"Now I term TUD and the creative Dresden my home, my safe haven.“

As an art historian, humanities scholar, and political activist, Tomasz (tomek) Kitliński has been working as a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Art and Musicology at the TU Dresden on the topic of "Image Protests" since May until October 2023. At the institute, he works closely with Prof. Kerstin Schankweiler, holder of the professorship. Currently, he is investigating how images are used to protest against the far-right government of Poland – Kitliński's home country. Kitliński became a target of the government himself due to, among other things, his public condemnation of the ruling party and its prejudices (such as anti-seminitism, misogyny, and queer and homophobia), as well as his/her non-binary identity, and therefore had to flee. With Dresden and the TU he/she now found a safe haven.

Name: Tomasz (tomek) Kitliński
Position/Professur: Senior Fellow Bildwissenschaft im globalen Kontext
Institut: Institut für Kunst- und Musikwissenschaft
Fakultät: Philosophische Fakultät

On which project are you currently working on and what is its status? What exactly are you doing in your research? Are there any results already?

The title is "A Study of the Politics and Aesthetics of Women‘s, Queer‘s, and the Refugees‘ Protest Art from the Perspective of the Protest Image Methodology“. I think that I successfully apply this theoretical perspective of the protests to the situation in Poland since 2015, when Poland became a fascist country under the far right ruling party law and justice, heavily impacted by religious fundamentalism. In fact, I consider what's happening in Poland fascism, not just because it's a facile cat call, but it's a perspective that was clearly and consciously considered by myself. I found out that we can resist these regimes but we don’t resist it enough. And one of the ways to resist fascism is to block it by image prostests. 

Furthermore, the Polish government declared a law tightening the abortion law that was in operation in Poland since 1993, which is a humiliation for Polish women and for all society because abortion is practically, in all cases illegal. There were massive demonstrations of women and their allies – many Queer’s participated, I participated in Lublin, and many of my students, even feminist Erasmus students from Spain. However, these very frequent demonstrations in Warsaw and other cities and even little towns have taught the government nothing. Now we are confronted with countless tragedies – unwanted pregnancies, sick children and babies, dying mothers...  

These massive protests were accompanied by a very rich iconography of art, of visual culture that was hostile to the government. All this art, the inscriptions and profanities were written on cardboards, as it’s the cheapest way to carry placards. A local gallery, which is very oppositional, hosted this art via an exhibition titled "You should never walk alone“ which was very successful and inspirational. I devoted some of my research to this, what we in Poland call "The Polish Women’s Strike“.

Why did you choose to work on this project? Is there any personal connection, that is does your personal history correlate with the project?

I'm an academic, activist, and art curator at the same time. And part of my research is done through exhibition, through curating exhibition.

In 2019, I curated an exhibition of public art entitled "Open City“, and I commissioned an excellent female artist named Dorota Nieznalska to do an installation on the pogroms perpetrated by Poles on their Jewish neighbors. It sparked controversy. Then, the Governor of Lublin Przemysław Czarnek became Minister for Science Education. Przemysław Czarnek appeared on TV and said to me and publically that the installation is anti-Polish and abominable and he demanded an immediate removal of the installation. The installation had the provocative title "Judenfrei“. I didn’t agree with him and a few days later Przemysław Czarnek got an honorary medal from my university, Marie Curie University in Lublin, which was shocking to me. I protested. I wrote an open letter where I said that the governor of Lublin prides himself on antisemitism, ukraineophobia, islamophobia, homophobia and reduces the role of women to reproduction.

He called offense and accused me of what is very strangely called in Poland ‚striking at the Constitution organ of the state‘, which is a very Polish law against alleged intimidation of a government official. And he filed my case to the state prosecutor who interrogated me. When the case was dismissed in exactly a year's time in 2020, Przemysław Czarnek persuaded his Deputy Minister of Education and Science to file a similar suit against me to the state prosecutor – this time accusing me of offending the Republic of Poland and offending religious feelings. Again, this Blasphemy Law is typical of Poland. There are many international recommendations to give up that law. I was interrogated by the police at that time and I felt insecure because in spite of my research, teaching and activism on many feminist and queerist issues for years, for decades, in fact, I felt personally threatened. So now, Germany, and particularly Dresden is my new home.

Why did you choose the TUD to address the topic of your project?

For many years I've been interested and I participated in protests in Poland. And then I approached them theoretically. My interest in the TUD was sparked by a phenomenal book by Kerstin Schankweiler called Bildproteste. It was my methodological inspiration, and I'm using it right now as my ray for my own observations of protest images in the Polish struggle against the far right regime. And as soon as I read Kerstin's book, I found it so useful for my research that I wrote the letter to contact her. Also, my contact with TU Dresden is testified by the fact that, on the very eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, my husband and I gave a lecture at professor Klavdia Smola’s [Anm. Der Redaktion: Prof. Klavdia Smola ist Inhaberin der Professur für Slavische Literaturwissenschaft an der TU Dresden.] lecture series on Performative Power and Failure of Dissent: Aesthetics of Intervention in Eastern Europe and Beyond.

How does your collaboration with Prof. Kerstin Schankweiler in the context of the project "Bildproteste“ go? What are your plans for your curatorial project Bildproteste aus Osteuropa?

Kerstin's book has still a huge influence on me. I especially like the connection between ‚Bildproteste‘ and producing affective communities amongst protesters. This is exactly what is happening in Poland. Through the image protest the participants and the offers of the image protests we are all involved in a new type of community – affective, we are united by feelings. And I think it's a very important thesis of Kerstin.

I meet with her every week to discuss my project, and I also go to see many exhibitions in Dresden, including the fantastic Ukrainian exhibition at Albertinum. I think the Albertinum and other places in Dresden, including the Kustodie of our university, are great locations for such projects.

From your perspective, why do gender studies and art studies work well together? What is special about combining those two disciplines with each other and which benefits do you draw from working at the TUD regarding this matter?

I think in comparison to Poland, the transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary research and teaching is much more developed in Germany, especially in Dresden. I find that the work of art history or institutes of art and music studies is very interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary. There's a new American word "postdisciplinary“ and we represent different scientifical fields, different approaches, different methodologies. And such pluralism is very important to me. In Poland, we have neither political pluralism nor scholarly pluralism.

Does the lecture about "The Haunted and Hostipitable Eastern Europe: Developing a New History in the Arts“ you held at the IFZO yearly conference in Greifswald correlate with your main project?

IFZO yearly conference

My original title was taken from Jacques Derridas Neologism of ‚hospitalité‘, a coinage of Derrida and neologism that combines hospitality and hostility. It was central for my dissertation and I’ve been working on it for a long time. There is limited hospitality in Poland toward the so-called stranger, the other, such as minorities, migrants, people who were disadvantaged in any way, including economic reasons. That's why I thought that we are not fulfilling hospitality in Poland, but rather hostility. And what clearly shows the lack of hospitality in Poland, is Poland's involvement in the Holocaust. According to the 2018 Bill of Polish parliament, it's forbidden to speak about it, even to research it scientifically. So it is with great joy and enthusiasm, that I can be proud here to transgress Polish law and say that there are many instances of Polish contributions to the remembrance of the Holocaust.

Also nowadays we are dealing with the tragedy of the pushbacks and killings and abuse of refugees at the Poland-Belarus border by Polish armed forces, police and especially border guards. Guards commit crimes against humanity at the border, where there are wild forests with freezing temperatures and nonwhite refugees are not admitted to Poland. Ukrainians were enthusiastically welcomed to Poland, whereas POC-refugees are not accepted at all and are pushed back drastically at the border.

There is also a Dresden connection: The Polish Jewish film maker who made it in Hollywood, Agnieszka Holland, has agreed to my invitation to come to Dresden next year for a special exhibition about the borders. Her new film, which is now being released, is "The Green Border“. It is precisely about the difficulties, hardships and tragedies faced by refugees at the Poland-Belarus border right now, and also on the clandestine attempt to help refugees by a Polish informal network consisting of doctors and volunteers, who, in spite of the government prohibition, bring humanitarian and medical aid to the refugees.

Were there any inputs from other contributors that you found relevant to integrate into your research?

I took into account different theories of fascism and especially of the German Jewish thinker, Gerhard "George“ L. Mosse. He has been my inspiration. He is no longer with us, but his books are excellent and they are precisely about the rise of fascism in Nazi Germany. Furthermore, Prof. Kerstin Schankweiler’s book "Bildproteste“ is still of huge importance to me.

In the context of your current or future projects: Do you plan, maybe together with Prof. Schankweiler, to organize bigger events, such as exhibitions, museum visits with associated lectures, or the like?

I already delivered two public lectures which were very well attended and in which the listeners gained insight into the political struggles in Poland, so they could identify with me and our ordeal in Poland.

For the future, I have a project in mind: "Bildproteste aus Osteuropa“. I would like to present it. I will also be taking part in Agnieszka Holland’s movie project through screenings and meetings in the context of Tanja-Bianca Schmidts and Kerstin Schankweiler’s exhibition on borders next summer.

Do you have anything elso to say to our readers, do you want to add anything to what you just said?

You know, the highest value in my ethics is hospitality towards the so-called other. I am experiencing it first-hand at the TU Dresden. I feel very much obliged to everybody at the University who facilitates my theories of research who sponsor it and who are helping me throughout. I made many friends in Dresden – many colleagues, many students, and many cultural workers in the city have become my friends.

More information about you can be found:

https://tu-dresden.de/gsw/phil/ikm/kuge/der-fachbereich/news/tomasz-kitlinski-new-fellow-at-the-institute-of-art-and-music