Zachęta Project Room

curator: Karolina Bielawska

Krieg dem Kriege [War against War], Ernst Friedrich’s pacifistic photo album from 1924, opens with images of tin soldiers. Playing with them is shown here as a way of getting us familiar with weapons, teaching us to kill. A murderous potential has been embedded in our identity, present since our early years. A potential bound up with memories, as a memento in constant suspension. A memento postponed for an indeterminate period of time. Susan Sontag wrote that for war to be called war, it has to have a beginning and an end.

Our visions of war represented on paper, in imagination, are imperfective wars and such that we can’t even remember. A record of would-be wars. A circumstantial case of war. Permanently unsolved, suspended. A trace, a hunch, a warning. Images of war deeply affect our perception of the world, shaping us from early childhood, defining our outlook on life.

Our works were made independently. In the exhibition they are shown in juxtaposition to facilitate dialogue. We wanted to compare how war is seen by a woman and a man. We analyse the very concept of war, not just its fictional or documentary images. In times that define the categories of masculinity and femininity so imprecisely, the task proves even more complicated. We describe war from the vantage of a generation that hasn’t experienced it directly, yet fears it.

Zuzanna Sękowska – born 1990, Warsaw. A graduation-year student at the Faculty of Graphic Design, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. A painter and curator, she collaborates with Pracownia Żelazna, an independent artistic community.

Łukasz Radziszewski – born in 1989, Białystok. Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Associated with the Pracownia Żelazna independent artistic community. Finalist of the Hestia Artistic Journey 2015 competition. Formerly employed full-time as a visual artist at the 2nd Mazovian Engineer Regiment of the Polish Army in Kazuń Nowy.