Feminist performance art and cultural institutions in socialist and post-socialist Poland

Abstract

The present research aims to analyse the relationship between feminist performance art and cultural institutions in socialist and post-socialist Poland, and how this relationship contributed to the formation of an alternative discourse with respect to the dominant ideologies within the public sphere. During socialism, due to the permeating influence of political ideology in the public sphere, avant-garde forms of art were censored or strongly discouraged, and official cultural institutions did not sustain or sponsor any kind of art form which was considered potentially subversive. For this reason, alternative art forms, among which performance art, had to develop in alternative or “unofficial” galleries. During the post-communist period, with the advent of democracy, the Church increasingly gained power, having a strong influence both in the public sphere as well as in the private sphere, especially for women. Again, another form of censorship emerged, this time religious, which has resulted in the exclusion of many works by performance artists by the official cultural institutions. Moreover, the analysis highlights how, in the Polish context previously described, performance art contributed to the diffusion of gender related issues, which were not given relevance or space in the public sphere. Through the analysis of three cases of Polish feminist performance artists, namely Ewa Partum, Natalia LL and Katarzyna Kozyra, it emerges from the research that through their practices, official and unofficial cultural institutions, influenced by the ongoing ideological propaganda and censorship, represented spaces where an alternative discourse could be opened.