About the exhibition
Folk art is a cultural phenomenon that emerged from the encounter between two distinct social groups. One group consisted of educated inhabitants of a rapidly modernizing world, the other of uneducated rural communities still rooted in feudal relations. In Poland, the modern invention of folk art became an inseparable part of the romantic national ideology. It played a role in shaping early modern design and avant-garde art, and during the Polish People’s Republic it became one of the foundations of state cultural policy, carrying economic significance as well.
“Folkness”
“Folkness” is a category in which intellectuals projected their longing for the “sincerity of the primitive” and the “roots of the nation”. The concept of “two souls” was meant to connect the romantic fantasy of the people’s art with the realities of folk-art production in the People’s Republic of Poland. Aleksander Jackowski, one of the most important figures in shaping the idea of folk art, used it to describe a situation in which rural makers followed two different aesthetics: “one for their own use, the other for moments when, for some reason, they were expected to return to traditional forms”. Such makers referred to items intended for urban buyers as “folk”, while those created for rural clients they simply called “their own”.
Authorship of folk art
The figure of “two souls” shows, on the one hand, that folk art cannot exist without the involvement of the intelligentsia, and on the other, that the artistic creativity of rural communities extends far beyond the limits of what is labelled “folk”. Although the authorship of folk art is attributed exclusively to rural makers, not everything created in the countryside counts as folk art. Only those rural products that an intellectual deemed “folk” were included. A work of folk art always has two authors: the person who made it in the countryside and the person who, upon arriving there, selected it as folk. For many folk pieces, the selector also provided instructions on how they should be made and demonstrated to rural makers what he considered beautiful because it was “folk”.
Objects on display
The exhibition draws exclusively from the collections of the State Ethnographic Museum. Alongside well-known and previously published works, it presents objects that have never been shown before or only rarely exhibited. The display includes textiles, paper paintings, cut-outs, painted wall hangings, ceramics, sculpture, painting and woodcuts, as well as elements of traditional dress and objects of a commemorative or decorative character. Archival materials and photographs from the museum’s archive are also used.
The metaphor of “two souls”
Why, then, does a change in style by a folk artist provoke concern and require explanation through the metaphor of “two souls”, while the stylistic and formal diversity found in Picasso’s work is understood as artistic development? This stems from the constructed figure of the folk artist, whose “stylistic primitivism” is viewed as the “natural” result of living conditions rather than an artistic choice. Formed within the modern field of art, this figure stands as the Other to the modern artist, constrained by learned conventions and making conscious stylistic decisions. The myth that once fueled the imagination of avant-garde artists soon began to unravel in the material realities of producing folk art. The exhibition presents folk art as the result of a social relationship marked by many asymmetries, while also pointing to the various forms of agency exercised by the makers of what came to be labelled “folk”.
Accessibility of the exhibition
The exhibition space of “Two Souls of a Folk Artist” offers:
- content in Polish and English (in print) and in Ukrainian (via QR code)
- audio description of the entire display and a video guide in Polish Sign Language
- wide circulation paths and places to rest
- text in sizes that ensure comfortable reading for a broad audience
- tactile graphics of selected objects accompanied by audio descriptions
The selection of content translated into accessible formats was developed through a consultation process that included perspectives of self-advocates.
Curator
Dr hab. Ewa Klekot is a cultural anthropologist, translator and graduate of archaeology and ethnography, holding a doctorate in art studies. Her research focuses on the anthropology of design, art and making. She works on anthropological approaches to heritage and museums, as well as the anthropology of design and art. Her interests include interdisciplinary links between the humanities, social sciences, design and artistic practice. One of her areas of research is the relationship between makers and their environment. She is a professor at SWPS University in Warsaw. She was also the curator of the exhibition “Ethnographers, Anthropologists, Professors”, presented at the museum from 18 October 2022 to 29 October 2023.
Co-curator
Amudena Rutkowska is a graduate of ethnology and cultural anthropology at the University of Warsaw and completed doctoral studies at the University’s Institute of Polish Culture. She is curator of the art collection at the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw. Her interests include safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in the context of intellectual property. She is the author of ethnographic documentary films and vice-president of the Warsaw branch of the Polish Ethnological Society. She is the co-author of the exhibition “Two Souls of a Folk Artist.”
- Curator: Dr hab. Ewa Klekot
- Co-curator: Amudena Rutkowska
- Scenography: Maciej Siuda
- Workshop Team: Aleksandra Jankowska-Głowacka, Adrianna Gruszka, Maciej Siuda
- Graphic Design: Jakub de Barbaro
- Texts: Dr hab. Ewa Klekot
- Language Editing: Jacek Błach, Marta Elas, Zofia Świrek
- Translation: Szymon Włoch (ENG), Natalia Tkaczyk (UKR)
- Conservation Supervision: Marcin Burzymowski, Katarzyna Górzyńska, Krystyna Tomasik, Anna Wielechowska-Olszak
- Digitization and Handling of Archival Materials: Joanna Bartuszek, Alicja Kobus
- Object Digitization: Edward Koprowski, Krzysztof Towstjenko
- Accessibility: Magdalena Dąbrowska, Natalia Siuchta (consultations), Fundacja Kultury bez Barier: Alicja Szurkiewicz (video guide and Polish Sign Language information), Marlena Florczyk, Paulina Gojtka (editing), Emilia Piegat (audio descriptions), Robert Więckowski (audio description consultations), Wiktor Kurpiewski (tactile graphics)
- Production and Logistics: Marta Ancelewska
- Technical Team and Organizational Support: Kamila Końska, Łukasz Horbów, Mariusz Horoś, Marcin Kiersnowski, Piotr Maciukiewicz (multimedia), Łukasz Malinowski, Tomasz Rychter, Zenon Winnicki
- PR and Communication: Łukasz Gackowski, Patrycja Lewandowska, Jakub Nowociński, Przemysław Walczak, Paulina Zomer
- Educational Program: Education Department
- Financial Coordination: Kamila Smakulska-Kurek
- Acknowledgements: Maciej Klimczewski, Weronika Adamska, Joanna Migut, Aleksander Robotycki, Anna Wielechowska-Olszak, Alicja Kobus, Monika Salamon, Beata Kołacińska, Beata Mularska, Marta Skwirowska, Alicja Mironiuk Nikolska, Joanna Machudera-Szwankowska, Marianna Koźmińska, Justyna Sadkowska-Chodacz, Elwira Melonik
- Handling of Museum Objects: Anita Broda (coordination), Teresa Grzelak, Mariusz Pieńkowski, Monika Salamon, Paweł Sałata, Piotr Wojtarski
The exhibition was co-financed by the Mazovian Voivodeship Government, which is the organizer of the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw.
