A legion of Polish artists are trying to shine a light on the country’s swing towards intolerance, but Daniel Rycharski’s corner of the art world is a lonely one
A legion of Polish artists are trying to shine a light on the country’s swing towards intolerance under the ruling Law and Justice party. But Mr Rycharski’s corner of the art scene is a lonely one. He has set up his studio in the village of Kurowko, some 110km from Warsaw. He considers himself a devout Catholic, but as a gay man he is rejected by the Polish church. “For me, to live in Poland is to live in a cage,” Mr Rycharski says.
Through his work, the 35-year-old artist-activist is rattling the bars. Mr Rycharski has moulded rosary beads from resin mixed with the blood of a gay friend. He has crafted scarecrows from wooden crosses and clothes donated by persecuted lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. He stitched an ecclesiastical robe from the garments of Polish clergy, called it “Ku-Klux-Klan” and topped it with a distinctive pointed hood.
Yet Mr Rycharski is devout. Mateusz Pacewicz, an award-winning Polish screenwriter, points out that though “The Cross” could be considered “creepy”, Mr Rycharski’s pilgrimage with the crucifix turned the work into “a religious act, a ritual”. His faith has helped calm his critics. Government officials wrote to the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw complaining about an exhibition of his work in 2019, but stopped short of shutting it down.
In fact, Mr Rycharski began to consider his own sexuality in his work only recently. Four years ago he left cosmopolitan Krakow, having decided the city wasn’t for him. His goal was to tell the story of Poland’s rural communities, often disparaged as backward and philistine. Mr Rycharski won over local villagers with street art, decorating homes, barns and public spaces with images of hybrid animals, part wild and part domesticated.
It may wind up in galleries across Europe, but his art is almost always displayed on Polish farmland first. His favourite project merged his two worlds. After a string of Polish villages declared themselvesvisitors to stay for a few days. The most striking exhibit in Vienna is a tapestry depicting one of these hosts, dressed in shorts and aFinding willing hosts was hard, Mr Rycharski says. Persuading gay Poles to take part was even tougher.
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