EVENT! Polonia uncensored 2 - Ignacy Czwartos

As of June 7, 1 of the loudest exhibitions of Polish contemporary art in fresh years will be seen in the CSW in Ujazdowski Castle.
It is “Polonia Uncensored / Polonia uncensored”, the exhibition of Ignacy Czwartos painting, the winner of the open competition for the exhibition in the Polish Pavilion in Venice - the competition whose consequence has been annulled by the arbitrary decision of erstwhile Minister of Culture, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz.

Presented in Venice "Polonia Uncensored / Polonia uncensored" was first based on the belief of the very advanced artistic and intellectual rank of Ignacy Czętos painting, secondly from the dissension to effort to politically choke artistic freedom, thirdly from the belief that the failure to show this crucial and current exhibition of the Polish artist in Venice would be an unrepeated failure to Polish culture.

What a very crucial exhibition by Ignacy Czwartos - although in Venice presented outside the authoritative Biennale programme and deprived of the support of powerful promotional institutions - was treated as 1 of the most crucial events of this year's Biennale. The number of articles, reviews, comments in the most crucial media around the world, the immense temperature of discussion and excellent reactions of the Venetian audience have passed through the organizers' wildest expectations.

What peculiarly amazed visitors of the private flat arranged for the gallery close the Polish Pavilion in Venice was the gross incompatibility of the political communicative in many media with what they could see on the moving originality and strength of the paintings of Ignacy Czwartos. How does the visionary work of the artist meditating on the tragedy of the world's infallible formulas, painting resembling the nightmare of German and Russian totalitarianism, images that inform against temptations of nationalistic and utopian reasoning can be accused of anti-Europeanism or neo-fascism did not fit the visitor's exhibition in the head.

Among the displayed paintings, the 1 who – thanks to the still-organised in Poland – gained a worldwide broadcast long before painting. This is, of course, about Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin's image of Nord Stream 2. Judging from the reaction of the audience, it is hard to have a more fast grasp of the essence of modern fears of the effects of historical amnesia, of the bloody effects possessed by greed, of shortsighted politics, of the desire for dominance at all costs, including indulgence against criminal nationalisms and flattering the heads of neo-totalistic utopias.

If you are curious about the art that is being bullied by the authorities, if you want to see what artists are not allowed to do, if you are curious in what scares reviewers of the Wyborcza Newspaper, Guardian and the fresh York Times - a word if you want to know why the Venetian exhibition of Ignacy Czwartos caused specified a large stir – then we invitation you: come to the Ujazdowski Castle!

Look while you're at it.


Curators: Piotr Bernatowicz, Dariusz Karłowicz


The communicative was beautiful loud. Works by the artist entitled “Polish exercises on the tragedy of the world. Between Germany and Russia”, elected by a 15-person jury were to be in the Polish Pavilion at the Venice Biennial. The jury decision was confirmed by then Minister of Culture Piotr Gliński. However, last December, the fresh Minister of Culture Sienkiewicz decided that this would not happen. alternatively of an exhibition of images that showed the suffering of the Polish nation in a non-aggressive but very strong way, the ministry decided that Poland would be represented by the Polish-Ukrainian task “Repeat behind me”.

Nevertheless, the exhibition appeared in Venice. Its curators Piotr Bernatowicz and Dariusz Karłowicz organized it during a biennial close the Polish Pavilion. According to the organizers, the exhibition sparked strong reactions that exceeded their expectations, despite being presented outside the authoritative program and deprived of the support of powerful promotional institutions.

Now this exhibition will return to Warsaw, and its beginning will be scheduled for the next Friday at 19:00 at the office of the Centre for Contemporary Art.

Why is the Quaternus exhibition so much afraid with the current power that it is willing to censor it so strongly? possibly the best answer to this question was given by her curator Dariusz Karłowicz in his text, which was to be included in the catalogue of the exhibition which did not occur. present it can be read in political theology, which is co-organizer of the Warsaw exhibition:

"The exhibition of painting by Ignacy Czartos, which is not to be seen in the Polish Pavilion in Venice as a consequence of political intervention, is the fruit of the deep reflection of contemporary Polish artist over the terrible past of the 20th century. It is hard to uncertainty that the most crucial duties of our time are the effort to realize the origins of both twentieth-century totalitarianisms, the documentation of crimes, the commemoration of victims and the worship of those who had the courage to argue them.”


"The sum of individual and collective experiences is the basic material for reflection on the question "where are we going?" in its deepest sense, the question of who we want to be and what we do not want to become. Without faithfulness to the dead, these questions cannot be answered.”

In Poland we are presently fighting any crucial wars, but 1 of the most crucial ones is for memory.

That's what the exhibition is about.