In 1978, a popular non-heteronormative poet was given the Honorary Miner title, along with the miners’ parade uniform. The event took place during the 20th General Convention of the Polish Writers’ Union at the Ministry of Mines in Katowice.
More than 40 years later, artist Przemek Branas created a series of works largely inspired by those events. Branas was interested in the many layers of the story, as well as the opinions and beliefs that grew around it. Iwaszkiewicz: writer, poet and Honorary Miner of the People’s Republic of Poland. Branas levels those professions, presenting them as equally important and coherent in their basic purpose, which is ‘providing fuel’ in both a literal and metaphorical sense.
His homoerotic imagery shatters the myth of miners being the epitome of machismo and icons of narrowly-understood, brash masculinity.
Branas’s work is made of several elements. First, he created pieces of fabric, serving as banners of sorts, on which miners’ emblems clash with unexpected accessories and gestures. When creating portraits on those banners, the artist drew inspiration from depictions of the young Iwaszkiewicz. The next layer was made of performative action, filmed and photographed so that the documentation could later be displayed along with the series. The project was carried out in Katowice. Iwaszkiewicz left the city with his new parade uniform, in which he was later buried. This raises the questions: Where is the line between the private and public? What is the body in relation to what it’s dressed in? What if we wrap the body in a banner?
The fabrics and documentation of Przemek Branas’s performance are part of the collective exhibition Demontaż [Dismantling], focused on the idea of monuments and the need for their contestation. The exhibition was displayed in the Institution of Culture of Katowice – the City of Gardens.
Przemek Branas (born in 1987 in Jarosław) – graduated from the Intermedia Faculty at the Fine Arts Academy in Kraków, and the Inter-Faculty PhD Programme at the University of Arts in Poznań. He has received the GreyHouse Foundation Award (2015), the second award at the VIEWS – Deutsche Bank Competition (2017) co-organized by the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art. Branas has participated in artistic residency programmes in Meet Factory (Prague, Czechia 2016), Sesama (Yogyakarta, Indonesia 2017), Terra Foundation for American Art (Giverny, France 2017), Villa Romana, (Florence, Italy).
He has presented several solo exhibitions, including: I Is Somebody Else (2019), Centrala Space, Birmingham, England; I wanna be your Colonizer (2019), Gdańsk City Gallery, Gdańsk, Poland; Góra/Kosmos/Głowa [Mountain/Cosmos/Head] (2018), Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, Poland; Work-Technique, Project Room, Ujazdów Castle; Hiccups, Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow MOCAK, Kraków, Poland.
Branas has also participated in a number collective exhibitions, including A Dream of Tropical Sun (Tatra Museum in Zakopane), Waiting for Another Coming (Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius, Lithuania, 2019); 7. Biennale Młodych w Orońsku (2017), The Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsku; Embodied Action, Enacted Bodies (performance, 2016), CCCD Artspace – Green Wave Art, Hong Kong; Communis – Renegotiations of the Community (2016), Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, Poland; Pattern/City (2016), BWA Tarnów; Quest For Fire (2016), GreyHouse Modern Art Gallery, Kraków, Poland; Ars moriendi/Art of Dying (2015), BWA Tarnówl; PERFORMANCES POLONAISES (2013), LeLieu – Centre en Art Actuel, Quebec, Canada.
His works are parts of private collections and are presented in public institutions, such as the Labirynt Gallery in Lublin, the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, and NOMUS Art Museum in Gdańsk.
