Painter Ignacy Czwartos was originally selected to represent his home country of Poland at this year’s Venice Biennale. Venice Biennale is an annual international cultural exhibition hosted in Venice, Italy, held 20 April–24 November this year. However, with the change of government in Poland, his art show was scrubbed from the event in Italy.
Czwartos’ works were originally picked by an open competition run during the reign of the previous administration. However, in October 2023, the right-wing conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) was voted out, and Donald Tusk’s centre-left Civic Platform (PO) got into power. The incoming new Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz announced his decision in December 2023 that he is cancelling Czwartos’ exhibition, titled Polish Practice in Tragedy. Between Germany and Russia, in Venice.
However, Czwartos did not give up that easily. With the help of Polish expatriates living in Venice and the Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw,
he is setting up his rival exhibition titled Polonia Uncensored, off-site near the Polish Pavilion at Venice Biennale.
It will feature fifteen pieces, some of which depict ‘figures and events from Polish history, forbidden by the communist regime between 1945 and 1989, known as the ”‘blanks” in Polish history,’ as per the project statement. Other pieces will feature depictions of war crimes committed by Germans against Poles and Jews in Poland during World War II, which, as the artist claims, went unpunished.
The artist is alos making it clear that he feels his freedom of expression has been infringed by the Tusk administration. An article by The Art Newspaper’s website quotes Czwartos talking about the Ministry’s decision to cancel his 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.’
However, the Ministry of Culture did follow up with an explanation later. They released an online statement saying ‘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’.
EU Silent on Tusk Administration’s Misdeeds
This is hardly the most egregious thing Donald Tusk’s government has done since coming to power.
Right after taking office, the new administration completely defunded public media companies after it was stopped from installing its new management by judges, ruling that the dismissal of the previous leadership was illegal. Also, in December 2023, former Minister of the Interior Mariusz Kamińsk and former Deputy Minister of the Interior Maciej Wąsik in the PiS administration were arrested and jailed despite having received presidential pardons previously.
Under former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s conservative government Poland was under constant scrutiny by the European Parliament and the European Commission for supposed rule of law violations. However, no such procedure is threatening the current Tusk administration with the withdrawal of funds or any other punitive action as of now, despite their coming at odds with the Polish Constitution quite a few times already during his short time in office.
Related articles:
