NOMUS Is Aneta

She served as the institution’s director from 21 October 2021 to 31 December 2021, and was later dismissed. Aneta’s contribution and exceptional competences as a curator, visionary, and tireless initiator of new institutions (Wyspa Institute of Art, Łaźnia Centre for Contemporary Art, NOMUS) have proven and will continue to be invaluable. She and I met in the late 1990s during my studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. 

From that point onwards, we worked together and supported one another—first when we both worked at Wyspa Gallery in Gdańsk, and later at different Gdańsk institutions. Simultaneously, we encountered and engaged in critical art, participated in exhibitions, lectures, and meetings, and enjoyed busy day-to-day lives. Aneta was able to ‘bestow’ herself, her passions, and friendship on others. While doing so, she was incredibly generous, and cultivated a large circle of friends in Poland and around the world. It is still incredibly difficult to come to terms with her passing. Having been by her side, I got to see many of Aneta’s successes: excellent, polished exhibitions, original projects, impassioned critical writing. I also observed the drawbacks she faced: a public court battle for fair assessment, defending her good name against slander, and in her private life—a lengthy battle with abusive loved ones. Thanks to her strong personality and perseverance, Aneta was always able to pick herself up and work towards her next goal. Only a handful of people knew how much it cost her.

NOMUS, the long-awaited new art institution, was a dream come true not only for its initiator, but also the entire art community in Gdańsk. The mission statement of NOMUS was laid out by Aneta in the Manifesto. 

I learned about the conflict taking place within the museum from Aneta herself. Her colleagues, Aleksandra Grzonkowska and Mariola Balińska, confirmed it. The problem was the abrasive behaviour of the museum’s director towards Aneta and her team, obstructing her work by blocking her ideas and projects, undermining her competences, and even openly ignoring her. The bullying was a manifestation of the director’s power, an attempt to denigrate both Aneta and contemporary art, which—as he himself admitted—he had no interest in.

As a consequence of the intensifying feud, the director stripped Aneta of her position as head of NOMUS. It would be hard to imagine a more difficult situation for Aneta to find herself in. At the time, no one helped her, or even made an attempt to help (here, I mean the City of Gdańsk’s elected officials). The entire situation stirred up anger and animosity.

The purpose of the action that I carried out on 18 March 2023 during a meeting about the NOMUS collection catalogue, was to draw attention to the ongoing conflict and to show disagreement with the director’s acts of violence aimed at Aneta. I designed and prepared the banner and flyers that read ‘NOMUS JEST ANETĄ’ [NOMUS IS ANETA] having first discussed this with Aneta. I was assisted by Dariusz Sitek and Piotr Grdeń, who helped distribute the leaflets.

Dorota Nieznalska is a graduate of the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. From 2010 to 2017, she worked as a lecturer at the Department of Sculpture and Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, where she received her doctoral degree in 2013. She creates sculptures, installations, photography, and videos. Her early artworks featured the use of religious symbols; she brought together the issues of Poland’s strong Catholic tradition and the theme of a male-dominated society. Currently, she is interested in social and political dynamics in the context of violence. She carries out research projects on memorials, traces of memory and forgetting, and history. She lives and works in Gdańsk, Poland.