How Changed is Poland?

By Katherine Bujalska, Artes Mundi Live Guide

During the last few weeks, the exhibition has had quite a few young Polish visitors and where possible, I have grabbed them for a quick reflection on two of Yael Bartana’s films ‘Mary Koszmary’ and ‘Wall and Tower’. Last week I led a group of ESOL students around the show, four of whom were Polish, so had the chance to grill them in more depth.

The overriding response appeared to be that the films did not consider Poland’s current state - that it is not as it was in the 1930s when so many Jews were relocated to the Middle East. I don’t know what Poland is like today but the only real indication we could find in ‘Mary Koszmary’ were glimpses of the activities of market traders around the rim of the ‘Stadion Dziesiecioleca’. These people are mostly immigrants to the country.

Yael Bartana is not attempting to offer up a real solution to the issue of a Jewish homeland with this film. She unravels any supposition of this in part 2 of the trilogy, ‘Wall and Tower’ where the small contingent of Jews shown settling in Warsaw do so in a structure seemingly designed to prevent integration.

My own father grew up in Poland and the lasting sentiment he held of his early childhood (during the early 1940s) was that Jewish culture was synonymous with Polish culture. Mine is a second-hand account of one household within a country, but surely his was not an isolated experience? Unfortunately it is now one which cannot be directly compared to those with a contemporary experience of the newer, post-communist Poland they grew up in, but perhaps it should be. This point has been highlighted for me by these films and by the reactions of young Poles to them.

The visual references Yael Bartana employs – the recognisable Zionist film aesthetics, the red neck-tied youths, the archetypal wall and tower architecture – come from relatively recent histories. But where are the concrete visual or cultural references to the Jewish presence in Poland (or anywhere) pre-1930s? And would we recognize them anyway? I think the lack of any deeper Jewish historical reference in these films is purposeful. It reflects its absence elsewhere. I hope that people who see these films feel this neglected part of history is worth exploring.

Comments

[Hilary Perry]

Having seen and enjoyed the exhibition 5 times now I can confidently say that the 2 visits with my ESOL students were the most interesting. The students added so much with their in-depth knowledge of the history and politics of their own countries. I was proud of the confident way they all expressed their own opinions.

[Radek Wezyk]

I visited the exhibition with my ESOL course friends inspired by our great teacher Hilary.
The most active talk which we had was about two of Yael Bartana's films. In my opinion they express author's emotions, desires, feelings and even some kind of political statement.
I'm really impressed with her exhibition - it is about what art should be.
However, if their intention was to find a solution for a problem undertaken by them or to explain the problem, - in my opinion - they failed.
They don't show the background of the problem and the symbols like 'Stadion Dziesieciolecia w Warszawie' in its current state shouldn't be shown as a description of Polish society or state. It can be symbol of anything else like 'what happens to a country when stupidity with violence rule', ‘in what scope invaders can kill thinking and good will’ or it can be just ‘a symbol of destroyed society – hurt society'.
I don't think if Polish call Jewish they come back home in communist manner like author seems to suggest. They don’t call anyone and in none manner. They still try to re-built their country.
This is country just above 20 years old after 125 years of non-existence as a state, being Russified and Germanized, after 4 years of first world war when the ‘greatest’ nations tried to make their businesses using countries like Poland, after 20 years of hope and again 6 years of second world war during which our allies said ‘we promised to help but now we prefer to betray you’ and they said that second time after second war.
In result Poland got under communist rules for 60 years. The balance? There you are: 195 years dependence on invaders, being killed, ripped, stolen and whatever unpleasant you can imagine; with no education, hospitals, authorities and state at all. 16% (6000000) of polish people were killed just during second war (0,94% of British). Polish hid Jewish for what punishment was death. This country lost about 30% of national goods during first war and about another 40% of what left during second one (0,4% - UK).
The country lost most of it’s territory and intelligence class during such long period of time. Rest of the last one emigrated during communist period.
I don’t want to say that Jewish didn’t suffer because of the second war. They did even more but the history of Poland is eventually the history of Jewish as well.
The drama of Polish and Jewish nations are very similar because of what the young activist from the film should be shouting 'All of you, who left this country because of historical reasons, come back and help to rebuilt our home: Jewish, Romanian, … , and Polish as well.

[Ludwik Kowalski]

This 2010 book is my autobiography. It is based on a diary I kept between 1946 and 2004 (in the USSR, Poland, France and the USA). The title is: “Diary of a Former Communist: Thoughts, Feelings, Reality.”

The URL is http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/life/intro.html

Comments, as always, will be appreciated.

Ludwik Kowalski
Professor Emeritus
Montclair State University (USA)
[email protected]