We hereby make public the formation of the smallest surrealist group in the world, The Surrealist Group in Szczecin.
Surrealism seems to have been permanently absent in poland, apart from the usual dose of eclectic or ignorant "surrealist-inspired" artists, now as before, here as elsewhere. We have not systematically searched poland with respect to surrealist "precursors" or other, for surrealism relevant, tendencies, or for that matter miserabilist signs, and we don't see any virtue with a national limitation of the view. However, we have noted certain things that have inspired us, or infuriated us. We then write about the polish situation for two reasons: to communicate our viewpoints to the surrealist movement, and in hope for communication with likeminded people. We want to call things by their correct names, inspire and encourage to further action. One half of us grew up here during the fall of "communism", actually stalinism; the other half has come here as an outside observer. In reality, we are both equally outside of the polish society, and regard, with the same feeling of hopelessness, despair and anger, the all-encompassing depth of the polish misery. The "national character" is of course an artificiality that we can only shit on. Here, as elsewhere, we are abroad. The polish national feeling is just as arbitrary and repulsive as any other. In the case of poland, the long and violent history has been taken as an excuse for strengthening the hatred towards all "aliens", along with the occupiers, while it instead should have led to despair about all ruthless power pretensions. Take Szczecin as an example: once an area within the roman empire and visited by vikings, the area has, in different times, belonged to sweden, denmark, prussia, pomerania, germany and poland. The beauty in this area therefore, is often found among the different ruins that the regimes left behind. In the decay of the rich german port city, the decay of stalinistist industrialism and its ugly functional apartment buildings one sees the hope of something new and organic, where the shopping centers for germans have not yet taken over, on the carpets and tables of the poorest people on the flea market where the most remarkable things and parts from different epochs turn up in the hope of generating a couple of zloty. Each country's regime tries to apologize and to strengthen its power with its own type of mythologizing as a basis for "the national feeling". In poland's case, it's a justifying of all misery that happened and happens by appointing poland "the jesus of europe", that took upon itself all the pains for the sake of the sins of others. In this logic, the poles should be proud for the injustices, toil and pains they have been and are exposed to, and strictly obey authorities, above all the nation, bosses, teachers and priests, yes everyone that is formally superior or "educated", combined with the most bitter contempt for whatever fails to meet the catholic-authoritarian-nationalist standard. This means aliens (most notable: russians, germans, but in general all non-poles); all non-christians, above all jews (despite the fact that they have been almost exterminated by nazism and stalinism) and atheists; and everyone that doesn't follow the duties of family norms, above all homosexuals. Here, government representatives can freely attack homosexuals, by for example forbidding their expressions, as well as education in evolution science - in the names of the nation, the family and god. Here, those who insult the pope or "the religious feeling" (through satire, art, music etc) are put in prison or get a huge fine. Here, women's right to abortion is of course prohibited. Naive trotskyists and syndicalists put confidence in Solidarność; at last, a stalinist dictatorship would be smashed by a workers' movement. But it wasn't even that Solidarność was a Trojan Horse for the consolidation of the power of the catholic church and for the introduction of a particularly brutal "neo-liberal" capitalism, it was already early clear objectives for its leaders. When Lech Wałęsa signed an agreement in front of the cameras, dressed in a shirt with a picture of virgin mary, he used a gigantic pen - with the pope's picture on it - only with the purpose that the cameras would catch the crucifix that had been placed on the wall behind! The Nobel peace price to Wałęsa, just like the assignment of Karol Wojtyla to pope, were both measures in the welcoming with open arms of the polish people into imperialism. And now, europe has got its cheap products and its second class working class that works the essence out of itself without rights, to famine salaries, frozen out and threatened by other countries' working classes that themselves feel threatened by them - because there is no better alternative in poland where "social security" is totally non-existing. And here you get to hear that "the pope liberated the country" - well well! He was one of the authorities that helped to make sure that the country's inhabitants never became liberated - they went from one corrupt regime to another. Ubu remained king of poland. In school, the population is treated as depending subjects that should be protected from whatever is outside of the norms of the catholic church. The polish pope is presented as a poet (!) while whatever mentions sexuality, not to speak of homosexuality, is condemned. The students are persuaded to ask as little as possible, to think on their own as little as possible, to call teachers "Mr Professor" and to obey blindly the least order - but one learns, however, that corruption is smart. Anywhere you want to find the worst misery in poland: follow the crucifix. Christendom is one of the strongest conservants of the oppression here. It apologizes and defends the authority on all levels. It defends men's oppression of women, parents' oppression of their children, public moralizing, the hatred of homosexuals and of aliens. At the same time, we note a general lack of courage among those few who try to resist this semi-theocracy: feminists, skeptics, atheists and especially the almost non-existing workers' movement. The brilliant satirical humor that subverted stalinism through the form of, for example, TV comedies (Miś, Czterdziestolatek, Alternatywy 4, Wojna Domowa a.o.), seems to be gone with the wind. What you see now is a thoroughly commercialized atmosphere where an idea of the USA seems to be the model. But the USA is, in comparison, a paradise of tolerance and diversification. Commercial radio with "old favorites" (the assumed majority taste) fills the brain with poison as soon as you go outdoors, in cafés, shops and buses in order to block free thought. Long after the music has become silent, it bounces in the head through the nagging and the tyranny of involuntary recognition. Academism, authorities and career rule the "cultural life"; showing off an academic exam paper is compulsory in order to be taken "seriously". A symbolist sickness, alongside the nationalistic and pseudo-deep sentimentalism rules over everything considered to be high culture - on the area of film for example: Wajda, Zanussi and Kieślowski. Some brilliant exceptions of freer poetic outbursts are Wojciech Jerzy Has and Roman Polański. Anywhere we are located: in Szczecin, in Stockholm, in Los Angeles or on travel, we will do what we can in order to break with prejudices and oppressing forms, not forgetting the artistic one, also when we operate in this area ourselves. We will call attention to the need of the poetic viewpoint and apply it side by side with the tools of critical thinking. In games, adventures and mythologizing, in the "private" as well as in the "public" spheres, we search that which addresses our sense of beauty and humor. We keep out of academism, carreerism and coteries. The same uncompromising attitude that we demand for the imagination, we also demand in critical thinking. We can be inspired by certain performance artists' attitude to objects and to the body's relationship to objects and spaces, where we see a scope for play and a wealth of inventiveness. But we are just as much inspired by many in the skeptics' movement, that through their activity have demonstrated the importance of keeping apart the analogical and the critical thinking, which hasn't always been equally clear among surrealists. This is something that absorbs us and that we will continue to call attention to: religion, "integrative medicine", new age and other examples of supernaturalism or pseudo-science are not only examples of attacks on the critical (or rational) thinking, they also use analogical thinking for authoritarian and commercial aims. Thus, they are enemies of both critical thinking and of all aspiration for freedom of imagination. The skeptics' movement points out only one side of this, we surrealists have the unique possibility to call attention to both and thereby strike against those enemies with bigger force. We want to understand ourselves and our feelings from different aspects. We want to give significance to things, not only be defined by them. Whatever is important for our life we also want to grasp from the view of outside observation. We want to sharpen our senses as well as our criticism. The cold light of critical illumination engages us as much as the amorphous substance that is the product of pure inspiration, and we don't believe that the former at any time will finish its passionate search to find words to explain the latter, as little as that latter's free explosion ever will stop mocking or playing with the former. The urge to expand the possibilities and the riches of life lies behind both. Szczecin, April 14th, 2008
This page was updated on September 10th, 2008.