A touring
Marina Abramović retrospective has touched down in Poland—and the nation’s
right-wing Catholics are not happy about it. The show, “Marina Abramović: Do
Czysta/The Cleaner” at the Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu in Toruń, has
caused a panic over a misplaced belief that the famed performance artist
worships the devil.
A group of
the faithful targeted what they called the exhibition’s “Satanic vernissage” on
Friday, according to a translated post from the Facebook group Zawierzam Maryi,
Polish for “I Entrust to Mary.” The message urged Catholics to protest the
exhibition’s arrival in the country so that the world wouldn’t have an excuse
to trot out stereotypes about Polish stupidity.
Rumors of
Abramović’s supposed satanic predilections can be traced to the 2016 US
presidential election, during which the artist played an unlikely role in
Wikileaks’s hack of the email account of John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary
Clinton’s presidential campaign. Abramović had sent a message inviting John’s
brother Tony Podesta, a collector and longtime Abramović supporter, to an
evening of “Spirit Cooking with Marina Abramović.” (Tony forwarded the
invitation to his brother.)
In Poland,
Abramović’s opponents point to photographs of the artist with horns on her
head, or posing with the Baphomet-like skull of a goat, as evidence of her
devilish ways. The website Krucjata Różańcowa za Ojczyznę (“Rosary Crusade for
the Homeland”) decries the exhibition’s presence on Polish soil, particularly
during Lent, insisting “we have the right to demand that the rulers protect our
country and the nation against ‘art’ which is a personal evil and refers to the
dark cults!”
This isn’t
the only controversy generated by the show. Local news outlet Wyborcza also
reported that the artist community had protested the low wages being offered to
performers tasked with reenacting some of the artist’s most famous works.
The issue
of payment “has nothing to do with Marina or ABRAMOVIC LLC,” said a
representative for the artist. “The museum and the performers discussed and
found an agreement. This is all we know.”
The
exhibition originated in 2017 at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and has since
traveled to venues in Denmark, Norway, Germany, and Italy. It will conclude
this fall at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, the artist’s hometown.
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