Frictions: Europe, America and global Transformations - Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Creator: Wroblewski, Kathleen
Title: Silent Rebels and the Resurrection of the Polish Nation
Subtitle: Exhibition analysis
DOI: 10.15457/frictions/0018
Description:
Kathleen Wroblewski, lecturer in history at U Michigan, Ann Arbor, and visiting fellow at the ScienceCampus in May 2022, offers insights into the recent exhibition Silent Rebels: Polish Symbolism Around 1900, which was held at Kunsthalle München. She explores the ways in which the show, part of the Law and Justice (PiS) government’s soft power agenda, features artworks that could undermine its efforts to promote a singular, martyrdom-focused politics of history and national identity. Instead, many of the works of Modern art, including the centrepiece juxtaposition of Jan Matejko’s and Leon Wyczółkowski’s two versions of the court jester Stańczyk – encourage ambiguous, potentially rebellious readings, critical of misguided political leadership.
Date of publication: 2022-08-10
Subjects: Exhibition review, Nation State, Poland, Review, Wroblewski, analysis, art, exhibition, nationalism, politics of memory, public history, silent rebels, visiting fellow
Section: Current Debates
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