Now that I’m back in Krakow for an extended period of time, my days have become more predictable and schedulable, which is nice in some ways, but I do sometimes miss the chaos and uncertainty of being constantly on the road. Anyway, consequently, I’ve been able to reserve spaces for studying, working on my research, etc. I had a break this afternoon between classes, so I thought I’d explore the National Museum in Krakow, which contains an extremely varied and impressive collection of Polish art in various forms, from 13th century priests’ cassocks laced with gold to a video monitor playing a postmodern animated film in which pieces of string curled and unfurled to the beat of unappealing noise music, with plenty of 20th century impressionism (my favorite) in between.
I originally made the trip to check out an exhibit by Jacek Sroka, which I’d read about on the website crakow-life.com (check it out if you’re interested in the city, and please send me any recommendations!). Overall I was really impressed. Usually modern art isn’t really my thing, but I don’t even know if that’s how I’d classify this guy. All I know is I stood in front of each of his paintings for at least 5 minutes each, and could usually come up with some sort of idea about what I thought he was trying to say- usually a humorous criticism of some oppressive element of society, be it patriarchy, the rat race (one of his paintings was literally an enormous mass of rats scurrying in waves to a focal point outside the canvas). One of the first pieces was of a hunter on a giant horse, all painted dark blue using thick strokes that tried in chunks on the canvas, against the backdrop of a perfectly symmetrical, bright yellow bathroom. I saw in it the disaffection and apathy that can come from having everything handed to you thanks to modern technology and convenience. Postmodern much?
A couple of his other pieces that really struck me where those that commented on women and their position in society, something I was thinking about at the time in the context of our visit this morning with a representative from EFKA, a Polish feminist organization. One of the pieces, entitled Machine to Sustain Breathing in Women really caught my attention- a women is standing, naked, exposed, attached to a metal contraption through nodes pinching all parts of her body, with dead trees and a highway in the background. It was refreshing to see a male painter acknowledge and so artfully capture the anxiety, guilt, and silent suffering that are so often a part of the female experience. For women in Poland, the suffering has been especially silent, since a knee-jerk negative reaction to ideologies of any kind, as well as a fierce return to traditionalism post-1989 have made it difficult for feminism to catch on, even as women are made to bear the brunt of the economic hardships of democratic transition, not to mention nonexistent representation in the political sphere and widespread domestic violence. Our speaker this morning seemed optimistic about the future of feminism in Poland (while acknowledging the challenges), and from what I’ve been able to gather from my observations of the rather traditional relations between men and women in this society, she’s going to need all of the optimism she can muster.
