Polish pavilion selection at Venice Biennale gets political as rejected artist cries censorship – Art Newspaper

The artist selected to represent Poland at the 2024 Venice Biennale last year says that the new Polish governments decision to cancel his project at the worlds 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 Czwartoss project.

Czwartos tells The Art Newspaper that his exhibition proposal Polish Practice in Tragedy. Between Germany and Russiawas initially selected in an open competition. On 31 October, Polands Ministry of Culture announced that it would indeed present an exhibition by Czwartos at the countrys 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 Warsaws Zachta National Gallery of Art.

PiS emergedas 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 Zachta 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, Bartomiej 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 Czy and featuring Open Group. Zachta 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, Czwartoss 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, Czwartoss 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 Zachta staff and three members of the museums jury: Jagna Domalska, Joanna Warsza and Karolina Zibiska-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 Magorzata Mirga-Tas [who represented Poland at the 2022 Biennale], we move to the most narrow-minded, ideologically paranoid and shameful position.

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Polish pavilion selection at Venice Biennale gets political as rejected artist cries censorship - Art Newspaper