Art, Memory and Angel by Czesław Dźwigaj

Abstract

The article analyses the process of implementing the idea of commemorating the victims of December 70 in Szczecin. Disputes, discussions and decisions accompanying this monument are doubly symptomatic: they reveal a problem with the presence of contemporary art in public space, and the question of who and what should be the main purpose of commemorative sculpture. After 1989, the Szczecin agora reflected the political transition of the state, additionally characterised by the “short duration” complex (existence as a “Polish city” only after 1945). Art plays a role in ordering (and subordination) of public sphere, and, as such a tool (building politically handy identity symbols), it is perceived by the authorities. Its specificity, however, allows it to escape social and political control. The second area of consideration is the analysis of the relationship between commemorative function (desired by the founders) and the operation of contemporary art, in reference to the theory of cultural forms of memory. The three-dimensional urban game of visibility was played out in Szczecin around three public sculptures: two unrealised designs, and the final work by Czesław Dźwigaj.