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Mutual responsibility

The latest Arsenał Gallery exhibition proves that mutual support and shared responsibility may foster emancipation.

Collage by Magdalena Sobolska. It is kept in brown and blue colours. In the foreground there is a pond, on the right side of the painting sits a smiling girl without a leg, wearing only a T-shirt and panties. On the left side - naked male bodies. One man is without a leg. - grafika artykułu
One of the works from the exhibition, photograph: Magdalena Sobolska

"The performer is dressed in black. She is pacing calmly on stage. She is facing her audience. She has sat down on a white stool that looks medical. She turns around on it turns her back towards the audience." These and similar comments came from behind my back as I watched the autobiographical performance Rezonans kontrastu (The Resonance of Contrast) by the activist and dancer Katarzyna Żeglicka. The show addresses oppression by medicalisation. However, the voice I heard was not that of the performer herself, but of a guide to a sightless person who sat in the audience. Similar whispers could also be heard elsewhere in the Pavilion that housed two artistic events that night: one was the said performance, the other an Opera composed of runner breaths by the artist and runner Paulina Pankiewicz. As it later turned out, the person sitting in the row behind me on the receiving end of the commentary to The Resonance of Contrast was in fact one of the Opera's creators. A work without image, composed solely of sounds made by people while running, would not be possible without the involvement of sightless runners who were also present in the Pavilion hall.

Both of these events were held at the opening of the Arsenał Municipal Gallery exhibition Policies of (In)Accessibility, Female Citizens with Disabilities and Their Allies, created at the initiative of curator Zofia Nierodzińska. In her curatorial description, Nierodzińska notes: "disability is a social condition, a cultural perception of people with disabilities and of the accessibility of public spaces". This makes it a political category serving as a forum for urgent debates. The exhibition brings together artistic activities that address the experience of a disability. The works on view show the enormity of that experience and of thoughts on relations with one's body and cultural and social setting. The curator uses the event to juxtapose works from the last few years (including the aforementioned works by Żeglicka and Pankiewicz, Apples growing on oaks by Liliana Zeic, SAMOREAL by Karolina Wiktor, and Still-Life by Grupa Nowolipie) on the one hand and, on the other, some of the older pieces that have already made their name in the history of art (An eye for an Eye by Artur Żmijewski, Mt 9,7 [And the man got up and went home] by Rafał Urbacki). No less important in The Policies are the workshops to be offered by artists during the exhibition.

To combine the Arsenał vernissage with the performance and opera in the Pavilion in a single event proved to be an ingenious idea. The turnout was great at both parts, evidencing tremendous interest in this formula. The organisers made sure to avoid any exclusion by providing people with disabilities with all support they might need during both the Pavilion event and the exhibition. Polish sign language interpretation was provided during Żeglicka's performance. At the Gallery, attendants stood by to describe the exhibits to any sightless and visually impaired people.

What is crucial in an event based on the values of activists and their allies such as Policies of (In)Accessibility is that they feature a work that directly relates to their viewpoints. Established in 2005, Grupa Nowolipie began by offering ceramic workshops to people with disabilities. At the exhibition, it presented a Still Life painting on cardboard, made jointly by all team members. The resulting diversity of its styles is a protest against the individualistic appropriation of space in both the literal and symbolical sense. Still Life was made in accordance with the Group's principle of creating art based on cooperation and equality. The painting is a record of a visual dialogue that its authors established during their creative process. The maxim they used says: "Everyone is an artist, it is just that some people need help finding this out".

Other exhibits explored intimacy and personal experience. What intrigued me the most was the work of SAMOREAL by Karolina Wiktor. This artist, who is aphasic, meaning she has lost her ability to read, write and use speech, presented a mural introducing the audience to the concept of The Alphabet of the Missing Font, which she invented. This language system of her own creation is designed to help learn communication codes anew. The words in the mural are composed of letters whose outlines are not fully clear. The "vanishing" of the characters helps understand the difficulties that people who have experienced aphasia face in deciphering the written word.

Remarkable freedom and satisfaction radiates from the facial expressions and gestures of a laughing model in the photograph Untitled (Magda) by Joanna Pawlik. The woman, who is dressed in underwear, is missing a leg, which the photograph makes plain to see in its foreground. The artist uses photography to draw viewers' attention to the need to treat depictions of disabled bodies normally, without alluding to controversy, shame, or pain.

Artur Żmijewski's photographs in the series An Eye for an Eye, in their turn, deal with the autonomy of the people who have experienced an amputation. Four stylistically coordinated photos portray a "hybrid body" with an odd number of arms and legs, made by presenting multiple naked bodies as if they formed a single organism. It is difficult at first glance to notice that the models in one of the photos are missing a leg, because the limbs of the other person seem to "fill" that space. I believe the artist intended to invoke reflection on the autonomy of people with disabilities and on closeness.

The latest Arsenał exhibition finds a variety of ways to address relations with other people and present different views on empowerment. The balance between these aspects resulting from the selection of works makes visiting the exhibition enriching informationally, educationally and aesthetically. The works inspire reflection on the adequacy of separating the world into "normal" and "disabled". What is particularly important, however, is that the exhibition offers an excuse to meet and understand others and as such, an opportunity to make lasting changes in any societies that exclude minorities and that focus on the needs and visions of the majority.

Julia Niedziejko

translation: Krzysztof Kotkowski

  • The exhibition Policies of (In)Accessibility, Female Citizens with Disabilities and Their Allies
  • Arsenał Municipal Gallery
  • curated by Zofia Nieodzińska, open until 10 April

© Wydawnictwo Miejskie Posnania 2022