The artist selected to represent Poland at the 2024 Venice Biennale last year says that the new Polish government’s decision to cancel his project at the world’s most prestigious exhibition is an act of “censorship”.
Ignacy Czwartos was selected by the previous administration led by the right-wing party Law and Justice (PiS). But in a statement issued on 29 December the ministry, under new prime Minister Donald Tusk, called off Czwartos’s project.
Czwartos tells The Art Newspaper that his exhibition proposal— Polish Practice in Tragedy. Between Germany and Russia—was initially selected in an open competition. On 31 October, Poland’s Ministry of Culture announced that it would indeed present an exhibition by Czwartos at the country’s national pavilion at the Biennale.
The announcement came at a time when Poland was waiting to see what form its next government would take, following a general election on 15 October. Czwartos was recommended by a jury convened by Warsaw’s Zachęta National Gallery of Art.
PiS emerged as the largest party in the October election but failed to win a majority; Donald Tusk has subsequently formed a new centrist coalition government. Tusk was previously prime minister of Poland between 2007 and 2014, later becoming European Council president.
“The selection took place in accordance with the legal procedures. The verdict of the competition jury was accepted by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. The contract between me and Zachęta Gallery, the institution responsible for the realisation of the exhibition has been signed,” Czwartos adds.
“Nevertheless, on 29 December, I received the information that the new Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, had stopped the project. No reasons were given to justify the decision and, what is more, this decision is contrary to the regulations in force. I perceive it as censorship.” The ministry was contacted for comment.
The Polish ministry of culture said in an online statement that “after analysing the competition procedures for the exhibition… and after [gathering] the opinions and voices of the communities, accepted the decision not to implement the project [Polish Practice in Tragedy. Between Germany and Russia]." Poland will now be represented by Open Group, a collective that includes Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach, and Anton Varga.
A spokesperson for Zacheta tells us: “As per the regulations, Sienkiewicz has given the go-ahead to the back-up exhibition project, Repeat after Me, submitted by curator Marta Czyż and featuring Open Group. Zachęta National Gallery of Art will remain responsible for organising and producing the exhibition, as well as fully overseeing the Polish Pavilion in Venice.”
In a proposal document submitted to the Biennale, Czwartos’s exhibition, Polish Practice in Tragedy. Between Germany and Russia, was described as “a profound reflection by a contemporary Polish artist on the tragic history of the 20th century.”
Czwartos says: “My project, through a set of paintings and objects, presents Polish experience of the clash between two totalitarianisms: Soviet communism and German National Socialism. The project refers also to the present day, above all to Putin's brutal attack in Ukraine. It is not an anti-European project at all, but rather it refers to the forces that had destroyed Europe in the past and today.”
However, Czwartos’s project faced a backlash from critics last year who said it was too closely aligned with the agenda of the Law and Justice (PiS) party. Those criticising Czwartos’ nomination included some former Zachęta staff and three members of the museum’s jury: Jagna Domżalska, Joanna Warsza and Karolina Ziębińska-Lewandowska.
They told The Art Newspaper: “To us the decision to select Ignacy Czwartos seems like a tragic Endspiel after eight years of right-wing rule... we regret that after the most open, welcoming, transnational and complex art of Małgorzata Mirga-Tas [who represented Poland at the 2022 Biennale], we move to the most narrow-minded, ideologically paranoid and shameful position.”
