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Photos:
Jerzy Szreder, Waldemar Masicz
The diploma exhibition at the Szczecin Art Academy (2025) explored elements of Russian culture that enable the instrumentalization of individuals for wars of conquest.
The need to investigate the cultural roots of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine (2022) prompted a historical turn to the 16th century – a critical moment when the paths of so-called Europe and so-called Russia diverged into two dominant tendencies: centralization versus humanization.
The title of the exhibition refers to a painting method used without alternative in the Muscovite state for hundreds of years.
The exhibition included graphic works, video pieces, and sculptural objects.
Artistic supervisors:
dr hab. Anna Orlikowska
dr hab. Łukasz Jastrubczak
dr hab. Hubert Czerepok
dr. Mikołaj Iwański
The sound played during the exhibition on 3 July 2025 comes from the film "Walking with Brodsky" (Venice, 1993).
The first part of the exhibition consisted of the graphic series "The Missing Man of the Renaissance.”
The work is based on typologically similar contemporary portraits by Albrecht Dürer.
Erasmus of Rotterdam, Willibald Pirckheimer, Albrecht of Brandenburg, Frederick of Saxony, and Philipp Melanchthon established a unique infrastructure of the Renaissance and humanist scholarship — one that never emerged in the Muscovite state.
Sheet size: 45 × 32 cm
Technique: ink on paper, paper mounted on black MDF boards
Another part of the exhibition is the installation "Banner of Victory."
Two objects resembling spears with black garments attached to them evoke reflection on the symbolism and function of the flag — a tool through which the bearer of power consolidates the community by leading it into a state of war.
The theme of avenging the first fallen in a provoked tribal war is often used as a mechanism for perpetuating conflict and mobilizing people for political ends.
Dimensions: 200 × 200 cm
Technique: shaped wood, paint, clothing
Visually and contextually connected to the portrait of Erasmus and the flags, the installation is composed of miniature black objects in the shape of books, joined together with a wooden spear.
The entire composition serves as a sign — a reminder of the unfulfilled potential of Renaissance and humanist traditions in the Muscovite state.
Technique: wood, clay, paint, aluminum
If we were to continue the search for the missing Renaissance man in Russia, sooner or later we would come across Iwan Fiodorow – the first known master to print a book in Moscow.
A graduate of the Academy of Krakow, after completing his opus magnum he left the Muscovite state for Poland.
The video presents a loop of scenes depicting Iwan Fiodorow’s departure from Moscow, taken from a little-known Stalin-era film.
A separate part of the exhibition was installed in an adjacent, abandoned space of the Pomeranian Landowners’ Palace in Szczecin.
A three-channel video and a large-scale, eye-shaped installation created a spatial and symbolic dialogue between personal identity and its mediated projections, framed by the phenomena of power.
The video “Reverse Perspective” incorporates fragments of early Soviet films (including propaganda films) related to Russian history.
Analyzing these materials made it possible to identify visual codes of power, religion, and oppression, and to construct a new, alternative narrative by juxtaposing them.
The narrative is loosely divided across three channels: one focuses on the visual metaphor of a fortified stronghold under threat, the second explores the relationship between authority and society within the fortress, and the third addresses restriction and repression.
A looped bell chime from the film "Walking with Brodsky" (Venice, 1993) serves as the video’s sound motif.
It was played during the exhibition on 3 July 2025 and can be listened to on this page.
Graffiti painted on body bags – references a quote from Generation P (1999), a widely known novel in Russia by postmodern author Wiktor Pelewin.
In the book, the protagonist discusses with a friend the quest to discover the “Russian idea” by engaging in conversations with ordinary people living on the periphery. These encounters always end with the same aggressive response from the interviewees:
“da razjebisь ty na huj...” (“go blow yourself the fuck up”).
In this work, the quote is rendered in a specially designed Latin typeface for the Moscow (i.e., “Russian”) language. The script is stylized after an early typographic ligature tradition, whose origins date back to the 16th century.
The piece questions the very nature of the “idea” discussed by Pelewin’s characters. Two red letters highlight the ending “sь”, a reflexive particle meaning “self.”
Although this grammatical form has been largely reduced in modern Russian, here it is extracted and emphasized – opening up two parallel readings:
a reduction of identity, and the individual’s choice in the face of violence – to destroy another, or to destroy yourself.
Dimensions: 220 × 90 cm
Technique: body bags, paint
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