similar to the number of Jewish inhabitants of the town in 1939. For more than three weeks the installation was a visually dominant element of the public space, operating both day and night. At weekends, the Water Volunteer Rescue Service provided the possibility of watching the Island from close up, taking those willing on a short boat cruise on Jeziórki. The activities in Sierpc refer to one of the key debates in Polish culture on the attitude of our society towards its former Jewish neighbours, incorporating discussions on other current problems of intolerance. The Island can be interpreted, among other things, as a project about the lack of language to talk about contemporary exclusions related to class, race or sexual orientation – this language is attempted to be constructed here through references to anti-Semitism and war history. Based on combining artificial elements, the installation points to the use of clichés and visual codes in a way that allows the search for a connection between different experiences.

Sylwia Hejno

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„Opieka to coś, co wypełnia nasze życie jak powietrze, którym oddychamy. Odruch pomocy, wyciągnięcia ręki jest czymś, co pozwala nam społecznie funkcjonować. Bez opieki wszystko się wali.” Bez opieki i wzajemnej pomocy nie sposób mówić o dobrze funkcjonującym społeczeństwie. Stało się to szczególnie widoczne podczas epidemii Covid-19, której skutki stały by się jeszcze bardziej dotkliwe, gdyby nie wzajemna pomoc i oddolne wsparcie. W nowym projekcie „Opieka rodzinna” mieszkańcy wsi angażują się w leczenie polskiego społeczeństwa z homofobii. Współpracuję z chętnymi rolnikami, którzy włączają się w pomoc i opiekę nad osobami LGBT+ w momencie kryzysu. Jest to reakcja na coraz częściej słyszane informacje o przypadkach samobójstw, które z powodu odrzucenia i nienawiści popełniają osoby LGBT+. Spędzanie czasu, wspólna praca i rozrywka na wsi stają się tutaj formą terapii, w której poprzez akceptację odrzuconej jednostki chcemy leczyć polskie społeczeństwo z rozpadu, w jakim się aktualnie znajduje, dać moment wytchnienia od homofobii często obecnej w miastach. Jako artysta chciałbym pracować lokalnie w okolicach Sierpca nad tymczasowym projektem „Opieki rodzinnej”, który sprzyja zbliżeniu i wzajemnej pomocy pomiędzy wspomnianymi grupami. Pomysł na działanie związane z opieką został zainspirowany książką „Daremność i nadzieja” autorstwa etnografa Andrzeja Perzanowskiego. Opowiada ona o losach rodzinnej opieki psychiatrycznej rozwijającej się od lat 30. XX wieku w miejscowości Choroszcz na Białostocczyźnie. Osoby wymagające wsparcia psychicznego zamiast przebywać w szpitalu zamieszkiwały wraz z rodzinami rolniczymi będąc wsparciem w pracy jak i doznając wsparcia ze strony mieszkańców. Wieś stawała się przestrzenią schronienia, gdzie osoby odrzucone mogły poczuć się najlepiej. Istotny był również aspekt ekonomiczny – gospodarze przyjmujący konkretnych chorych zyskiwali dodatkowe źródło dochodu. W dzisiejszej sytuacji, to homofobia jest chorobą, niemniej trudno znaleźć ofertę pomocy pozwalającą radzić sobie z jej skutkami. W mniejszej skali w formie projektu kilkudniowych kolonii-spotkania chcielibyśmy pomyśleć o opiece rodzinnej jako oddolnym projekcie wypełniającym tą lukę. Korzystając z możliwości zakwaterowania w gospodarstwie poszukujemy do współpracy zarówno chętnych osób LGBT+, które były by zainteresowane wzięciem udziału w projekcie jak i chętnych rolników. Pobyt na wsi byłby więc czymś w rodzaju terapii, okazją do przełamania izolacji osób LGBT+ we wspólnocie. Jednocześnie zbiega się ze wzrostem bezrobocia, spadkiem opłacalności małej produkcji rolnej. Łączy w sobie pomoc wzajemną obydwu grupom w wymiarze emocjonalnym i materialnym. W naszym zamierzeniu tygodniowa obecność grupy ośmiu osób przypadać będzie na pierwszą połowę sierpnia. Dziennym aktywnościom w ramach współpracy z lokalnymi gospodarzami towarzyszyć będą otwarte dla wszystkich, popołudniowe spotkania z zaproszonymi gośćmi „Opieki rodzinnej”. Obliczona jest na wspólne korzyści – zaproszonych gości otrzymujących wsparcie, ale i okazję do rekreacji oraz przyjmujących je rodzin, które za udział w projekcie otrzymają wynagrodzenie. Dowartościowanie pracy, opieki i troski o drugiego człowieka splata się w naszej intencji z chęcią pracy ponad podziałami społecznymi, które również wymagają ozdrowienia i możliwości osobistej rozmowy ponad doniesieniami z mediów. Daniel Rycharski

DANIEL RYCHARSKI FAMILY CARE 2018

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A mutual aid project that would see farmers hosting LGBTQ+ people receive remuneration. It is also a direct response to the current President’s words that “LGBTQ+ ideology is worse than communism”. The best cure for homophobia would be real, interpersonal relations. Living in the countryside, working and spending time together would be a kind of therapy, enabling mutual understanding. “The appreciation of the work of care and concern for others is intertwined in our intention with the desire to work across social divides, which also require healing and the possibility of personal conversation above media reports,” declares the artist.

Sylwia Hejno

/ DANIEL RYCHARSKI Born in 1986. Lives and works in Kurówek and Kraków. He is a lecturer at the Chair Multimedia Department at the Pedagogical University in Kraków, author of films, multimedia installations and site-specific objects, as well as a cultural animator. He creates public projects in the rural space, involving the local community. In 2005–2009, he created an artistic group with Sławomir Shuty. In 2009, the artist decided to return to his home village Kurówko. Inspired by stories about fantastic creatures inhabiting the surrounding forests, he created a mural on one of the houses, creating a mural depicting an animal-hybrid. The project resulted in a series of several dozen paintings commonly known as rural street art. In his artistic practice, he is inspired by, among other things, by sacral elements and folk beliefs, which led to the creation of the installation Chapel Gallery, which is a place intended for the presentation of artistic activities. In 2012, he received the title of the Culturist of the Year awarded by the Third Program of the Polish Radio. Daniel Rycharski has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions.

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PREM SAHIB CHARIOTS 2019 SLIDESHOW Photos by: Prem Sahib and Mark Blower

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In 2016, Prem Sahib documented the interiors of many London gay venues that had closed or were threatened with closure, often due to the rapid free-market redevelopment of the city. The work consists of photographs taken in two gay saunas – Chariots Shoreditch and Chariots Waterloo. The photographs were taken by Sahib and a photographer, Mark Blower, when the spaces were inhabited by squatters or in the process of being demolished. At a time while other LGBTQ+ spaces remain closed due to the global health crisis, the photographs reflect the decline, transformation and aesthetics of this type of social space.

Author’s own text.

/ PREM SAHIB Born in 1982 in the United Kingdom. Studied at The Slade School of Fine Art from 2002 to 2006 and earned an MA in Material and Visual Culture from University College London (2006–2008). Sahib’s work combines both sculpture and painting, which appears abstract and minimalist, formally pure and precise. However, each work stems from beliefs about sexuality, intimacy, desire and community. His works deal with notions of encounter and presence, codifying minimalist forms with anecdote. Recently his practice has expanded to include installation and event-based work.

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SERGEY SHABOHIN SELF-PORTRAIT IN GLORY HOLE, FROM THE CYCLE FEAR OF CASTRATION 2019–2020 PHOTOGRAPHY 1 82

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Photo was taken in the Phantom gay club in Warsaw. The photograph is part of the “Fear of Castration” series, which includes photographs from Warsaw gay clubs and bars (most of which have already ceased to operate). The series of works was created as a rebuke to conservatism and aggression towards any behaviour that does not fit into the political norm both in Belarus and in Poland. The artist contrasts the official “white, clean” culture with the “black, dirty” gay subculture, creating a black installation box (darkroom) in the white cube of the gallery. The series is reinforced by the slogan “White culture is afraid to look into the black hole”. Most of the series has already been shown at Galeria Labirynt in 2016.

Author’s own text.

/ SERGEY SHABOHIN Born in 1984 in Novopolotsk, Belarus. In 2004–2009, he studied at the Belarusian State Academy of Arts in Minsk. Artist, curator, art activist, critic, editor-in-chief of the portal of contemporary Belarusian art “Art Aktivist”. Co-founder and chief editor of the platform of contemporary Belarusian art KALEKTAR. Since 2016 he has been living and working in Poland.

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KAROLINA SOBEL FROM THE SERIES: IF YOU ARE OK, I AM OK 2019 PRINT ON FABRIC 1 84

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KAROLINA SOBEL FROM THE SERIES: IF YOU ARE OK, I AM OK 2019 PHOTOGRAPHY, 46 × 70 CM 185

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The title “If You Are OK, I Am OK” comes from the name of an event organised by the queer group Kem from Warsaw. It is related to the concept of care – both for others and for yourself. Care is a very sensitive and delicate, often invisible concept. It evokes the idea of intimacy, closeness and communication with others. It personifies the essence of exposing yourself. Building a relationship demands mutual energy and honesty, so that you can find yourself in the identity of the other person and, at the same time, not lose your own identity. Care symbolises the willingness to tend to the other person and their body. It’s prioritising the relation and caring for the future, providing sacred space where we can be ourselves. Caring for somebody is as important as caring for the future important matters. Apart from passion and commitment, it is the element of love which describes other dimensions – such as respect, understanding and empathy. Care is often expressed through showing your feelings, the physical touch, and it can be the barometer of the relationship. However, only the everyday affairs create its structure and can bring the slow and deeper social changes in the long run. How subversive can a non-heteronormative lifestyle be in everyday life? With which norms does the young LGBT+ community want to describe themselves? Does the personal life stay private? To what extent? If sexuality is fluid, then who needs the concept of gender? My subjective gaze followed the minority of Warsaw’s LGBT+ people, who still struggle with the problems of homophobia and exclusion. The project is a study of the queer identity, simultaneously it questions the norms in Polish society. Exploring queer identities is based on presenting intimate portraits and fragmentary scenes of the city. I consider the concept of the human body in relation to the tissue of the city and nature. The photos are printed on ephemeral materials, such as veil or organic poster or wallpaper.

Author’s own text.

/ KAROLINA SOBEL Born in 1987. Photographer, urbanist by education, graduated from Darmstadt Technical University. Finally, she devoted herself to media arts on Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. She was on study visits in EHESS in Paris, IUAV in Venetia, and other residencies. Since 2010 she has worked as an independent photographer assistant in Frankfurt, Paris and Stuttgart. Since then she has been specialising in documenting, editorial articles, events, portraits. Sobel attended residency in Studio Vortex (Antoine D’Ágata) in Arles, she was also a DAAD scholarship holder in Johannesburg. The artist was nominated by World Press Photo Association for the

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Joop Masterclass (2017) and Talent Award (2019). A scholarship holder of the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg Art Foundation (2020). Since 2015 she has belonged to the BFF (Association of Freelance Photographers in Germany), since 2020 she has been a member of the BBK (Association of Fine Artists in Germany).

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MAGDALENA SOBOLSKA WORDS OF LOVE, 2020 COLLAGE, 52 × 74 CM PART OF THE LOVE IS WHAT WE NEED ZINE

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MAGDALENA SOBOLSKA FAMILY CHARTER, 2020 COLLAGE, 52 × 74 CM PART OF THE LOVE IS WHAT WE NEED ZINE

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During the artistic residency in Propaganda Gallery in July 2020, the lesbian zine “Love is what we need” was being developed – created from the conservative and right-wing print media (“wSieci,” “Najwyższy czas,” “Do Rzeczy,” and others). The zine is a reply to the hateful rhetoric about the LGBTQ+ community which was a part of the mainstream media popular with nationalist supporters. From magazines full of contempt and intolerance, a work about love, anxieties and fellow human beings was created. “I applied with a quite definite idea; it was important for me to work with the right-wing print media. To some extent, it was because of the helplessness resulting from the events right before the presidential elections (my residency in Propaganda had started just a week before the elections). The idea was based on the action of rewriting and creating a new narration from what I would find in those magazines. Ada Kaczmarczyk did a similar project once; when she was absolutely in love with Oskar Dawicki, she rewrote “W połowie puste” (a book by Łukasz Gorczyca and Łukasz Ronduda, detailing the life and work of Oskar Dawicki – editorial note) in order to save him. I don’t know if I wanted to save the right-wing, but I thought a positive message would be useful. (…) the intention was to rework that situation – both for oneself and others.” “Words of love” and “Family Charter” are works made out completely from fragments of the right-wing and conservative print media. It’s about transforming the reality through a change of that narration. It’s a peaceful manifesto, showing (or very optimistically: perhaps reminding us?) that the point is equality and love. Both of them in no way contradict tradition, the Christian one for instance, and additionally build a strong and satisfied society. The columns are a part of the zine “Potrzeba nam miłości,” which was created using the collage technique during the residency Enclave in the Propaganda Gallery. It was the time of the second ballot of the presidential elections. During those harsh moments, working on the zine was an attempt to deal with those events and to transform the print media, dripping with contempt, into content filled with hope.

Author’s own text. / MAGDALENA SOBOLSKA Born in 1991. In 2017, she graduated with the master’s degree in cultural studies from the University of Warsaw with the specialisation in Visual Culture. In her works she uses classic collage, digital collage and mixed media. So far her works have appeared in magazines such as the MASS (UK), SLEVIN Magazine (IND), Playboy (PL). In early 2020, she was chosen for the programme all SHE Makes (USA), which purpose is to increase the visibility of female artists on the art market.

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BART STASZEWSKI LGBT-FREE ZONES 2019-2020 GRAPHIC, 150 X 100 CM

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BART STASZEWSKI LGBT-FREE ZONES 2019/2020 PHOTOGRAPHY CYCLE, 30 × 40 CM EACH

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This photography project was a response to the wave of “anti-LGBT” acts which hit the Polish local governments. A sign translated to foreign languages was put near the signboard with the town or city name, and, although it only sanctioned the set order, it became strongly subversive. The signs were accompanied by photographs of people who shared their stories and feelings. “I feel as if in a ghetto”, “Will they murder us? Evacuate?”, “We’re all Polish people.”, “I’m not an ideology” – those were their words. The project exposes the anti-human dimension of this type of acts and was met with a huge impact in the media.

Sylwia Hejno

/ BARTOSZ STASZEWSKI Born in 1990. Community activist and LGBTQ+ activist. Co-founder of the Lublin Equality March Association and Love Does Not Exclude Association, as well as the creator of the documentary “The 18th Article” (2017).

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PRZEMYSŁAW STEFANIAK I’M A PERSON 2020 PHOTOGRAPHY 1 96

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1. Zuza, 20 lat W październiku zacznę studiować charakteryzację i kostiumografię, wybrałam ten kierunek ponieważ dzięki niemu będę mogła bez skrępowania wyrażać siebie, czego nie mogę robić w moim państwie. Jestem biseksualna, co oznacza, że w równym stopniu pociągają mnie mężczyźni i kobiety. Z tego powodu spotkałam się z wieloma obelgami; „dziwadło”, „dewiacja” czy „pomyłka”, słyszałam też, że jest to choroba psychiczna, jednak z określeniem ideologia spotykam się po raz pierwszy. W życiu byłam w związkach z jedną i drugą płcią, jednak od dłuższego czasu jestem z mężczyzną. Nie, to nie oznacza, że jestem hetero. Czasem myślę o tym, że chciałabym być lesbijką, nie dlatego, że „wtedy łatwiej byłoby mi się zdecydować”, tylko dlatego, że wtedy łatwiej byłoby mi bronić praw LGBT. Niestety, osoby Bi często nie są brane na poważnie, bo przecież prawie są hetero. Mimo to będę stać i krzyczeć, że każdy zasługuje na takie same prawa, wolność i bezpieczeństwo, bo nikt nie powinien ukrywać tego, kim jest. Będę bronić tych, którzy sami nie mają na to siły i będę słuchać tych, którzy czują się samotni.

2. Ula Jabłońska, 20 lat, studentka i aktywistka Ciągle łapię się na karceniu samej siebie za przyznanie się do mojej biseksualności. Jest we mnie zakodowana przez społeczeństwo i kulturę blokada, że przecież kochać to ja mogę chłopców, a nie dziewczynki. Zawsze sądziłam, że nie ma potrzeby o tym mówić, póki nikt nie pyta, póki nikt nie jest zainteresowany. Ale w ostatnich dniach Prezydent swoimi słowami zrobił z orientacji mojej i tysięcy innych osób rzecz właśnie publiczną. To on zrobił z tego, kogo kochać mi wolno, a kogo nie, temat dyskusji w publicznej telewizji. To on i jego partia mnie dehumanizuje. Odtrąca. Nazywa zagrożeniem. I słusznie. Panie Andrzeju, jesteśmy w rzeczy samej zagrożeniem, ale nie dla rodzin, które pańska polityka dzieli, a dla sztucznego świata podziałów, o który pan chce walczyć. Panie Prezydencie, patrząc mi w oczy, nie potrafił Pan odpowiedzieć mi na moje pytania i słowa pełne frustracji i zranienia. Nie łatwo się żyje w kraju, w którym Cię nie chcą, ale łatwo się rządzi krajem, w którym nie obchodzi Pana połowa społeczeństwa.

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3. Piotr Malich, 23 lata Pracuję w Sejmie i pewnie nie jestem jedyną osobą LGBTQIA+ w tej instytucji. Nie potrafię zrozumieć, jak po takich słowach posłowie Żalek i Czarnek oraz prezydent Duda mogą spojrzeć w lustro. Politycy, którzy posługują się metodami, wprost wręcz naśladując propagandzistów z hitlerowskich Niemiec, powinni czuć wstyd i odrazę. Czy to oznacza, że są pozbawieni wstydu? Czy to oznacza, że posuną się do każdej niegodziwości, która pozwoli im utrzymać władzę? W lipcu zeszłego roku prezentowaliśmy program Partii Zieloni na wybory parlamentarne. Byłem odpowiedzialny za przygotowanie i przedstawienie podczas konferencji prasowej punktu nr 10, dotyczącego pełnego równouprawnienia osób LGBTQIA+. Również w moim – jako kandydata do Sejmu – programie nie bez przyczyny znalazła się kwestia wprowadzenia pełnej równości. Zabrzmi to (być może) dziwnie, jednak tego typu sytuacje dają mi to motywację do dalszego działania – wiem, co należy zrobić, o co zabiegać, na czym się koncentrować. Walka o równe prawa nie skończy się z powodu słów tego lub innego polityka, nawet takiego „kalibru” jak głowa państwa. Na szczęście, polityków co kilka lat można wymienić.

4. Łukasz Kachnowicz, 34 lata, pracuje w banku Panie prezydencie, podobno uczy się pan cały czas, więc niech się pan w końcu nauczy: LGBT to nie ideologia, to ludzie. Nie potrzebuję nikomu wmawiać ani udowadniać, że jestem człowiekiem. Ja nim po prostu jestem, tak samo jak jestem gejem i tak samo jak jestem Polakiem." Podczas swojego wiecu w Brzegu "Prezydent" Polski powiedział: "Próbuję się nam wmówić że (Lgbt) to ludzie a to po prostu ideologia". Przez chwilę byłem wkurwiony, ale złość obudziła we mnie pomysł, chciałbym codziennie aż do wyborów pokazywać "prezydentowi" LUDZI i ich historię. Oddać głos każdemu i każdej spod skrótu LGBT+. Bo są to osoby takie same jak każde inne, chcą tego samego co każdy. Chcą po prostu być szczęśliwe. LGBT to nie ideologia LGBT to Ludzie

5. Julia, 20 lat Na co dzień studiuję prawo oraz europeistykę. Chciałabym wierzyć, że po studiach będę mogła tutaj zostać. Wiem, że Polska jest państwem pięknym, gościnnym i różnorodnym, ale niestety nie

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każdy może czuć się tu bezpiecznie. Chciałabym w to wierzyć, ponieważ aktualnie ważniejsza stała się zabójcza polityczna walka. Partia rządząca stworzyła sobie wrogów, którymi nie jesteśmy. Nie chcemy tej nienawiści, chcemy miłości. Jesteśmy wkurwieni. Panie Prezydencie, jako lesbijka nie proszę o żadne przywileje. Proszę o równe prawa, o bezpieczeństwo i możliwość rozwoju. Nie jestem ideologią, jestem człowiekiem.

6. Jakub Przybysz, 27 lat Lubię spędzać czas z przyjaciółmi, gościć ich u siebie, gotować dla nich, sprawiać im radość. Jestem lekarzem – zawodowo pomagam osobom z zaburzeniami psychicznymi, które często cierpią podwójnie z powodu dyskryminacji. Jestem gejem i z własnego doświadczenia wiem, jak boli bycie wykluczanym. Historia świata XX wieku uczyła nas wielokrotnie, jak tragiczne w skutkach jest odmawianie ludziom człowieczeństwa i sianie nienawiści. Nikt nie ma prawa tego robić, Pan również nie. PAD, nie dziel. I nie rządź.

7. Filip, 20 lat, student Od najmłodszych lat wpajano nam w szkole, żeby być zawsze sobą i nigdy nie udawać kogoś kim się nie jest, a także by umieć wyrażać swoje zdanie i nigdy się tego nie bać. Dlatego odrabiam swoje lekcje i chciałbym zapytać, co oznacza być ideologią? Czy mój sąsiad jest ideologią, a może jego pies? Trudno mi zrozumieć cel tworzenia sztucznego podziału pod terminem naukowym, zamiast okazać zwykłą akceptację. Wszyscy jesteśmy ludźmi, odczuwamy te same emocje, mamy wspólną historię. Dlatego nie twórzmy kolejnego podziału między nami, pozwólmy każdemu być sobą i pamiętajmy, że to czyny o nas świadczą, a nie to, kim jesteśmy. A sama orientacja seksualna to nie wybór, taki jak to, czy wolimy lody waniliowe czy czekoladowe.

8. Dominika, 24 lata W ubiegłym roku obroniłam pracę magisterską z psychologii. W tym roku zaczęłam studia podyplomowe na kierunku seksuologia kliniczna.

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Chcę zmienić coś w Polsce. Czuję, że jest źle. Jestem LGBT. Reprezentuję literkę B – jestem osobą biseksualną. Mam chłopaka, którego bardzo kocham. Tak jak wiele osób takich jak ja, jestem w związku, który większość określiłaby jako hetero. Nadal jestem LGBT. Tak samo mogłabym pokochać kobietę. Różnica jest tylko taka, że bałabym się wziąć ja za rękę na ulicy. Nie mogłabym wziąć z nią ślubu. Osoby takie jak ja mogą wziąć ślub w Polsce – ale tylko z osobą odmiennej płci. Mogą mieć dzieci – dzieci nadal wychowywane przez ludzi LGBT. Panie prezydencie, nie Pana rolą jest wybierać, z kim mogę się związać, a z kim nie. To, kogo kochamy, to nie jest nasz wybór. Nie wymaże Pan naszego istnienia nazywając nas ideologią. Jestem człowiekiem. Nie widać?

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I’m an animal A non-heteronormative female of the species Homo sapiens. I had the luck to be born in Europe at the end of the 20th century. I have a girlfriend, an adult child, two cats. My daughter wears rainbow stockings and participates in demonstrations. We live in Warsaw. I have a job that I like. I teach at the local Academy of Fine Arts. My Faculty has at least three homosexual members. At work, I don’t have to hide my orientation. My girlfriend, however, does. She conducts classes for children. Some parents are quite conservative. If they found out, she might lose her job. It’s better not to risk it. Therefore, we don’t walk around holding hands – we do only when far away from home. We rent a flat in a small block of flats on the city outskirts. A lot of elderly people live here. Almost everyone is nice. Through the walls, we can hear “Radio Maryja.” From two sides. When a genial elderly neighbour asks whether we are sisters, because we’re so similar in appearance – I don’t know how to answer. I turn the question into a joke. I like my city, although I’m not from here. I’m not a registered resident (where could I register?). I’ve been living here for 20 years. I go on demonstrations, Pride Parades. I’m a white woman. As a woman, I sometimes experience discrimination. As a white European woman, I can enjoy some privilege. I’m a lesbian. In my community, I don’t have to hide that, although I would prefer a world where one’s orientation doesn’t matter. I’m an atheist. As a result of our country’s policy, the differences became more significant. I’m standing on one side of the barricade against people I really value. I’m a vegan. That is also a cause of discrimination (“oversensitive,” “an ascetic,” “animal lover,” “oh, and what do you think about living off sunlight?”). I’m also a Pole, although some think that I’m not even human. After a moment of thinking, I came to the conclusion that it’s hard to feel proud of belonging to a privileged caste of our species. After all, humans check out all criteria of the invasive species. We destroy the environment, we disrupt the balance of the ecosystem, we endanger the biodiversity. We created extermination camps – industrial farms. We enslave and kill hundreds of billions of animals every year. Along with our expansion, we developed a moral system that justifies our domination. We kill and have a clear conscience. Apparently, before humans invented slavery, they enslaved animals first. Apparently, animal exploitation led to human exploitation. Apparently, men taught themselves to control women by controlling the fertility of females from “domesticated” species. Apparently, animal breeding helped formulate the techniques of ruling. It is said that the most powerful form of ruling is ruling over bodies. Perhaps that is why non-heteronormativity is a threat. Because how do you control a body without controlling its fertility? Doesn’t that pose a threat to the stability of the whole system? We have to fight for our lives and our rights. But we should remember that we need to perceive things in a wider context. As long as we don’t leave the elite Homo sapiens group – fighting for equality will remain a fight for an equal share in ruling the world. So let’s not talk about justice while forgetting the animals which have no rights Let’s try to get rid of the inborn xenophobia and to widen the moral community circle. Let’s take that step by discovering new horizons, which we will try to reach in the future. Let’s question the basis of the system – the violence against animals. Among people who do that – activists working for the sake of animals, and vegans – I’ve never met any homophobes. On the other hand, I am always surprised when LGBT activists turn out to be species chauvinists. My dream is that more people from the community, which I, after all, belong to, would see the discrimination in the wider context. So that they would understand that its mechanisms are based on the hierarchical structure, and that at its bottom you will find not women, not the black, not sexual minorities, but in fact the animals. Their bodies are under absolute bio-rule. Not only their sexuality is controlled, but their whole life. My dream is that all people fighting for the rights of minorities would see this fight as an element of the social movement aiming to create a community based on equality and respect. A community and sisterhood over divisions. Also over species divisions. Elwira Sztetner

ELWIRA SZTETNER I’M AN ANIMAL 2020 TEXT, 100 × 70 CM 202

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Inspired by your initiative, I wrote a short text. I would describe it as something akin to my own private manifesto – a letter where I show my point of view on the matters of discrimination and exclusion. Addressed especially to our LGBTQ+ community, but not only them. It’s closely connected to the theme of the exhibition and at the same time goes slightly beyond it.

Author’s own text.

/ ELWIRA SZTETNER An artist and activist with connections to the ecofeminism movement. In her works, she subjects to critical analysis the anthropocentric model of the world. She questions the moral system which justifies breeding and killing animals. She goes for typically “feminine” techniques – sewing, embroidering, crocheting, weaving. She participates in, organises and co-organises activities and events criticising animal exploitation. Among the most important ones is the big independent exhibition “The perfect system” in A.D.A PUŁAWSKA in Warsaw, which was created in collaboration with the local anarchistic community (in 2019). Since 2010 she hass been working in the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where she runs the Textile Art Workshop. She’s the guardian of the students circle “Tęcza.”

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WALDEMAR TATARCZUK FT. AGATA WIATR GET THE FUCK OUT 2020 VIDEO, 1:50 204

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/ WALDEMAR TATARCZUK Born in 1964. Performance artist, creator of installations and videos. In 1999, he founded the Art of Performance Centre, where he had been active for 10 years in the Centre for Culture in Lublin, working on the presentation, popularisation and research of this medium of art, he organised international festivals of the performance art. In 2010, he became the director of Galeria Labirynt, which was collaborating with the most important performance artists from Poland and abroad. Tatarczuk actively participates in international art events in Europe, Asia, Northern America, organises performance workshops, using his own experience as an artist and curator.

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MARIUSZ TARKAWIAN ARS HOMO 2020 DRAWING, 70 × 500 CM 206

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/ MARIUSZ TARKAWIAN Born in 1983 in Łuków. In 2009, he graduated from the Faculty of Arts of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. He draws using mainly pencils, his works have a reporter-like character and photographic precision – he generally uses big formats, on which he places hundreds of similar or connected ideologically elements (159 works from the MoMA collection), or specific series composed of hundreds or even thousands of drawings the size of a postcard (“W przewidywaniu sztuki”). In 2009, he was awarded with the Kaiserring scholarship in Goslar, Germany. He also took part in Bergen Assembly Triennale (2013, Norway), Dionysia Art Residency in Thingeyri (2011, Island), Supermarket – international art fair in Stockholm (2011, Sweden), and Manifesta 8 – European Biennial of Contemporary Art in Murcia and Carthage (2010, Spain). He lives and works in Warsaw.

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GRZEGORZ TOMCZYK NO COMMENT 2019 COMPUTER GRAPHICS, 80 × 60 CM 21 0

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The work is an attempt to create an efficient algorithm assessing the public mood. The sampling is done from the individual comments left by anonymous internet users. People hidden behind the lines of text hide their faces, but they expose their thoughts. This devoid of filters picture of the society’s condition is subjected to the artistic “study” and becomes a record the sociological pulse. The anonymity gives the confidence to express diverse opinions. However, it doesn’t relieve one from the duty of remaining human, which seems especially important in case of statements about the LGBT+ community. In result, the work is a comment with no comment, a protest against the spreading intolerance of the different, the lack of acceptance for others’ views and choices, the hate of everything which is doesn’t align with personal beliefs. The schema of the composition was taken from Raphael’s “Small Cowper Madonna”. In execution, internet users’ comments were used, which were left under articles about the LGBTQ+ community on Polish news websites. The comments for the work were selected under following criteria: 1) the exact percentage proportion between the positive, negative and indifferent comments was kept, and, according to it, the individual comments were positioned in the work (the number of negative, positive and indifferent entries reflects the actual situation of the public anonymous discourse), 2) comments referencing specific people and countries (with the exception of Poland) were rejected, 3) comments fully written in uppercase were rejected, 4) the original spelling was preserved.

Author’s own text.

/ GRZEGORZ TOMCZYK Born in 1976 in Olsztyn. He studied at the Faculty of Arts on Maria Curie-Skłodowska University and at the Faculty of Painting on the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. In June 2002, he defended his degree under the tutelage of Prof. Mikołaj Dawidziuk with a screen-printing annex created under the tutelage of Prof. Andrzej Smoczyński. Since 2008 he has been working as teacher of Drawing and Painting at the Secondary Art School in Lublin. Since graduation he remains professionally active and primarily chooses destruction as the subject of his works.

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FILIP TUŁAK REMOVING THE MAKE-UP OF TWOJA STARA* 2019 VIDEO, 00:51 directed by: Filip Tułak, photos by: Piotr Książek, edited by: Marta Ossowska, music by: Wojciech Frycz, colour correction by: Piotr Putko *“Twoja Stara” is a drag name of Filip Tułak, it can be translated into Polish as “Yo mama”

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The film is available online: https://vimeo.com/filiptulak

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FILIP TUŁAK PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION OF PAWEŁ ŻUKOWSKI’S ACTION “LGBT IS ME” 2020 COLLAGE OF PHOTOGRAPHIES, 100 × 300 CM 21 4

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To one of its issues “Gazeta Polska” newspaper added stickers with a caption “LGBT-free zone” and a crossed-out symbol of a rainbow on them. It was met with a severe backlash, and some distributors (Empik bookstore or the BP petrol station chains) withdrew from selling that issue. As an action of protest, Paweł Żukowski stood with a group of other people by the main office of Gazeta Polska with the sign reading “LGBT is me”. This way the protesters wanted to point out the excluding and discriminative message of the sticker, as well as that “fighting an ideology” is in fact done to incite hate. Filip Tułak’s photographies present portraits of people holding signs with the caption “LGBT is me” as well as other slogans. Each person shows that behind the LGBT abbreviation (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals) stand real people.

Sylwia Hejno

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JULIANNA WIŃCZYK WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? 5 WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? 6 2020 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 21 8

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The works were created to fight the lack of acceptance of other people’s otherness by the audience. Each of the characters presented on the diptych has two unusual features – their body is incomplete, disabled and has a feature of the opposite sex. In the Polish society, people with a disability that is natural, or a result of an accident, transsexuals and non-binary people are often insulted, threatened and dehumanized. If the audience sees one of those features in a character first, then it will weaken the controversy of the other feature in their subconsciousness, and I believe that with those small subconscious steps you can change the view of excluded individuals. This cycle was created with the exact intention of extending the tolerance through the analysis of painted characters.

Author’s own text.

/ JULIANNA WIŃCZYK Born in 1996. A student at the Faculty of Media Art of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw – currently she works on her master’s degree at Prof. Leon Tarasewicz’s workshop. Her works are centred on humans, their emotions, surroundings and future. She’s an anti-perfectionist fascinated with ugliness and the end of the world. She co-organises post-apocalyptic anti-convention Rafineria and since 2016 she’s been organising cyclical exhibitions there. In 2018 she took on an internship at TR Warszawa and worked on the performance titled “Chinka”. She participated in “Wihajster freiheit swallow =” project, which ended with a performance involving students from Berlin in Galeria Salon Akademii. In 2019 she presented her bachelor’s degree exhibition “Auto-ugliness and Alienation” in Galeria Wizytująca. She took part in exhibitions organised by Wolne Pokoje – “Atrapa” and “Fiks”. Her work appeared on the “Interfejs-Mantra” exhibition on the LUKA 5G’s Minecraft server.

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KATARZYNA WÓJTOWICZ A SHORT STORY 2018–2020 PHOTOGRAPHY

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Button pins and materials from the “Queer Tour” and Love Does Not Exclude Association. The first rainbow event – “Day of Tolerance”. It was a very colourful and positive day! Several groups and activists attended, such as “Parada Równości,” “My rodzice,” “Queer Tour” and the activist Bart Staszewski. I got a message saying: “Thank you for such motivation not to hide who you are.” I want to share with you good, love and equality. The rainbow flag with the town hall in the background. It shows a covered silhouette. Zamość was called a “LGBT-free zone”. In such a small town you can find fear and anxiety at every corner. Our LGBT+ community fears coming out, fighting for our rights and being ourselves. For the sake of the person’s safety, the photo was taken without the face. The “Zamość” signboard where the activist Bart Staszewski took a photo for the project “LGBT-free zones”. Pride Parade 2018. The festival of equality. It celebrates freedom, love and equality. I follow the crowd. I take photos and see people who are happy, brave, and filled with rainbows.

Author’s own text.

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BOŻNA WYDROWSKA A STRANGER 2008 VIDEO, 2:50

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The film is a look at voguing, and the community centred around it on “Bale u Bożeny.” The main character, Evgeni from Kazakhstan, describes how thanks to dancing he found a form of expression which enables him to be himself, as well as how he became a part of the community. The artist invites us to the world of dancing, crazy fashion, glamour, freedom of the body, where standing out, being different, being queer becomes something incredible.

Sylwia Hejno

The film is available online: https://vimeo.com/369810821

/ BOŻENA WYDROWSKA Born in 1994. Also known as Bożna, she is a visual artist, performer and choreographer. One of the most recognisable characters on the Polish voguing scene and a promoter of the ballroom culture, a member of the international organisation Royal House of Milan and the first group in Warsaw, Kiki House of Sarmata, as well as the organiser of the cyclical party „Bal u Bożeny.”

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KATARZYNA WYSZKOWSKA G. IDEOLOGY 2020 OIL PAINTING, 100 × 80 CM 224

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KATARZYNA WYSZKOWSKA G. IDEOLOGY 2020 INSTALLATION ART, 45 × 30 × 32 CM 225

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The works are a part of a wider cycle about anxieties and fantasies, which have lately become popular in the public discourse in our country. The installation art and the painting “G. Ideology” refer to the popular ideological construct used by the Polish right-wing communities. Those works are an attempt to visualise the image about the LGBTQ+ community offered by the right-wing and conservative narration, which presents members of the LGBTQ+ as a force threatening the correct functioning of a traditional family. The description of strategies, supposedly used by the representatives of the “gender ideology,” often put emphasis on the intentional, treacherous acts, use the imagery of fluids or plasma, whose lack of a definite shape allows to perfectly adjust it to the situation.

Author’s own text.

/ KATARZYNA WYSZKOWSKA Born in 1994. She is a painter, a creator of installation arts and videos. In addition to studying at the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, she studied philosophy at the Jagiellonian University.

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MONIQUE YIM IN COLLABORATION WITH WIENCY WONG QUEER SERIES NO.10: UNGROUNDED TANGO 2017 PERFORMANCE DOCUMENTATION, VIDEO, 08:06 228

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At the time, Monique Yim and Wiency Wong were an engaged same-sex couple in Hong Kong. When they presented their works, marriages of the same-sex couples were not legal in Germany and only “registered domestic partnerships” were available. As a part of the 4th International Performance Art Week-end, Berlin, they started their performance at the gate of the protestant church on Herrfurthplatz in Berlin. The women carried each other by turns, until both of them were too tired to go on. Within a half an hour, they circled the church two times, covering a total of 640 metres. During this process, they looked romantic, at the same time presenting the difficulties met by the same-sex couples all around the world – including discrimination, inequality, lack of marriage equality, and tediousness in gaining more rights in the realm of social and marital life. It led to the feeling of weakness, hopelessness and loneliness, they could survive and find support only in each other. In some places and moments, the daily life of LGBTQ+ people seems satisfactory and happy, but, at the same time, that suggests that the majority of the society will easily forget the existing injustice and violence against the LGBTQ+ community which takes place every day in every place in the world. The work was constructed by contrasting the point of view of the audience (so called “outsiders” – the majority of the society) and the feeling between Yim and Wong (so called “insiders” – same-sex couples), which is an ironic contrast between the surface and the deeper truth. One month later, on 30 June 2017 same-sex marriages were eventually legalised in Germany. In 2018, Monique Yim received for her work an international award “Visual Art Performance Made in Public Space,” awarded by the Kassak Centre in Hungary and Slovakia.

Author’s text

/ MONIQUE YIM Born in 1984 in Hong Kong. She is an interdisciplinary artist, a pedagogue and a curator. She pursues performance art, conceptual art, public and social art. She’s also an art director and a costume designer by film, advertisement and theatre productions. She graduated with the title of MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise in Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. Her career as an artist began in 2006. Yim presented her works in 30 cities in Asia and Europe, participated in

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international exhibitions, festivals, projects, and residency programmes. In 2013, she was the curator of the “Performance Art Marathon” in West Kowloon Cultural District Hong Kong. In 2018, she received the international award “Visual Art Performance in Public Space,” awarded by the Kassak Centre in Slovakia.

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HUBERT ZNAJOMSKI HOMOSENSUALISM 2020 VIDEO, 05:02 Author’s original poems read on the video: “Water”, “For a good night’s sleep”, “Chain”, “One on one”, “Untitled”

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“Water” I was a tremendous ocean that needed no love at least not from the land Full of water I was choking on my own existence flooded with typhoon’s parade I have not listened to the other seas I bonded with one of them and together we form the global ocean “For a good night’s sleep” In a whisper sing me a lullaby ease the burning sourness your bow divert to the mountains peaks of which reach the chamber, residence of the memory I will listen to the hope when lofty feathers capture the dream handcuffed, I will leave knowing that tommorow I will return to our life and when my eyes begin to pour and when my faces becomes briny then I will know that you have freed him purposely to see the romance like a grief eventually you will abandon your song and cut the existence as ground

needles in a moment you will douse the conscience once mouth will touch we fall asleep alongside shouting pulse

in an embrace in silence in a pleasant bondage which is better than freedom

Goodnight boys, goodnight

“One on one” You are alone, I am alone, both of us completely abandoned, we could be alone together, filled with a beautiful sensation.

“Chain” The closest bond I feel your breath when warmth is headed towards my boyish face locked in a hug we jump for joy not to walk barefoot with no modesty on a glass of human mistakes I do not pretend to love I cannot lie when I know that just a touch increases the pulse of calmness I undress down to my underwear partly sharing myself waiting for a response with anti-disapproval in my throat I feel warmth the blood becomes fume I am turning red not like a rose but I am breathing right in your neck

rise as a flower from the ground, reaching with its roots, the opposite of heaven, yet not dying. On the contrary, loved. Wipe your weary eyes, I spit out my heart on the paper, I see it somewhat squinched. To wait a long time for a response, how much it hurts me please, caress me fondly, so sweet, and so slow. Stay, crave for me dear, drink me so thirsty, swiftly drop after drop I am writing to you in pain, missing you “Untitled” I would want to find myself in your arms so you could take me into the world of untold emotions

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/ HUBERT ZNAJOMSKI He was born in the year 2000 in Lublin. He is a social activist, blogger, and poet – as a poet he plays with words and focuses on emotions. He is inspired and fascinated by work of such authors as Julia Hartwig, Erward Stachury and Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński. According to him, poetry is conveying a simple message in the most complicated way possible.

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PAWEŁ ŻUKOWSKI NO CLOWNING AROUND 2020 BANNER, 60 × 120 CM 236

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PAWEŁ ŻUKOWSKI GREAT COLORFUL POLAND 2020 BANNER, 190 × 70 CM 237

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PAWEŁ ŻUKOWSKI CARDBOARDS 59 × 46 CM, 42 × 40 CM

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THE PUBLIC PROTESTS ARCHIVE (AGATA KUBIS, MARTA BOGDAŃSKA, KAROLINA SOBEL, ADAM LACH, CHRIS NIEDENTHAL, WOJTEK RADWAŃSKI, RAFAŁ MILACH) 2017–2020 PHOTOGRAPHY, 150 × 100 CM EACH The selection of photographs taken during demonstrations and protests of LGBTQ+ communities.

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The archive has been operating since the year 2016. The documentary nature of the set marks social activity, grassroots initiatives expressing disaproval to political decisions, violation of democratic principles and human rights. They serve as a warning against the rising populism, xenophobia and widely understood discrimnation. The Public Protests Archive prolongs the lifetime of pictures related to particular events whose duration ends, for example, with publication in the press. The PPA platform is profiled and dedicated to a particular problem. It gathers photographs in a one, easily accessed collection, which over time will become part of the public domain. Use of the archive resources will be available to anyone who identifies with the values expressed through this collection.

Sylwia Hejno

/ THE PUBLIC PROTESTS ARCHIVE (AGATA KUBIS, MARTA BOGDAŃSKA, KAROLINA SOBEL, ADAM LACH, CHRIS NIEDENTHAL, WOJTEK RADWAŃSKI, RAFAŁ MILACH) It is an open platform dedicated to distribution of pictures related to socio-political tension which has been present in Poland since the year 2016. The documentary nature of the set marks social activity, grassroots initiatives expressing disaproval to political decisions, violation of democratic principles and human rights.

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MARTA BOGDAŃSKA, SARA HERCZYŃSKA, MARTA MALISZEWSKA LOT – LESBIJSKIE ODDZIAŁY TERRORYSTYCZNE* 2020 *LOT is a Polish national arline, and the word also means flight. “Lesbijskie Oddziały Terrorystyczne” could be translated as Lesbian Terrorist Groups.

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The LOT banner, created by Marta Bogdańska, Sara Herczyńska, Marta Maliszewska and Agata Sztorc with the help of KN Tęcza recreates the queer campaign from 2007 when the similar banner was hung on the streets of Warsaw as part of the LOT – Lesbijskie Oddziały Terrorystyczne campaign under the name of “You too can become a lesbian!”. The banner was created as part of the “Szkoła patrzenia” workshop led by Rafał Milach and Sebastian Cicocki in Galeria Studio.

Text written by the artists.

/ MARTA BOGDAŃSKA Photographer, visual artist, culture manager, director of the “Next Sunday” documentary. She graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of Warsaw University. She took part in Homeworkspace Program in Beirut and studied Gender Studies on WU. She also graduated from Akademia Fotografii and Instytut Otwarty in Warsaw. She carried out international projects related to art and culture, among others in Lebanon, where she lived for 8 years. In 2020 she co-operates on the “Roz-dźwięki i JAZgoty” project as a part of residency on the Otwarty Uniwersytet Jazdów. She was invited to the Futures Photography platform in 2020. She is associated to the Public Protests Archive.

/ SARA HERCZYŃSKA Doctoral student at the Section for Anthropology of the Word, member of the Holocaust Remembrance Research Group. She participated in research conducted by Maciej Gdula, PhD. Currently, she is preparing a doctoral dissertation on the Polish biographical museum. She published texts in “Przegląd Humanistyczny” and “Almanach Antropologiczny”. She is a member of the Polish editorial office of the quarterly magazine Globalny Dialog issued by International Sociological Association (ISA). She co-operats on “mała kultura współczesna”, which means “a small contemporary culture”. She works as a guide and educator in Zachęta National Gallery of Art.

/ MARTA MALISZEWSKA A of philosophy and art history student. She is a cultural manager and educator and cooperates with the Museum Of Modern Art in Warsaw. Author of contemporary art projects directed to high school students, children from rural areas and youth who are at risk of social exclusion.

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PAMELA BOŻEK, DANKA MILEWSKA, KATARZYNA TUŻYLAK FACTS, SPECIAL EDITION FACTS – BYDGOSZCZ FREE FROM HATRED! 2019 The newspapper was edited as a part of the Pamela Bożek artistic residency “Mini-rozmówki polsko-czeczeńskie / czeczeńsko-polskie” in BWA in Bydgoszcz. 250

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The newspaper is inspired by the Bydgoszcz socio-cultural magazine, published until 1989 with news related to the artist’s residence in our gallery, for example, her work on Polish-Chechen and Chechen-Polish conversations (our conversation with Alina Wójcik, the initiator of the series of mini-conversations published by the state publishing institute PIW) and events in Białystok. We can say that it is an artistic newspaper edited by the artist (Pamela Bożek), curator (Danuta Milewska), graphic designer (Katarzyna Tużylak) and published by our galery.

Danuta Milewska

/ PAMELA BOŻEK She was born in the year 1991. She studies envoronmental doctoral studies at the Kraków Adacemy of Fine Arts. At that academy she graduated from the Sculpture Faculty. She received the scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2019) and won the 2nd edition of the Bogna Olszewska scholarship (2019). She is an initiator and facilitator of the bookbinding micro-brand “Notesy z Łukowa” (notebooks from Łuków). She carries out post-artistic practices of a participatory nature and visual issues in the context of the mechanisms of exclusion and stigmatisation.

/ DANKA MILEWSKA Author and artist who uses dance, text, photography, sound and expressive therapies. She conducts artistic research of physical and sound records. She is a co-founder of Kobiektyw, where she runs, among others, ceremonies for women and the proprietary programme named “Pisanie z brzucha”. She works as a curator at BWA Bydgoszcz.

/ KATARZYNA TUŻYLAK She works as a graphic designer at BWA Bydgoszcz.

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BERGAMOT GROUP (VOLHA MASLOUSKAYA, RAMAN TRATSIUK) QUEER BELARUS 2010 Based on the screenplay by Paweł Leszkowicz as part of the “Organic Work” series.

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“Queer Belarus” performance is part of the “Organic Work” series, which started on February 2010 and involves announcement of the competition for the concept or performance screenplay for the Bergamot group. From among the screenplays sent, Bergamot performs the best ones. In their newest series entitled “Organic Work”, which could be describes as long-term, the duo taken it to the next level. They announced a competition for “the concept or performance screenplay for the Bergamot group” in which the main reward is a 500GB external drive, and for the other prizes include 9 “Super Talent” flash drives. The artists guarantee that they will perform the best screenplays related to popular roleplaying games, also known as RPGs – the artists set out the rules, which they disclose in the rule book (equivalent of the RPG guide book), they themselves take part in the game and at the same time remain “game masters”. They reach for the mass culture codes and procedures, such as commercials or audition. This is done in order to compose a story from the plots (events) emerging during the project, and to impose a meta-text function on the game. However, the real reward for the contestants will be the advancement to the next level: becoming part of the group of creators, as Bergamot undertakes to respect the creators’ personal copyrights whenever the work is being used. However, contrary to the RPG games, both players and masters operate in two realms at the same time – the game and the society.

Ewa Hornowska

As a curator of the “Ars Homo Erotica” exhibition, I am entering the Bergamot group performance competition. Thus I am participating in the artistic project of the same group. In my opinion curators need to have a right to select works for exhibitions, however, they should not come up with works for the artists, and as requested by Raman and Volha, I present them my screenplay. Such a form of their participation in the exhibition was an idea of the artists themselves. Title of the performance ordered – “Queer Belarus” Medium – a video performance Duration – not shorter than one minute, not longer than five. Language – Polish language with English subtitles, or English language with Polish subtitles. Deadline for the performing and presenting the performance to the curator in order for it to be approved – June 1st, 2010.

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The aim of the performance is to present the present day legal, social and cultural position of gays and lesbians in Belarus. Europe is concerned about the human rights in Belarus, Poles worry about the fate of the Polish minority, so let us ask about the situation of the sexual minorities in this unusual country. Especially that there are more and more voices asking for a parade in Minsk. I am asking the aritsts of the Bergamot group to become familiar with the situation of gays and lesbians in Belarus, to conduct a research on this topic, to become familiar with the history of the emancipatory movement, and to interview the members of the organisation. On the basis of the collected data I ask you to prepare a short reproduction of a Belarussan TV programme informing on the situation of gays and lesbians in Belarus. This “programme” is supposed to be a video performance in which artsts would participate as TV presenters summarising the situation or experts on the subject. The data provided is intended to capture the specific nature of the situation of gays and lesbians in their country, but also to provide the public with information about the most interesting events, phenomena, activists and campaigns. Because of the TV news programme formula, artists can be innovative and creative, provided that they convey the most imporant and most interesting information on the topic.

Paweł Leszkowicz

The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZiWasuJfn4

/ BERGAMOT GROUP It was establised in 1998 in the city of Brest located in Belarus. It consists of two artsists, Volha Maslouskaya and Raman Tratsiuk. Their main artistic activity is performance. The group is a member of the Belarussian Association for Contemporary Arty since the year 2000.

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INDEPENDENT STUDENTS (ADAMSKA JULIA, BRYK MONIKA, BURY JOANNA, CURA ROBERTO, DRUK KAMIL, FISCHER KRZYSZTOF, GUENTHER WERONIKA, JABŁOŃSKA MARTA, KACZMAREK MARTA, KAŹMIERCZAK SONIA, KLIKOWICZ JOANNA, KOWALCZYK MATEUSZ, KRUSZKA RAFAŁ, NOWAKOWSKA ANNA, OLEJARCZYK ANNA, OLEJNIK PAWEŁ, OLEKSIAK KRZYSZTOF, PAWELKO OSKAR, PIETRUSZEWSKA ZUZANNA, PODBORĄCZYŃSKA JULIA, SIECZKO ALEKSANDRA, ŠIMEKOVÁ KATARINA, WIŃCZYK JULIANNA, ZALEWSKA WERONIKA) OPERATION CHALK 2020 VIDEO, 1:36

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On the evening of June 16, a group of independent students of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts conducted an artistic campaign on Spokojna Street, nearby the faculties of the academy and the “Spokojna 15” café. This was a student’s response to the current popular demands related to social inequalities, as well as emphasizing that our common space, connected by walls, is open to everyone, regardless of orientation. Thus, the Operation Chalk was conducted. Many slogans appeared on the Spokojna Street, such as: “Hatred Free Zone”, “Freedom of Choice”, “Love Does Not Exclude”, “We Are People”, and so on. The Academy of Fine Arts is made up of people, students, who are colourful, diverse, deeply tolerant, supportive and open-minded. Conneting space, as well as the act of creating the space together emphasizes that we, students of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts do not agree with the postulate of inequality and that for us love has no restriction on freedom and that LGBT means people, not an ideology. The campaign lasted the whole evening and reached the nearby Orlen petrol station, at the entrance of which students painted the slogan saying “Refuel Freedom, Equality and Love”. The campaign was continued during the second opening of the “We Are People” exhibition. Its participants, using colored chalk, drew a rainbow and slogans related to equality on the walls of Galeria Labirynt.

Authors’ own text.

The video from the campaign can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swxiKPsEVng

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MARTA JALOWSKA, EDYTA JARZĄB, SEBASTIAN WINKLER I WANT 2020 A VIDEO DOCUMENTING THE CAMPAIGN, WHICH HAS BEEN CONDUCTED ON THE DAY BEFORE THE ELECTION SILENCE VIDEO, 7:22 262

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MARTA JALOWSKA, EDYTA JARZĄB, SEBASTIAN WINKLER I WANT 2020 A VIDEO DOCUMENTING PERFORMATIVE WAY OF CREATING ELECTION POSTERS VIDEO, 0:56

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MARTA JALOWSKA, EDYTA JARZĄB, SEBASTIAN WINKLER I WANT 2020 POSTERS, DIGITAL PRINTING – 29,7 × 42 CM EACH

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“I want” is a manifesto which uses the tools of the presidential campaign, disassembled and stretched voer time. A series of actions that, according to the poet and performer Eieen Myles, “change order of political words”. “The on election on May, 10th has been cancelled, and along with that the election silence. However, we do not cancel anything. We ask: whose presitential campaign this is? Who is it for? Who needs woman president?” Marta Jalowska, together with Sebastian Winkler and Edka Jarząb, reintroduce intimacy and carnality into the public space of a world that has been deprived of the right to them. But most of all, into the public space of a country that has been taking it away from us for years. The medium of the transfer are posters and billboards painted with bodies during a joint session. This is the first part of their artistic and social campaign inspired by the corresponding, performative, and poetic 1992 campaign by Eileen Myles.

Authors’ own text.

The video presenting how the posters were created can be seen here: https://vimeo. com/420566779

/ MARTA JALOWSKA Actress, performer, activist, feminist and culture studies graduate. Co-founder and member of the TERAZ POLIŻ feminist group. Co-author of many screenplays and curator conceptions, such as the project “dziwy polskie”, three editions of the “córy warszawskie” (#dziwystołeczne, #100lat and #kobietyrobiądramaty) series along with the “Krem i czekolada. Wystawa wokół wspomnień pracownic fabryk Wedla i Polleny-Uroda”, “Świat poszedł do przodu a nóżki zostały na swoim miejscu”, which commemorated the 100th anniversary of Polish women being given the right to vote and ten years of TERAZ POLIŻ group, and of the Sebastian Wikler exhibition “Babcia Tina”. She is a co-founder and member of the “Czarne Szmaty” (#czsz) collective in which she redefines the public space and makes the national symbols queer-friendly. Her most important campaigns are: “Wolna Polska, “Nie jesteś sama”, “Pozdrowienia z Lesbos”, “Ułańskie fantazje” and „Orlice/Polska dla Polaków”. She is the author of the “Interwał Pokoju” (eng. peace interval) conducted as part of Tools for Peace Generator Malta, Poznań Malta festiwal.

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/ EDKA JARZĄB Performer, poet and sound artist. She uses her voice as a material, she searches for the amounts of prelingual energy and for the traces of occurences in the body’s memory, which it reads and processes with the help of electronics. She is an author of texts about the voice of women in the public space, about the listening as a tool of weak resistance. Her sound projects, such as workshops, radio plays, strolling and interventions were presented in many festivals and exhibitions in Poland and abroad. She gave guest lectures at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw, ENSBA Academy of Fine Arts in Lyon, Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts and University of Music and Performing ARts in Graz. She creates sound spaces in film, theatre and dance theatre. Together with the sound artist FOQL she develops the improvised electroacouistic live act Mother Earth’s Doom Vibes. She also co-creates the social radio Kapitał.

/ SEBASTIAN WINKLER Author of visual objects, sculptures, paintings, art Installations and video forms. He graduated from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. He is a co-curator of various exhibitions and events. Associated with the Instytut Badań Przestrzeni Publicznej (Institute for Public Space Research). He treats awkwardness, disorganisation and untidiness as queer strategies to broaden the imagination.

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KEI MILLER, BARTOSZ WÓJCIK THE LAW CONCERNING MERMAIDS 2020 VIDEO, 01:23 268

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Kei Miller – “The Law Concerning Mermaids” There was once a law concerning mermaids. My friend thinks it a wondrous thing – that the British Empire was so thorough it had invented a law for everything. And in this law it was decreed: were any to be found in their usual spots, showing off like dolphins, sunbathing on rocks – they would no longer belong to themselves. And maybe this is the problem with empires: how they have forced us to live in a world lacking in mermaids – mermaids who understood that they simply were, and did not need permission to exist or to be beautiful. The law concerning mermaids only caused mermaids to pass a law concerning man: that they would never again cross our boundaries of sand; never again lift their torsos up from the surf; never again wave at sailors, salt dripping from their curls; would never again enter our dry and stifling world. From the volume: “A Light Song of Light” (Carcanet, 2020)

/ KEI MILLER Jamaican writer living in the United Kingdom; editor of the “New Caribbean Poetry” anthology (Carcanet, 2007), author of the collection of short stories entitled The Fear of Stones (Macmillan, 2006), volume of essays “Writing Down The Vision” (Peepal Tree Press, 2013), poetic novels, such as “Kingdom of Empty Bellies” (Heaven-tree Press, 2006), “The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion” (Carcanet, 2014) and novels, such as “Augustown” (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016). He is a laureate of numerous awards, as Forward Prize For Poetry (2014), OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature (2014, 2017). His book consisting of new poems entitled “In Nearby Bushes” (Carcanet, 2019) was released in August 2019. In the book, Miller addresses the complex issue of violence.

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PAWEŁ LESZKOWICZ AND TOMASZ KITLIŃSKI QUEER BIBLIOTHERAPY 2020 INSTALLATION 27 0

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The installation consists of various collection of books related to the topic of human rights and LGBTQ culture. Publications range from popular and fictional literature to the history of art and culture. Books and small objects related to them are displayed as an interactive installation, viewers can reand and browse through them. The eponymous “bibliograph” refers to the therapeutic role of the literature. For centuries, it was a book thar has been the most accessible and safe form of contact with the subject of homosexuality and its culture. Reading such publications was an act of liberation and education, an expression of one’s own identity. The installation made out of books or objects is always displayed in a different arrangement, presented on tables, shelves or in windows, sometimes accompanied by a poetic sound installation.

Authors’ own text.

/ PAWEŁ LESZKOWICZ AND TOMASZ KITLIŃSKI Curators, cultural managers and academics who also actively participate in the public and artistic sphere. Leszkowicz and Kitliński, who are married, studied together in The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London where their view of art and the enclosing reality was shaped. They both hold a PhD degree and lecture at universities in Poznań and Lublin. Together they curated “Healing War through Art” (University of Brighton) and “War and Peace” (Galeria Labirynt in Lublin) exhibitions. Together with Szymon Pietrasiewicz, Kitliński curated the “Transeuropa 2011 Festival” in Lublin – a series of Jewish, feminist, ecological and queer events. As part of “Transeuropa”, Leszkowicz curated “Love is love – from Britain to Belarus”. Paweł Leszkowicz curated the pioneering LGBTQ exhibitions in Poland – “Love and Democracy” (2005) and “Ars Homo Erotica” at the National Museum in Warsaw in 2010. Thanks to such extensive experience gained both in Poland and abroad, this well-coordinated curatorial duo undertook artistic care of such a complex event as “Open City Festival Lublin” in Lublin in the year 2019. Both Leszkowicz and Kitliński received prestigious research scholarhips such as Marie Curie, Fulbright and EURIAS. Their academic achievements have been appreciated at many universities. They have lectured in Japan, Finland, Great Britain and the United States as visiting professors.

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chcę czy nie chcę to tu jestem. Związana umową najmu. Chociaż naprawdę też nie chcę być tam, gdzie mnie ktoś tak nie chce. JChciałabym E S T E Ś M Y L U D Źza M I /to W Etak A R Ebyć P E O Ppo L E prostu normalnie. Nie, nie tak „normalnie” jak narzu-

więc jestem tą chodzącą ideologią. I tak sobie chodzę i godzę. A wasza walka ze mną „jest piękna, jest obroną fundamentów naszej cywilizacji, wszystkiego co w polskości najlepsze” (Lisiewicz). tak, #jestemlgbt”

To my, dwóch aktorów i śpiewak operowy. Jesteśmy mężczyznami, Polakami i gejami. Jeśli widzicie w nas ideologię i uważacie, że zagrażamy Waszym rodzinom to ten palec jest adresowany do Was. Jeśli nie, to tylko ocieramy nim łzy.

JACEK PONIEDZIAŁEK, PAWEŁ TOMASZEWSKI, ŁUKASZ KONIECZNY UNTITLED 2020 PHOTOGRAPHY, TEXT 27 2

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This is us, two actors and an opera Singer. We are men, Poles and gays. If you see an ideology in us and you think that we are a threat to your families, then this finger is addressed to you. If not, we just wipe our tears with it. A close friend of mine, Sonia, who formerly was named Filip, a few days ago found a sticker saying “LGBT Free Zone” stuck to her motorcycle. As a consequence she wrote: “Yesterday morning I was greeted with such a view. I can’t pull myself together. This is my motorcycle, in front of my house. I want to believe that it is a total coincidence and that someone just ran around and put i tup wherever possible. But I don’t really believe it. I started to be afraid. Okay, I started to be afraid a long time ago and since then I have been afraid pratically every day. This fear accompanies me everywhere and torments me before I go to sleep. But let’s not go off topic. Now I started to fear even more. Because this must have been someone. A man? A woman? Someone marked the territory… on my territory. More precisely, on my personal belonging. My everyday mode of transport (which, by the way, helps me to avoid using public transport, as there I am afraid of so many people looking at me). Now every day I am trying to figure out what does that person want to tell me? That I really should be afraid? That my fear is justified? For a long time I have been trying to categorise it as a “generalised anxiety disorder” and as completely unjustified… or maybe that person wants to tell me that I am not welcome here? Well, I am here, whether I like it or not. Bounded by a lease agreement. Although, I really don’t want to be in a place where someone doesn’t want me so much. I just wish I could lead a normal life. No, not “normal” as it is understood by the patriarchal hetero-norm discourse. Just a normal, simple life. I want to be unnoticed when I want to be unnoticed, and noticed when I choose to. But I would also like to blend in with your standards, to have peace, to be able to function peacefully. I envy you this peace. I would like to have my voice changed so that you would not look at me strangely when I speak, I would like to look so as not to arouse your suspicious glances, I wish I could use changing rooms without embarrassment. I want it because that is what you want from me every day. You want me not to dissonant your binary normativity. You want to, but you will not help me with this, you wil not refund the operation, you will make the exchange of documents and access to medicine as difficult as possible. Actually, I do not want all that. I wish I did not have to want it. I want you to change your approach. I really want it. But I don’t even count on it. You say that this sticker, all this disturbance of yours, this daily terror is ‘a sign of objection not towards the specific people, but towards the radical left-wing ideology that threatens the family and the values on which European civilisation has been based on for centuries’ (Gazeta Polska). So, I am this walking ideology. And so I walk around, threatning. And when you fight with me it is ‘beautiful, it is a defense of the foundations of our civlisation, of everything that is the best in Poland’ (Lisiewicz). Yes, #jestemlgbt #iamlgbt.”

Authors’ own text. 27 3

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MACIEJ PAŁKA, MACIEJ TUORA, JAKUB GAWRON LESSON ON EQUALITY 2018–2020 MIXED MEDIA, 84 × 69 CM

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“Lesson on equality” is a photojournalistic photo-comic which was created as a part of a series of works on the Lublin newspaper Pa.Ra. This previously unpublished episode was crated in 2018, right after the first Equality March in Lublin. While walking through the city we asked the participants few questions. We wanted to reflect what happened in Lublin during this historic event and what emotions accompanied the City of Inspiration inhabitatns at that time.

Authors’ own text.

/ MACIEJ PAŁKA Author of comic books, publisher and zine’s editor. For many years he has been involved in the development of Polish comic scene. As an author he deals with topcs ranging from underground comics to Historical comics. Comic book culture manager. He runs a comic studio at “Brama Grodzka – Teatr NN” Center in Lublin.

/ MACIEJ TUORA Graduate of journalism. He runs writing workshops since 2014. He also hosts literature meetings since 2016. He is inspired and interested in transgressive fiction, minimalist writing style and Gonzo journalism. He published, among others, in “Malkontenty”, “Wydawnictwo J”, “Fabularia”, “PA. RA”, “Gazeta Wyborcza” and “Akcent”.

/ JAKUB GAWRON Graduate of sociology. Currently he works in the aviation industry. He co-organised two Equality Marches in Rzeszów. Currently he also oversees anti-LGBTQ+ resolutions as part of the “Atlas of Hate”. He also participated in the works on the EP resolution condemning such zones. Moreover, he was overseeing parishes which collected signatures for a “Stop LGBT” bill which prohibited Equality Marches.

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ALICJA SIENKIEWICZ, KAJA ZMYSŁOWSKA PROJECT DISCO BALL 2020 OBJECT

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SYRENY TV (ALEKS POLIS, EWA MAJEWSKA) FULL SPEED AHEAD TO THE RADICAL RIGHT 2005 VIDEO, 39:08 27 8

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The videos are available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkFxbrdDi-E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqf8YYscMtg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0j2CSntdqA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MPfcH7KRkk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhrgqqDVqZc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eer_3v9rcy0

/ SYRENY TV They are an artistic group established in 2004 by the philosopher, feminist and art theoretician, Ewa Majewska (1978), and artist and feminist, Aleksandra Polisiewicz (1974). The collective’s operation is a is a response to the increasingly absurd and looping Polish reality. Syreny (mermaids) document important elements of the social life in the form of films. One of the classics of the political film genre is “Full Speed Ahead to the Radical Right” (2005) by Majewska and Polisiewicz, prepared as part of the Polish-German festival “Attention! Polen komen” (Weimar-Leipzig, curator: Kuba Szreder). Guided by the statement of Karl Marx, who claimed that if history repeats itself, then the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce, they try to capture the parallels between the contemporary Poland and the Weimar Republic. The artists ask diverse, but similar groups of residents of Warsaw and Weimar about the numer of foreigners in individual cities, about the so-called becikowe (one-time baby bonus in Poland), the situation of homosexual people, racism, etc.

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THAI FLOWERS (BARBARA GRYKA, FILIP KIJOWSKI) A POLISH DINNER IS FOR EVERYONE 2020 VIDEO, 08:19 280

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In the work “Thai Flowers in Lublin/Świdnik Journey – Polish Dinner Is for Everyone”, we are on a performative journey to Świdnik and Lublin. Świdnik was the first city in Poland whose council declared itself a zone free from “LGBTQ+ ideology”. We are dressed in chameleon costumes, and we are talking with residents about freedom, love and understanding. Our energy, colourful costumes and exaggerated behaviour attract attention. People want to know who the Chameleons are. This situation enables us to initiate a trusted and open dialogue. Flowers examine the knowledge of inhabitants with regard to LGBTQ-free zone laws. Conversations flourish quickly, covering topics of freedom, social justice, and trivial matters that can contribute to people’s faith in the ruling government. The Thai Flowers believe in change, they put their strength and hope in the assumption that at least one person would listen to them and change attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community being previously against it. On the other hand, Flowers believe that they will give every LGBTQ+ person they meet a moment of smile and will let this person feel at ease in Poland together! The work is a performance and a video record of conversations.

Authors’ own text.

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WE WILL EAT YOUR CHILDREN. WITH ONION (DOROTA BATOR, GRZEGORZ GRECAS, ADA TABISZ, ROBERT TRACZYK, PIOTR ADAMCZYK, TOMASZ JEZNACH, MARTA BARTCZAK, KATARZYNA JANEK, ANKA KIECA, HUBERT FIEBIG, JANEK NIEMCZYK, PAWEŁ PACYNA, MAŁGORZATA POLAKOWSKA, KRZYSZTOF SATAŁA) DOCUMENTARY PERFORMANCE CREATED WITH THE USE OF THE VERBATIM METHOD 2020 VIDEO 282

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Over 50% of Polish women and men believe that even thou homosexuality is a deviation from the norm, it should be tolerated. Another 16% said it was normal. At the same time, as many as 66% of us believe that gay and lesbian couples should not publicly show their way of life (April CBOS – Centre for Public Opinion Research study “Attitudes in Poland to Homosexual Relationships”). The conclusion: let them live, but don’t let them be visible. I understand, but... I tolerate, but ... Let them live, but ... We can interpret research in a variety of ways. But do a few reassuring indicators allow us to sleep calmly and pretend that “everything is fine”? At the same time, the IPSOS survey was carried out, asking Polish women and men about the greatest threats to Poland. The most common answers among men between the ages of 18 and 39 were the gender and LGBTQ+ ideologies, distancing the climate crisis and the aging of the society. Perhaps we should not be surprised then that, having noticed the threat, Poles defend their values? A married couple from Lublin brings a self-constructed explosive to the pride, stones and bottles are thrown at pride participants in Białystok, in Wrocław a journalist, who draws attention to homophobic graffiti, ends up with blood on his face and a broken nose. What does the “LGBTQ+ lobby” want to teach children? Do all gay men go to prides? Why do they keep the T in the boot when driving towards the L, G, B tolerance? Why do 67% of citizens declare that they have never met a gay or a lesbian? Where are bisexuals in all this? Who should be afraid of whom? And finally: are the hostile tribes inhabiting Poland still able to talk to each other? “We Will Eat Your Children. With Onion” is a documentary performance based on conversations with members of the LGBTQ+ community and with non-heterosexual people who refrain from this abbreviation. A story about being different HERE and NOW – in Poland after Białystok, after the “rainbow plague”, “LGBTQ+ indoctrination” and “gender ideology”. About people. With their fears, dreams and being pissed off. CREATORS Direction: Dorota Bator, Grzegorz Grecas, Ada Tabisz, Robert Traczyk Playwriting and interviews: Piotr Adamczyk, Dorota Bator, Grzegorz Grecas, Tomasz Jeznach, Ada Tabisz, Robert Traczyk Scenography: Iza Banaszek Starring: Marta Bartczak, Katarzyna Janek, Anka Kieca, Hubert Fiebig, Janek Niemczyk, Paweł Pacyna, Małgorzata Polakowska, Krzysztof Satała Production: Piotr Adamczyk, Tomasz Jeznach, Robert Traczyk

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Published in connection with the exhibition: „We Are People” 24/06–11/10/2020 Curator: Waldemar Tatarczuk Preparation of texts and biographies: Diana Kołczewska Photos: Diana Kołczewska, Wojciech Pacewicz Design, typesetting and editing of photos: Emilia Lipa Translations: Kajetan Dropek, Nina Galant, Agata Górniak, Krystian Kamiński, Katarzyna Owczarska, Paulina Pasieczna, Karolina Świder, Magdalena Wojciechowska Editing and proofreading of the Polish version: Sara Akram Editing and proofreading of the English version: Krystian Kamiński © 2020 Galeria Labirynt and Authors Galeria Labirynt ul. ks. J. Popiełuszki 5 20-052 Lublin www.labirynt.com Director: Waldemar Tatarczuk