An exhibition at a Polish state museum opening Friday features the works of provocative artists in what organizers describe as a celebration of free speech, and a challenge to political correctness and "cancel culture" on the political left.
"Political Art," which features the works of nearly 30 artists, is the second exhibition at the Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art under director Piotr Bernatowicz, who was appointed by Poland's populist conservative ruling party in 2019.
Since it came to power in 2015, the Law and Justice party has harnessed the country's cultural institutions in a mission to promote conservative and patriotic values — including the art center housed in a reconstructed castle that has showcased experimental and avant-garde art in Warsaw for 30 years.
The museum says the "Political Art" show provides a space for rebellious artists sometimes shunned elsewhere. The exhibition includes works critical of the authoritarian regimes in Russia and Belarus, works by women from Iran and Yemen critical of oppression in the Muslim world, and others that use swastikas or symbols rooted in the Holocaust in an apparently ironic way.
The most controversial person included is Dan Park, a Swedish who has been jailed on hate crimes in Sweden. In 2009, Park placed swastikas and boxes labeled "Zyklon B" — the gas used in the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust — in front of a Jewish community center in Malmo.
Several artists at the news conference said they received emails from anonymous antifascists the day before the exhibition opened, warning them that works were being shown by far-right artists.
Some said they were unsettled by that message, including Emma Elliott, an antifascist artist whose works explore how women are usually the first targets of fascist regimes. But she and the others present — including two Jewish artists — defended the exhibit as an important platform for different voices.
"Yes, I find some of the images here not only disturbing but offensive," said Marc Provisor, an Israeli artist. "But I think it’s important for the writers of those letters to come (and) face what disturbs you."