Opozycyjne Biografie Rzeczy. O Wystawie Nić. Sploty Wolności
Oppositional Biographies of Things. About the Exhibition Thread. Weaves of Freedom

Summary/Abstract: Objects can be the carriers of historical narratives. Patriotic fabrics with a high emotional load and individual ‘CV’ (related to the biography of a specific owner or social group) are especially predestined for this. This allowed viewers of the exhibition Thread. Weaves of Freedom (2018, European Solidarity Centre) to identify more closely with the story about the Polish road to independence. Objects from the 1980s were juxtaposed with patriotic fabrics from earlier decades to invite visitors to travel in time: through partitions, exiles, enthusiasm for the first independence, the years of World War II, the period of communism, the emerging opposition and the rise of Solidarity until the second independence in 1989. The costumes from the 1980s and the genealogically related items from the period of the lack of Polish statehood presented at the exhibition are a record of the dramatic past, becoming its historical source. Although worn by individual people, they were a record of the collective experience of the nation, because they were connected by a community - a thread - “a trace of absent presence,” from which the national identity is woven.

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