Paweł Leszkowicz played in 2011 at the Toruń Center of Modern Art. It is hard to find during such exhibits a new Juliusz Kossak, Artur Grottger, Józef Brandt, Jan War (!!!) and Peace (?): Matejko or Maksymilian Gierymski, who would ef- fectively express visually our day and age. There Fascination with Militarism are two simple reasons for this. First of all – sat- uration: old style patriotic militaristic iconography in Contemporary Polish Art is triumphant in the mainstream television and movie productions and hardly anyone expects it to be present in the more niche modern art. Why New militaristic iconography and creative arts duplicate the convention as well as plotlines from connected to war in the broadest sense are flour- Polish Public Television’s hit series Czas honoru ishing in Polish contemporary art of the twenty-first (Time of Honor), Andrzej Wajda’s Katyń or other century, referring both to the historical perspective, similar productions. The more so that all over the as well as the perspective of here and now. The War country there are various military museums, which and Peace exhibition prepared by Galeria Labirynt promote the militarist-patriotic visual art tradition [Labyrinth Gallery] is an attempt to summarize this and the movement focused on the reenactment of issue and also takes the next step to enrich it. The historical Polish battles since the Middle Ages up most prominent Polish artists, curators and critics until World War II is enjoying unabated populari- tackle this topic, exploring various realms of mili- ty. At this exhibition we are presenting a selection taristic themes. of photographs by Piotr Ślaski, who specializes in War has been a great narrative in Poland’s art documenting such events, which are financed by history for centuries. Patriotic and historical nine- municipal and state institutions as well as through teenth century paintings persist as the foundations grassroots support from groups fascinated with of museums and the national heritage itself. That militarism and history. Therefore the market is sat- is when the military canon in painting had been urated. formed, the canon which reigns in the collective The second reason is political and relatively imagination of the nation and in the dominantly new in the context of the last two centuries. The conservative ethos till this day. One could think Third Polish Republic belongs to NATO and the that after the Smoleńsk catastrophe and the return European Union and is a well-off, free and at times of phantasms of martyrdom the official art canon imperialistic and nationalistic country, which has should return to that of the patriotic themes from little in common with being a victim. Nowadays the time of the Partitions. And yet this did not hap- we are struggling with freedom and not with en- pen and the aforementioned museum-like conven- slavement! Despite the legacy of martyrdom, the tion can hardly be found in institutions dedicated ethos of combating the countries which used to be to contemporary art. This sort of return to the past our partitioning powers, communists and the cult seems to be hard, though many right-wing politi- of the Smoleńsk catastrophe, Poland is, at least as cians and ideologues would gladly promote and of 2015, still independent and proud with the only finance it. Even important institutions dedicated to war, which is taking place on its territory, being an modern art, in the name of pluralism, are search- ideological civil war, for which exclusively our pol- ing for patriotic artwork, opening their showrooms iticians are responsible. Our soldiers, in turn, are for artists and curators who cherish traditional val- occupied by, not always clearly motivated, military ues. Examples of that may be the New National Art interventions in different parts of the world or de- exhibition (2012) at the Museum of Modern Art in fending the Polish border against refugees from Warsaw, organized by Sebastian Cichocki and Łu- countries struck by war and poverty, whom Poland kasz Ronduda, as well as Kazimierz Piotrowski’s reluctantly accepts. Thymós: The Art of Wrath 1900-–2011 exhibition dis- In such times, in a contemporary art more re- flectively focused on reality, the only militarist ico- nography which could have developed is a revision- history of art, filled with depictions of victory or ist one. defeat as well as they relate to contemporary war These are works that examine, instead of glo- crime documentation. Such is the style in Hubert rifying, national values, and interpret history in a Czerepok’s series Screenings: The Horrors of War different way, conduct a psychoanalysis of violence, (2007-2009) inspired by the famous images by the attachment to war and its mythology, as well as Francisco Goya depicting the calamities from the critically look at the destructive cult of militaristic Spanish-French war (1808–1814). This Polish artist masculinity. On the one hand it is art on a pacifistic sketches modern-day war atrocities: rapes, torture, ground, on the other hand it is one that is obses- humiliation and executions, based on actual pho- sively fascinated with the perversions of militarism, tographic documentation from different parts of which it unveils and dissects. This visual tenden- the world. His vision lies somewhere between the cy seems to be a necessary and priceless therapy photographs of the humiliated Iraqi prisoners from in the face of the surrounding militarist madness, Abu Ghraib, done by American soldiers and the an- which is first and foremost present within us. And ti-war paintings by Leon Golub portraying scenes it originates from the subconscious, and yet ram- of torture in South America during the period that pant, fascination with violence. military juntas ruled there. Basically in the contemporary artistic approach There are also artists, who cite and label with to the subject of war, not only in Poland, one can their style the classics of Polish military and patri- discern two tendencies. The traditional approach otic art in an act of intertextual play with the im- presents the tragedy and horror of war in a lofty age. Edward Krasiński in his installation entitled way, it pays homage to its victims or documents The Battle of Grunwald (1997) puts his distinct blue the progress of military activities as well as their af- sticker on a copy of Jan Matejko’s painting, annex- termath. The opposing tendency is connected with ing this relic of Polish culture for the sake of con- reprocessing the concepts and ideologies linked ceptual art. Tomasz Kozak in his mural Yet Another with wars, it is a level of meta-reflection on the Effort, Poles! (2004), which alludes to Marquise de depictions of violence, where strategies of playing Sade’s revolutionary appeal: “Yet another effort, with media and art clichés take place using irony Frenchmen, if you would become republicans,” and even humor. It seems that in Polish modern art uses the figures from the patriotic and religious we can observe more of the second approach or a series of Artur Grottger’s paintings in order to cre- somewhat ambiguous synthesis. ate a scene of sadistic insurgent conflagration and A new type of militarist iconography developed anti-Semitic fantasy. This way the artist confronts in the first decade of the twenty-first century, when romantic depictions of martyrdom and reveals the Polish soldiers were stationed in Iraq and Afghani- dark, and not messianic side of Polishness1. stan, where war was for them an adventure or a job Despite abandoning the simplistic patriotic (still lethally dangerous), though unconnected di- tradition, an intense fascination with war is appar- rectly with the defense of their own territory. A light ent in art. Travestying the title of Susan Sontag’s approach to the subject, which appears among famous essay, “Fascinating Fascism” (1974), one artists, is probably a result of them being distant can call this phenomenon “fascinating militarism.” from a real war. They do not experience a genuine When writing about the popularity of Leni Riefen- existential risk, they only have the privilege of crit- stahl’s movies, Sontag indicated the lasting pres- ically working on the mythologies and ambitions, ence of fascist aesthetics as form of expression in which still motivate many men to join the army popculture as well as the fleeting memory or even and many power hungry politicians to make the negation of the maleficent meaning behind it2. decision to go to war. Militaristic themes in Polish art are of a univer- 1 Maria Janion, Niesamowita słowiańszczyzna: Fantazmaty sal, global and transhistorical character and do literatury (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2007), p. 34. not relate exclusively to the history of our coun- 2 Susan Sontag, “Fascynujący faszyzm,” trans. Andrzej try. Sometimes artists conduct a dialogue with the Antoszek and Tomek Kitliński, Magazyn Sztuki 12 (1996): Similarly, one can diagnose the fascination with was the most promoted military artist of commu- militarism as a theme in contemporary Polish art. nist Poland, Michał Bylina, who painted key battles It is most of the time interesting, though extremely that took place during World War II. However most ambiguous in an ethical sense and is rather based artists had done their homework from modern art, on performing and citing than on truly painful ex- for they used expressive deformations and synthet- perience. This is probably a deliberate attempt at ic simplifications in order to depict military action. departing from the traumatic-patriotic tradition of Fundamentally, the ideology, as well as iconography Polish painting as well as the World Press Photo of combat and victory, disowned the horror of war reportage convention of literally documenting the and such art was perfect propaganda for the Army of suffering of the victims of war.