Art and New Authoritarianism
featuring Ignacy Czwartos, Kaya Szulczewska and Taravat Talepas
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Ignacy Czwartos
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(1966) is a Polish contemporary artist. His work is currently shown at Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw and was previously exhibited at key galleries and museums including MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków. His work deliberately references European modernism, especially the aesthetics of Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian, and – thanks to combining figurative and abstract art – is perversely witty. Czwartos’ recent paintings valorise the Cursed Soldiers and their heroism in the fight against communist rule in Poland, a significant period in recent Polish history that has been ignored by the contemporary art world.
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Kaya Szulczewska
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is an internet creator also known as Kayaszu. She is one of the first promoters of body positivity in Poland and is the founder of the community project “Ciałopozytw” [Body Positive]. In 2019, she became a victim of cancel culture because of her public criticism of the sex industry and her opposition to gender identity politics and transgender ideology.
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Taravat Talepasand
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is an artist, activist, and educator whose labour-intensive interdisciplinary painting practice questions the normative cultural behaviours within contemporary power imbalances. As an Iranian-American woman, Talepasand explores the cultural taboos that reflect on gender and political authority. Her approach to figuration reflects the cross-pollination, or lack thereof, in our Western Society.
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Manick Govinda
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independent writer, artists mentor, lecturer, curator and arts consultant. He has written for The Critic, Index on Censorship, Arts Professional, Open Democracy and Spiked. He is the co-curator, alongside Agnieszka Kolek, of Culture Tensions, a new series of public discussions and conversations at Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art. Manick describes himself as an Eclecticist, open to different ideas and thoughts, open to unresolved contradictions. He was cancelled in 2019 by many English arts institutions for his gender critical comments and humour on social media and for his vocal criticism against the European Union.
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Agnieszka Kolek
- artist, curator and co-founder of the Passion for Freedom Art Festival in London. Through supporting artists forbidden to exhibit their art, she exposes the silence of many and challenges the comfortable position of those who inhibit “safe spaces”. Agnieszka survived the terror attack in Copenhagen in 2015. She continued the meeting on art and blasphemy after the attack by saying: “They not only want to kill us. They want us to stop talking, so we should continue.”
