INDEX ON CENSORSHIP   |   VOL.51   |   NO.3

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the national broadcaster TVP reported on the band’s problematic affiliations.

Sneaking behind the scenes Index exclusively spoke to Michał Matuszewski, who was cinema and film curator at Ujazdowski. During his 13 years at the institution, he witnessed three different directors. Along with a small number of colleagues, Matuszewski decided to stay on and oppose the anticipated political influence. And Bernatowicz’s taking up office in early 2020 started fairly inconspicuously. Unlike other PiSinstalled directors before him - notably the controversial and noisy Miziołek at the National Museum - no one was let go. However, over the span of two years, Matuszewski said, Bernatowicz put in place a set of circumstances that practically forced Matuszewski out of his job.

Months into the new directorship, an inexperienced colleague was hired to work on a par with Matuszewski in a senior role. As daughter of Maciej Pawlicki, a film director known for his vocal PiS party line, she was trusted to follow in his ideological footsteps. After only two years, she was promoted to being Matuszewski’s supervisor, leaving him without any tasks of his own.

Matuszewski says: “It’s extremely disheartening for me to have to leave and painfully witness the sneaking, hostile takeover of yet another cultural institution of the country. At this point, there are countless examples for the mind-boggling programme choices of CSW over the past 2.5 years, only one of which we could stop. But the way in which I have had to leave - I have had to grapple with this for months - I don’t wish on anyone.”

Matuszewski has been observing Bernatowicz installing inexperienced, loyal staff across all CSW departments and suspects this to be a strategy with the goal to frustrate employees opposing the PiS-agenda.

Is PiS willingly rendering Poland’s art institutions irrelevant? Matuszewski says: “That’s not their reasoning. Those behind this takeover argue this is an emancipation project for pluralism as, allegedly, right-wing art had been censored before. But the desired result is that any perspective not aligned with the party stance should be eradicated with no trace left behind. The cultural sector is yet another battleground in ideological warfare.”

Until recently, observers feared the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (MSN) would be next. However, it has escaped that fate for now. Unlike most Warsaw institutions, the MSN was not exclusively under the auspices of Poland’s National Cultural Ministry, but also the city of Warsaw. This May, a Warsaw City Council vote transferred the MSN exclusively to Warsaw city, meaning less funding and an overall lower profile for the institution. Speaking under condition of anonymity, someone employed at a different art institution in Warsaw told Index that they viewed this move as an act of desperation: “They cut off their arm to save themselves.”

The motivation behind this is that the Civic Platform has held a majority in Warsaw for many years. But this approach is not without risk. What if Law and Justice ever won a Warsaw election? And, the example of the Warsaw Biennale is evidence that PO is just as capable of removing cultural institutions which have become uncomfortable politically.

Co-curator Galas-Kosil told Index: “In the end, the case of the Biennale illustrates that both major parties are not too far apart in how they operate or in the role they attribute to contemporary art. Just like PiS taking over all these institutions, the PO has dismantled a contemporary art institution, just on the off chance it might cause them issues in the future. Many cities would dream of the type of intersectional discussion the Biennale provided, but this is not something that is politically desired.”

Martha Otwinowski is a Berlin-based journalist, who reports from Poland and Germany

51(03):17/20|DOI:10.1177/03064220221126389

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