Art in the service of lefties?

The title of the exhibition has been taken from a review in a local newspaper “Życie Bytomskie”, in which art presented in the gallery was connected with the "leftist" propaganda. “Bad news” tried to analyse media hunger for bad news and demand for the blackest scenarios. A few days after the opening the exhibition itself has become an arena of conflict and media scandal. The gallery has been accused of offending people's religious feelings and leftist "distortion". An article about a work of the Czech group Guma Guar found its way to the cover of "Zycie Bytomskie" with a title "The Pope Defiled" in a form resembling a necrology. It started a well known chain of events - an anonymous denunciation to the prosecutor's office, aggressive comments on internet forums, yellow journalism and so on. It is just another case in a long series of events related to presenting art which betrays any political cogitation. Signs of social commitment to art are interpreted by media from the angle of leftist rhetoric. This situation greatly complicates relations with artists and their curators. Decisions are taken under pressure from the community. We experience a special “terror of freedom” (as written by Dorota Jarecka) which leads to fear against self censorship behaviours. The exhibition quickly organised at Kronika is a try to provide a commentary and analysis of a growing tension between so called "culture makers" and the world of politics and media expressing themselves frequently by language. The “Art in a service of leftist” exhibition may be treated as a “gift” for media that stigmatise immorality at contemporary art galleries. And the most important thing is: a spade is called a spade! But is that so? We need to think of where this language of hate and plotting is going to lead us? What kind of form does a today’s propaganda take (which is reflected by a film of Anna Nestorowicz “Shame”)? For whom a committed contemporary art is a degenerated art? Who is afraid of whom? Who is serving whom? The assumption was that the exhibition should be organised in a limited time and with a very small budget. Works of invited artists from different countries that take up political topics were faxed, e-mailed and sent by registered mail. They form a "depot" of manifests, satirical drawings (for example drawings of Dan Perjovschi and Wilhelm Sasnal), slogans (Anna Okrasko) and language traps – spaced among works presented at the “Bad News” exhibition. Some of them, like a work of Nedko Solakom „How to make a semi-censore art work”, were done according to a written instruction sent by the artist. Such instance of writing one exhibition over another is a reaction against appropriation of contemporary art discourse, particularly the language that is used to describe it, by politicians and art-hostile media. It is also a try to “walk around” a traditional model of presenting art in public institutions (also testing its elasticity) – the exhibition is financed with private funds and made spontaneously without earlier planning. Today, more than ever, it is worth to think where this situation will lead us. The situation where producers of culture are under more and more intensive control and where an autonomy of art institution is questioned. As one can see from examples of works of Michael Blum and Thomas Hirshchorn this problem concerns also different European countries appearing to be bastions of democracy. At the same time “Art in a service of leftist?, that is: no news is good news” is a reflection on the duty of art and artist commitment level as a participant of public life. Hirshchorn summed it up (in a text: ‘Why i will no longer present my works in Switzerland”, 2005): for me an art is a tool. It is the tool with which i can confront myself with a reality – art is also a defensive reaction, art is neither passive nor reactive, art attacks – by my works i can struggle reality in all its complexity, density and incomprehension. I will move in its ambiguities. I will be brave, i will not let myself be put to sleep, I will keep on working and remain happy.

Sebastian Cichocki, July 2006