Photo by Konrad Ciszkowski
Mateusz Nowacki: Almost fifteen years ago, the Bureau of Artistic Exhibitions (BWA) in Lublin changed its name to Labirynt and you became its director. What has changed in the gallery’s activities since then? How have societal changes in the intervening years affected your work?
Waldemar Tatarczuk: Let me begin with a small correction: the name Labirynt [Labyrinth] had been around since 1969, so I did not actually invent it. Andrzej Mroczek, later the director of the BWA in Lublin, had been pursuing his programme at the first Labirynt Gallery since 1974. What I am doing here is a continuation of his work. During my tenure, the gallery has certainly undergone changes. At the beginning, the tradition of neo-avant-garde art favoured by Mroczek was an important part of my programme, but beyond that I was also interested in the younger generation of artists. At the same time, I introduced [artists from] the east, especially Ukraine (and, following the pandemic, Asia), into the gallery. These were the fundamental building blocks of Labyrinth’s programme. A sudden change came about in 2015, following Law and Justice’s win in the parliamentary elections. Six months later, I curated an exhibition titled De-mo-cra-cy, accompanied by a debate featuring a diverse group of art community representatives: administrators, artists, curators, and art critics. At that point, I recognized the potential of art institutions and came to realize that a gallery is not just a place to exhibit art, but also a space for discussion. In 2017, I hosted the Lublin Congress of Culture—a grassroots event that brought together the voices of those involved in culture and resulted in more than a dozen demands for change. This was followed by the exhibition We Are People, in response to Andrzej Duda’s homophobic remarks, and You’ll Never Walk Alone, in support of the Women’s Strike. These and several other events led me to the realization that Labyrinth Gallery could become something more: a space for change and activism, somewhere that recognizes and is responsive to the needs of both the local and the arts community.
‘Something more’ corresponds with what is referred to as post-artistic practices. Could you talk about the ways in which Labyrinth Gallery has opened up to different forms of participation and engagement?
We are keen to ensure that the institution’s doors are always open to people who want to enter the ‘art world’, and simultaneously strive to welcome young people in need of a safe, shared space. This is how, among others, the Curort Vieniava pilot project was born. For more than six months from March to November 2023, we made our largest exhibition space available to young people. I invited first-year art history student Mateusz Wszelaki to collaborate on the curation of this space. We began with spray-painting the walls and ended with various artistic and social proposals.
An attempt to shift the perception of an art institution, moving from a gallery with a traditional exhibition space where the public comes to form an opinion about the artworks to an open space of encounter, action, expression, and exploration (I myself am still striving to find the language to define this more precisely): this is the model I would like to work towards. In this way, the gallery could become an institution that, on the one hand, looks to the local community, listens to its needs, and, on the other, enables genuine involvement in the collective development of the space, not necessarily through strictly artistic activities. I think that in recent years, we have been able to practice this model, and some good examples of this include the Asylum Library, initiated by Filip Kijowski, which currently runs a diverse programme aimed at the queer community and others interested in this subject, as well as Labirynt’s basement, a safe space co-created with the Equality March Association.
100 Years in Labirynt, exhibition view, Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, 2024. Photo by Wojciech Pacewicz
100 Years in Labirynt, exhibition view, Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, 2024. Photo by Wojciech Pacewicz
This is all incredible, especially in the context of increasing efforts to build relationships with new audiences, and attract visitors who find contemporary art challenging or even incomprehensible. I wonder, how do you go about the process of ‘disenchanting’ art institutions?
In our case, what helped was that we partly succeeded in breaking down the barrier of distrust towards the gallery. After all, it is not every day that you are able to enter an institution and do whatever you please—as was the case with Curort Vieniava. Secondly, this ‘disenchantment’ was aided by the previously mentioned exhibitions. They have demonstrated that we are not hesitant to voice our dissatisfaction with our present social reality, and that we are willing to offer our support to those whose rights are being violated. What is more, before and during the first wave of the pandemic, we held a series of workshops with young people, which turned into a large series of events. Still, we have to remember that successfully persuading the public, organizers, and various political bodies that an art institution can be more than an exhibition space is a long-term endeavour.
Prior to our interview, you sent me your text ‘The Laboratory of Art’s Possibilities’, which can be described as an institutional manifesto for the gallery. In it, you put forward, among other ideas, the notion that galleries cannot limit their mission to organizing exhibitions and restrict their engagement with current issues to contemporary art. How do you envision pursuing these ideas within Labyrinth’s future activities? Does this essay open a new chapter in the gallery’s development?
I think this is a logical extension of the changes that have taken place at the gallery in recent years. Until now, many events have taken shape organically, in response to the demands of the moment, so that no cohesive programme has taken shape. Now, this moment has come: everything needs to be organized in a structured manner, we need to act systematically. I am interested in examining whether the institution is capable of translating the potential I am referring to into actual institutional practice. I have asked a dozen or so experts from various disciplines: sociology, psychology, architecture, working with interculturalism, communication, new technologies, racism, and ecology, among others, to examine Labyrinth’s potential from their own perspectives and to support me in finding new directions for the gallery. A set of recommendations will be created to assist us with further, more structured work on establishing Labyrinth as a laboratory of the present.
“100 Years in Labirynt”, exhibition view, Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, 2024. Photo by: Wojciech Pacewicz
“100 Years in Labirynt”, exhibition view, Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, 2024. Photo by: Wojciech Pacewicz
You write that art, and more broadly the programme of an art institution, should not only focus on exploring contemporary issues, but also on finding ways to respond to them. In the face of the growing polarization of society, do you see any hope of finding a platform for dialogue between, for example, groups with radically different political views?
I have been thinking about this, and it seems to me that there are currently no prerequisites for such a dialogue to take place. I believe that such a prerequisite would be the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and in its absence, such a debate is not feasible. Often, at various events at Labyrinth, there have been calls to invite our opponents, but we gave up following a discussion about the rights that we respect and which we expect others to respect. I prefer to take a realistic view, and to provide space to those for whom democratic values are important on a daily basis. What is more, during the jubilee exhibition, 100 years in Labyrint (14 September 2024—3 November 2024), I am presenting Jan Świdziński’s work, We Always Talk About People. In it, the artist suggests that instead of talking about people, we should talk to the people. This piece from the late 1970s is, to my mind, still relevant today. In many institutions, especially forward-thinking ones, there are more and more exhibitions about migrations, borders, the climate crisis, and so on.
We discuss these issues, show the condition of the world, and after two or three months we close these exhibitions down and the gallery moves on to something else, as if these problems interest us only in the context of intellectual discussions. I think, perhaps naively, that instead of just talking about these concerns, we could make an attempt to solve them, even on a micro-level. Two years ago, there were a lot of Ukrainian projects in many galleries, but after some time this subject was dropped. The subject of Ukraine was ‘dealt with’ and we moved on, as if we have forgotten that the war is still going on and people still need support. This is the case with very many other subjects. And it seems to me that institutions have—can have—the power to do more than just tell stories.
100 Years in Labirynt, exhibition view, Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, 2024. Photo by Wojciech Pacewicz
Waldemar Tatarczuk is an artist and curator. Since 2010, with a brief hiatus in 2022, he has been the director of the Galeria Labirynt in Lublin. In his work as curator, he focuses on activities that engage with and respond to social and political issues. Since 2006, he has collaborated with the Ukrainian art community. In 2023, he curated the performative exhibition This Is Just an Exhibition as part of the Kyiv Biennale, an attempt to address the state of permanent uncertainty accompanying life in Ukraine during the war. Since 1988, he has been active in the field of performance art and in his recent work he juxtaposes the minimalist aesthetic of performance with the notion of queerness. He conducts workshops on performance, drawing on his experiences as an artist and curator.
Mateusz Nowacki is an animator, cultural studies graduate, and PhD student in the Department of Cultural Urban Studies at the Institute of Cultural Studies at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. His research focuses on urban environmental policy and the ways in which cities can adapt to climate change. Co-founder of the grassroots eco-cultural space, Lotaryńska 6, in Poznań’s Naramowice district. Curator and author of cultural education projects. Social projects specialist at the Municipal Gallery Arsenał in Poznań.