The premise of the article is that the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, among others, will highlight the shortcomings in public policies in Poland. It is also assumed that public policies include actions of the authorities towards artists. The status of artists as a target group of public policy in a democratic system is diagnosed as well as the process of creating regulations for the status of a professional artist in Poland is described. The subject of a detailed analysis are the decisions of the Polish government regarding artists in the years 2020-2021. Technical, formal, and media problems of the authorities with the distribution of aid funds for artists in Poland are related to the lack of a law definition of an artist in the Polish social security system, and more broadly, in public policies. Due to the fact that the legislative work on the artist's status has not been completed before the 5th wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, problems in managing public aid for artists in Poland are expected to reoccur.
The text is an attempt at looking at the art project Brides on Tour from the perspective of the nomadic subjectivity by Rosi Braidotti. The project, in the new context lent by the death of Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, known under as Pippa Bacca, gave rise to diverse commentaries, at the same time becoming a reference point for successive artistic and social endeavours. The article analyses the strategy undertaken by "the brides" as women-artists, the cultural symbols and archetypes used by them, while as a counterweight questions are asked about the faith in unconditioned hospitality in the frames of what Jacques Derrida called "Abraham" tradition as well as about the presence of women in public space. As a result, the project seems to be an artistic performance, which demands including the specific, embodied female experience to be a subject in culture and politics. Its true value is located in the acquired experience; in the exchange that the artists initiate with people encountered on their way; in breaking the borders between art and everyday life. This is quite an alternative model of art and as such is an answer to the feminist demands of Rosi Braidotti.
This paper examines the participation of the Polish Artists' Union in the complex transformation of communist Poland in 1980–1981. It is one of the most mythologized phenomena in Polish art history. The main approach to this period assumes that before the of "Solidarity" movement uprising, the Polish Artists' Union was totally dependent on the communist authorities. Then, after August 1980, the Union was to become idealistic, anti-communist organization. The following paper recognizes this kind of historiographical narrative as an example of the 'totalitarian model'. It is a model based on a simple, binary vision of the communist system as a field of permanent struggle between "innocent" society and "oppressive", omnipotent authorities. The analysis presented here uses the perspective of social history (Sheila Fitzpatrick et al.). From this perspective, communism is viewed as a complex tangle of active, causative social actors (groups and individuals), who could be politically engaged, but may not be. One of those actors was the Polish Artists' Union. Based on various kinds of sources, I show how the Union tried to take the optimal political position after August 1980. To examine this issue I use two types of political mentality, which dominated in those days in the Party, in "Solidarity", and also in the Union. One is termed "fundamental", and treats politics in terms of morality, dignity, and so on. The other is called "pragmatic", and is focused on institutional games, while also allowing compromises or concessions. To track the dynamics of how the Union functioned from August 1980 until martial law was declared (in December 1981), I introduce a division into three phases of the Solidarity revolution: September-December 1980, January-July 1981, and September-December 1981. An analysis of the Union's documents, art magazines, and Party's documents (both official and internal), shows that after the first phase, the Polish Artists' Union was ready to join the new configuration of power, based on Solidarity and the Polish United Workers' Party agreement. According to David Ost's theory, I define this project as a "neo-corporatist" model of the state socialism in the art system. ; This paper examines the participation of the Polish Artists' Union in the complex transformation of communist Poland in 1980–1981. It is one of the most mythologized phenomena in Polish art history. The main approach to this period assumes that before the of "Solidarity" movement uprising, the Polish Artists' Union was totally dependent on the communist authorities. Then, after August 1980, the Union was to become idealistic, anti-communist organization. The following paper recognizes this kind of historiographical narrative as an example of the 'totalitarian model'. It is a model based on a simple, binary vision of the communist system as a field of permanent struggle between "innocent" society and "oppressive", omnipotent authorities. The analysis presented here uses the perspective of social history (Sheila Fitzpatrick et al.). From this perspective, communism is viewed as a complex tangle of active, causative social actors (groups and individuals), who could be politically engaged, but may not be. One of those actors was the Polish Artists' Union. Based on various kinds of sources, I show how the Union tried to take the optimal political position after August 1980. To examine this issue I use two types of political mentality, which dominated in those days in the Party, in "Solidarity", and also in the Union. One is termed "fundamental", and treats politics in terms of morality, dignity, and so on. The other is called "pragmatic", and is focused on institutional games, while also allowing compromises or concessions. To track the dynamics of how the Union functioned from August 1980 until martial law was declared (in December 1981), I introduce a division into three phases of the Solidarity revolution: September-December 1980, January-July 1981, and September-December 1981. An analysis of the Union's documents, art magazines, and Party's documents (both official and internal), shows that after the first phase, the Polish Artists' Union was ready to join the new configuration of power, based on Solidarity and the Polish United Workers' Party agreement. According to David Ost's theory, I define this project as a "neo-corporatist" model of the state socialism in the art system.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze public discussion on the place of the artist Nergal in Polish society (or outside of this society). This discussion has significantly expanded the present context of the tabloidization of political stage and the dimension of politicality. As indicated by Chantal Mouffe, modern politicality is played out in the "moral register". The conflict between "right and left" wing is replaced by the "struggle between good and evil". Politicians have 'used' a private individual, or the artist-celebrity - Adam Darski, to create a powerful social dichotomy, dividing society into good, religious, Catholic believers who condemn the staged artistic expression of the Behemoth band and the bad, non-religious, non-Catholic non-believers who are indifferent to how religious symbols are used. What is peculiar is the fact that this discussion took place in the opinion-forming press on the one hand and in tabloids and gossip services on the other. This undoubtedly demonstrated the tabloid-like dimension of the Polish political stage, which has been observable for some time now, although all sides were convinced they were acting as a defender of Polish democracy.
Was being the wife of Witkacy, Gombrowicz, Mrozek or Milosz a joy or a burden? Who were the women who stood alongside these charismatic creators? We know them as great artists. They got to know all shades of their personality - from the brightest to the darkest. Living in the shadow of famous husbands, they faced their weaknesses, fears and addictions every day. They endured their whims, forgave their betrayals, including homosexual ones, and cured depression. The wives of outstanding Polish writers with respect, but also the lack of political correctness characteristic of his literature, are portrayed by Slawomir Koper.
Petar II Petrović Njegoš is probably the most famous figure in Montenegro's history and a particular symbol of this place. Despite his short life, he achieved fame not only as a politician but also as an artist. The article aims to analyze how the memory of Petar II Petrović Njegoš – a symbolic figure in the history and culture of Montenegro – has been constructed. The analysis will focus on the public debate on this figure in relation to the motion to establish a new national holiday – Njegoš's day, i.e., the day of Montenegrin culture. The study uses both the discourse method and content analysis, including legislative projects, newspaper articles, television broadcasts, public speeches, and other messages from individual politicians and intellectuals. The public debate on Njegoš revealed how the inconsistency of memory, primarily the Montenegrin, Serbian and Bosniak memory, generates conflicts and at the same time deepens the prevailing social divisions.
Growth in popularity of computer (video) games is a noticeable change in recent years. Electronic entertainment increasingly engages the wider society and reaches to new audiences by offering them satisfy of wide variety of needs and aspirations. As a mass media games not only provide entertainment, but they are also an important source of income, knowledge and social problems. Article aims to bring closer look on the common areas of games and comics. On the one hand designers and artists working on games are often inspired by comic books, as well as they create their licensed adaptations and separate "interactive issues". On the other hand more and more often we can see comics based on popular games. Study present the areas of agreement, cooperation or dependence like: technologies used to create games and comic books, use of comic books to comment events in the gaming industry and organization of exhibitions or events popularizing the works from both fields.
Censorship has often been regarded as the archenemy of artists, thinkers and writers. But has this always been the case? This research paper proposes that censorship is not a total evil or adversarial force which thwarts and hinders twentieth-century writers, particularly those who were part of the artistic, aesthetic, philosophical and intellectual movement known as Modernism. Though the word "censor" originally means a Roman official who, in the past, had a duty to monitor access to writing, the agents of censorship – particularly those in the modern times – are not in every case overt and easy to identify. Though Modernist writers openly condemn censorship, many of them nevertheless take on the role of censors who not only condone but also undergo self--censorship or censorship of others. In many cases in Modernist literature, readership and literary production, the binary opposition of victim and victimiser, as well as of censored and censor, is questioned and challenged. This research paper offers an analysis of the ways in which Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997), Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004) and Bohumil Hrabal (1914–1997) lived and wrote by negotiating with many forms of censorship ranging from state censorship, social censorship, political censorship, moral censorship to self-censorship. It is a study of the ways in which these writers problematise and render ambiguity to the seemingly clear-cut and mutually exclusive division between the oppressive censor and the oppressed writer. The selected writers not only criticise and compromise with censorship, but also thematise and translate it into their works. ; Censorship has often been regarded as the archenemy of artists, thinkers and writers. But has this always been the case? This research paper proposes that censorship is not a total evil or adversarial force which thwarts and hinders twentieth-century writers, particularly those who were part of the artistic, aesthetic, philosophical and intellectual movement known as Modernism. Though the word "censor" originally means a Roman official who, in the past, had a duty to monitor access to writing, the agents of censorship – particularly those in the modern times – are not in every case overt and easy to identify. Though Modernist writers openly condemn censorship, many of them nevertheless take on the role of censors who not only condone but also undergo self--censorship or censorship of others. In many cases in Modernist literature, readership and literary production, the binary opposition of victim and victimiser, as well as of censored and censor, is questioned and challenged. This research paper offers an analysis of the ways in which Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997), Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004) and Bohumil Hrabal (1914–1997) lived and wrote by negotiating with many forms of censorship ranging from state censorship, social censorship, political censorship, moral censorship to self-censorship. It is a study of the ways in which these writers problematise and render ambiguity to the seemingly clear-cut and mutually exclusive division between the oppressive censor and the oppressed writer. The selected writers not only criticise and compromise with censorship, but also thematise and translate it into their works.