We use a billboard – the symbol of the modern age consumption – and change it into an object of consideration, reflection and a deep insight into ourselves and the surrounding reality.

Our resistance

In this section, we placed the works concerned with different forms of resistance. On the one hand, the concept of resistance is deeply ingrained in Polish history (insurrections, wars, the underground resistance organisations, Solidarity etc), on the other one, it is very multifaceted and can be interpreted on many levels. It can refer to our deeply rooted attitudes of opposing and disliking the system, but it can also give rise to the question of whether the system is something external, something that exist outside of ourselves. To what extent do we create the system? Then, further questions start to emerge – to what extent can we escape the system and to what extent can it be brought down? Can it be reformed? The concept of resistance is linked to the problem of acceptance or nonacceptance of reality. One can say that the question of resistance is one of the fundamental questions people can ask, because it is, in fact, the question of whether it is possible to live our life the way we want to, to go our own way. Is it possible to feel free within society (the system)?

Within this section, we present the series of works called “Resistance”, which we prepared for the “Spojrzenia 2007” exhibition, organised in the National Art Gallery Zachęta. The series refers to the issues of history and heroism, as well as to the psychological and existential aspects of the topic. The series included billboards, murals, pictures and a happening. In the happening that we carried out during the opening of the exhibition, we gave people resistors – the symbol of resistance in the period of the Martial Law in Poland (1981–1983) and of the ethos of Solidarity. However, in one of the murals we painted, we gave the resistor a completely new meaning. The caption on the mural, which was an integral part of the work, reads “Resistor – once the symbol of active resistance, now the symbol of resisting thought”. Yet another meaning was given to the resistors in another mural, depicting a multigenerational family wearing the device. The caption on the mural read “Long live the family – the source of all resistance!”. In yet another, smaller painting, a woman was depicted making a gesture that is also very symbolic and important to Poles – the famous bras d’honneur made once by Kozakiewicz[1].

 

Resistance, 2007, billboard, The National Art Gallery Zachęta, Warszawa, (JG) / The resistance of inanimate matter

 

Resistance, 2007, billboard, The National Art Gallery Zachęta, Warszawa, (RG) / Words crumbling concreto

 

Resistance, 2007, performance, The National Art Gallery Zachęta, Warszawa

 

 

 

Resistance, 2007, mural, The National Art Gallery Zachęta, Warszawa, (RG) / Resistor – once the symbol of active resistance, now the symbol of resisting thought

 

 

Resistance, 2007, mural, The National Art Gallery Zachęta, Warszawa, (JG) / Long live the family – the source of all resistance!

 

Resistance, 2007, painting, The National Art Gallery Zachęta, Warszawa, (JG

 

Resistance, 2007, painting, The National Art Gallery Zachęta, Warszawa, (JG) / We are not afraid of death, we resist it with all our might!

 

Resistance, 2007, painting, The National Art Gallery Zachęta, Warszawa, (RG) / Breaking resistance

 

Resistance, 2007, painting, The National Art Gallery Zachęta, Warszawa, (RG) / Measuring internal resistance

[1] Władysław Kozakiewicz – the Olympic Champion in pole vault jumping; he made the abovementioned gesture during the Olympic Games in Moscow 1980 when he was booed by the Soviet audience after he defeated the contestant from the USSR and broke the world record in pole vault jumping.

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