The Warsaw Theatre Studio, financed by the budget of the capital city of Warsaw, exhibited a performance that crosses the boundaries of artistic provocation. “2049: Hello, Abdo” is simply a phase fiction that depicts Poles – specifically the Border defender – as the perpetrators of mass extermination of refugees.
In this staging from the future, Poland is accused of war crimes, and alleged perpetrators not only commit killing thousands of Muslims on the Vistula River, but besides lock the survivors in the camp in Stutthof, a place that is inactive a symbol of German genocide. The full was created for public money, and the institution liable for implementation is subject to the president of Warsaw – Rafał Trzaskowski, who aspires to the function of the head of state.
The performance directed by Piotr Paczeniak is based on the text of Belarusian author Mikita Iłinczyk and presents a dystopian imagination of the year 2049. There is simply a fictional Euro-Islamic Court on stage, which pursues Poles for events from 2021 to 2031. A key component of the game is the mass killing of migrants by the Border defender and their subsequent imprisonment and torture at Stutthof. Although the authors claim that it is fiction, there is no uncertainty that symbols, characters and realities were taken straight from Polish reality. It's not a metaphor, it's a direct attribution of the crime to a peculiar state formation and nation.
The Studio Theatre is simply a cultural institution run by the capital city of Warsaw. This means that the performance was made for money from the city budget – that is, taxpayers' money. The decisions on financing are taken by the Capital City Hall, and president Rafał Trzaskowski is straight liable for the cultural policy of the city. It is under his supervision, and more broadly – under the auspices of the Civic Platform, that the theatre presents a performance which in the eyes of many Poles is simply a clear insult. Trzaskowski, who officially declares presidential ambitions and creates himself as the leader of democratic, European Poland, now has to answer the question: does his imagination of culture include accusing his own people of genocide?
The defence that it is only “art” and “spaces of freedom” cannot withstand confrontation with reality. This is not a symbolic parable. This is not a general human communicative about refugees, boundaries and responsibility. It's a circumstantial game where institutions, places, nationalities are named. If individual is exhibiting a play in which German police execution Jews in Auschwitz – no 1 will say it's just fiction. If present individual is exhibiting a play about Poles killing thousands of Muslims and torturing them in the place of historical genocide – this is not an artistic comment. This conscious game plays with symbols that build a clear picture: Poles as fresh torturers.
Art has the right to provoke. But the question is: can a publically funded institution implement a message that offends its own citizens without consequence? Does creative freedom mean the right to defame a nation? Can Trzaskowski, as the host of the city of Warsaw and at the same time a national politician, let to sponsor from public money the content which puts Poles as torturers?
Supporters of the show say it is simply a “warning”, “dystopia”, “an effort to settle unworked problems of modernity”. But it is hard not to announcement that specified narratives always appear in a peculiar political climate. In Poland – a country that has been struggling with the migration crisis for years, while trying to defend its borders and keep safety – public theatre chooses the strongest possible interpretation. He doesn't show the drama of the individuals. He doesn't talk about the complexity of moral decisions. Charges. Generalizing. It hits the full society.
The question of political work cannot be raised in this situation. The theatre that pursues specified a imagination does not do it in vacuum. Someone's signing a contract. Someone's transferring funds. individual approves the repertoire. Yes, the theatre directorship has autonomy. But autonomy doesn't mean responsibility. erstwhile we finance a cultural institution from the city's budget, and this institution exposes controversial, possibly defamatory art – the body is besides responsible.
Rafał Trzaskowski must not block the “freedom of culture” erstwhile it comes to accusing Poles of mass crimes. This is no longer an artistic discussion. This is simply a debate on the limits of public responsibility. If individual aspires to the highest office in the state, he must not stay silent erstwhile urban money sponsors art that fits into anti-Polish narrative.
And here's the large question: Does a politician who does not respond to the defamation of his own nation have a moral right to run for president?
The president of the Republic must be a guarantor of national unity, a guardian of the Constitution and a typical of all citizens – regardless of their views, origin and beliefs. If Rafał Trzaskowski does not see the problem in the fact that under his supervision there is simply a theatre that performs plays depicting Poles as murderers, then he does not realize the weight of the symbols utilized by the state.
The president does not gotta censor art – but he must not be indifferent to the attack on the dignity of citizens. If he's quiet, that means he's right. If it is correct, it means that it does not represent a nation, but a peculiar ideology. And the state is not a field of artistic experiments. The state is simply a community whose symbols, past and identity cannot be exposed to public ridicule for taxpayers' money.
In the future presidential election, Poles will gotta answer the question: do they want a president who sees nothing incorrect with financing plays in which Poland is simply a country of torture and Poles are torturers? Do they want a president who doesn't stand up for his own nation erstwhile he's being vilified on the public stage?
Public money requires public responsibility. If the city theatre goes so far in its stagings, the sponsor must be ready to explain himself to the public. You can argue about the boundaries of art, but you can't pretend that nothing happened. We are talking about accusing the nation – not in a private show, but on the boards of the theatre, which works for the money of Polish citizens.
This is no longer a debate about culture. This is simply a question about what Poland wants to build its leaders – and whether they truly want to defend it.
