In Poland, since the seizure of the Law and Justice party over the government and Parliament since 2015, reinforced by the absolute majority obtained in the legislative elections last October, the control of museums, cultural institutions and places of memory seems to have become an issue major policy. Not only does the ultra-conservative government seek to master the narration of Polish history, but it is also interested in contemporary art.
In the capital, Warsaw, the place dedicated to the creation of the plastic arts, the Ujazdow Castle (Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art, CCA), welcomes since 1 January a new director, Piotr Bernatowicz. According to the Artforum site, his appointment, which dates back to November, would have followed a special procedure: "The Ministry of Culture has short-circuited the usual process of call for projects, and has extended the term of office of the post, now seven years. "
"Left ghettos"
What the artistic circles criticize the new director of the CCA is first of all his ideological proximity to the curators. "As a journalist and director of public institutions, Piotr Bernatowicz has repeatedly legitimized hate speech statements. In the public sphere, there is no room for posters insulting social groups or works anti-women or songs full of anti-Semitic stereotypes ", underlines a petition launched against him and signed in particular by the author Olga Tokarczuk, recently winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, by the director Paweł Pawlikowski or even the director Krzysztof Warlikowski.
A New York Times investigation published on January 8 paints a portrait of this new director, dubbed by the Minister of Culture, Piotr Glinski. Piotr Bernatowicz is opposed to the fact that artists must necessarily exhibit works "on climate change and fascism, or for the promotion of homosexual rights". "Artists who do not adopt this ideology are marginalized," he regrets in the New York daily.
"I do not intend to transform this center into an ideological ghetto for conservative ideas and artists," seeks to reassure Piotr Bernatowicz, however. "I find that most contemporary art galleries present themselves as left ghettos. This is what I want to change."
"He became crazy"
However, Piotr Bernatowicz was not always perceived as the Trojan horse of a government camped in very conservative, patriotic and anti-abortion positions. According to the New York Times reporter, who met artist Radziszewski currently on display at Ujazdow Castle, Piotr Bernatowicz was once considered a typical member of the art scene: "We were friends, he even figured in my movies, he says, and he's gone crazy. "
Piotr Bernatowicz tells the American daily newspaper that he was struck by the plane crash in which part of the Polish political class perished in 2010. He also says he is hostile to Russian interference in Poland. Finally, he delivers his artistic vision: according to him, "extreme identity movements" have invaded the art world and the argument of "hate speech" formulated to qualify homophobic or sexist positions is, according to him, a form censorship which reminds him of the communist regime.
Nurtured distrust
The online petition highlights the lack of skills of Piotr Bernatowicz to lead international projects. The petitioners also echo the conflicts "with the team" during a previous mandate of Piotr Bernatowicz at the head of the City Gallery Arsenał in Poznań, and believe that he had alienated the local artistic community.
The reluctance of the artistic community towards this appointment at the head of the most important Polish contemporary art center, which has hosted works by Barbara Kruger, Nan Goldin or Kara Walker in the past, fuel a distrust already fueled by several clashes between the government and cultural institutions of Poland.
Culture Minister Piotr Glinski has refused to renew the mandate of historian Dariusz Stola as head of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews - the "Polin" museum - in Warsaw for more than six months. Earlier, the government had made it legally reprehensible to associate the Polish state with the horrors of the Holocaust, sowing discomfort in the community of historians. The divide between two Poland, one conservative and pro-Law and Justice, the other progressive and supporting the rights of migrants and gender minorities, is widening even more.
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