“Pasja” (Passion) - Dorota Nieznalska - 2002
“Passion” was an artistic installation merging the themes religion, masculinity, sex and suffering. It consisted of a large metal cross suspended from the ceiling, and a silent video projection taken from an overhead angle, of the face and shoulders of a grimacing man in the act of weight-lifting.
The viewer’s inability to behold the man’s body, concocted an effect of ambiguity as to the activity of the man on the screen, suggesting that his torment could have been as a result of some other kind of activity. The photograph of the genitalia affixed to the cross diagnoses sexuality as the prime purpose of torturous suffering; suffering enables accomplishment of a state of sexual mega-potency and achievement of hyper-phallicism of the toned-up male body. The cross is a traditional symbol of suffering and redemption, redemption through suffering; it associates itself with the male body, with the crucifixion of naked Christ. Agonizing pain, masculinity, nudity and the cross are all lined up in one grid of interrelations.
As all Christians should know, from the existence of the Holy Prepuce, Jesus was circumcised; but in the ensuing controversy, the installation would mistakenly be described by some as depicting “the penis of Christ”.
The display was condemned as immoral and blasphemous by Catholics. Members of the far-right Catholic League of Polish Families attacked Nieznalska in the Wyspa gallery. She was physically assaulted by The All-Polish Youth, the League’s skinhead militia, who threatened to hang her. The group exhibition at which the installation was presented was closed down by the authorities and she was charged under blasphemy laws and faced two years in prison. Nieznalska had her scholarships and subsidies cut off, and for years the League closed exhibitions that displayed her work.
After a ten-month trial in 2002/2003, during which all testemony by expert witnesses in art history, law, and religion proposed by the defence were summarily excluded, she was found guilty of “offending religious feelings”. The judge sentenced her to a half-year “restriction of freedom,” ordered her to do community work, and to pay the substantial costs of the trial. The Wyspa Gallery, the oldest and most distinguished non-profit organisation in Gdañsk, was closed as punishment.
In 2004, appellate court overturned Judge Zielinski’s ruling on the grounds that Nieznalska’s right to full defence had been violated, and in June 2009, Nieznalska was finally acquitted after an arduous process and multiple appeals.
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