programme

Progress and Hygiene Conference
14th February 2015
I.
11 a.m.–1 p.m.
Modernism, hygiene, eugenics
Introduction and Moderation - Hanna Wróblewska
Dr Marius Turda
Modernity and Eugenic Visions of Human Improvement
Despite the wealth of the existing literature on the subject, the history of eugenics continues to attract a diverse
range of scholars, from art historians to biologists and philosophers. The diversity and interdisciplinary nature of
this work has not only deepened the already extensive knowledge about different traditions of eugenic thought,
both defunct and active, but has also prompted scholars to a more careful re-examination of the paradigms
accepted within these traditions. This constant need for critical incisiveness is by no means a simple exercise,
as demonstrated by recent publications on modernism and eugenics, and by exhibitions such as the one
organised by Zachęta - National Gallery of Art in Warsaw.In my talk, I address the problem of the modernist
engagement with progress in relation to eugenic theories of human improvement and ideologically motivated
dreams of national perfection. I aim to examine both the conceptual prisms and the practical methodologies
through which the physical bodies of individuals and nations are shaped.
Prof. Piotr Juszkiewicz
Modernist Dreams of Hygiene
The founding myth of modernism was regeneration: one of the essential elements stabilising the modernist
nomos. The conviction of the necessity of a renewal from a spiritual, political, social and physical perspective
brought in its wake actions aiming at a complete transformation of the spatial and social formulas for situating
individuals in the aim of making their environment and interpersonal relations more healthy. Artistic dreams of
social health will be presented on the example of modern Russian visions of the hygiene of social life and the
habitation of urban structures.
Dr. Hab. Gabriela Świtek
Architecture and Hygiene
In the book Toward an Architecture, Le Corbusier formulated a series of postulates concerning the
modern house that he called A Manual for Housing. The first postulate was that of a luxury bathroom:
“Stipulate that there should be a sunlit bathroom in one of the largest spaces, for example in the
former living-room. In its wall should be great windows, preferably with access to a terrace for
sunbathing; included should be porcelain sinks, a bath, a shower and gymnastic equipment.” If a house
was to be a machine for living – hygienic, sunlit, equipped with hot and cold water, preserving vitality
in the best possible conditions – then the bathroom was to be a “machine for washing.” However,
postulates concerning daily hygiene and also concrete technological solutions do not only appear in
the architecture of the 1920s and 30s. In glorifying the significance of the bathroom in the modern
house, Le Corbusier makes reference to the invention of the water closet by Thomas William Twyford
in the 1870s and the shower propagated by the promoter of hydrotherapy Vincenz Priessnitz in the
first half of the 18th century. The hygienic, secular rituals of modernity were a consequence of 19th
century discoveries in the field of medicine, including the discoveries of bacteria as carriers of disease
(see Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger). As recalled at the exhibition Elements of Architecture curated
by Rem Koolhaas (in the frame of the 14th International Art Exhibition in Venice, 2014), modernist
postulates of hygiene were not only the result of changes in architectural design – from communal
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barracks’ toilets in the Roman forts at Hadrian’s Wall to modern and luxurious “places of isolation.”
Everyday hygienic rituals aiming at protection from civilizational diseases, connected with such
phenomena as rapid urbanization and population migration (or as Le Corbusier put it, “the machine
that we inhabit is […] a tuberculosis-ridden carriage”), were also exploited by genocidal totalitarianism.
The shower – “the machine for washing” that was emblematic both for 19th century hydrotherapeutic
techniques and for modern, healthy forms of habitation – became a “genocide machine” in the
Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.
Hanna Wróblewska – art historian, curator of such exhibitions as Andrzej Wróblewski. Retrospective (Zachęta, 1995), Panopticon and the
Theatre of Prison (Zachęta, 2005), Katarzyna Kozyra. Casting (Zachęta, 2010). An active participant in cultural life, in such organisations as
the Civil Forum of Contemporary Art and Citizens of Culture. From 2010, is Director of Zachęta – National Gallery of Art and commissioner of
the Polonia Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
Marius Turda – lecturer and researcher. Teaches bio-medicine of 20th century Central-Eastern Europe at Oxford Brookes University, where he
is also director of the Centre for Health, Medicine and Society. The author of such publications as: Modernism and Eugenics (2010), Eugenics
and Nation in Early 20th Century Hungary (2014) and Latin Eugenics in Comparative Perspective (2014). Was the founder and director of the
Cantemir Institute at the University of Oxford (2012–2013); in 2006, he founded a team for the research of the history of race and eugenics
(HRE) at Oxford Brookes University. Amongst his main research interests are the comparative history of eugenics and racial anthropology,
theories on the theme of the specificity of nations and ethnic utopias of Central-Eastern Europe.
Piotr Juszkiewicz – art historian, Professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, where he lectures in the Institute of Art
History. His interests include 20th century art history, contemporary art and art criticism in the 18th-20th centuries. Has received fellowships
from Cambridge University, The Getty Grant Program, Rochester University and Edinburgh University. Editor of numerous publications
including Melancholia Jacka Malczewskiego [The Melancholy of Jacek Malczewski] (1998) and Perspektywy wspołczesnej historii sztuki
[Perspectives on Contemporary Art History] (2009), and author of the books: Wolność i metafizyka. O tradycji artystycznej tworczości Marcela
Duchampa [Freedom and Metaphysics: On the Artistic Tradition of Marcel Duchamp’s Work] (1995), Od rozkoszy historiozofii do gry w nic.
Polska krytyka artystyczna czasu odwilży [From the Charm of Historiosophy to Playing at Nothing: Polish Art Criticism in the Time of the Thaw]
(2005) and Cień modernizmu [The Shadow of Modernism] (2013).
dr hab. Gabriela Świtek – Head of the Department of the History of Art Theories at Warsaw University. Graduate of the University of Cambridge
(PhD 1999, MPhil 1996) and the Central European University in Prague (1994). Author of the books: Gry sztuki z architekturą. Nowoczesne
powinowactwa i współczesne integracje [Games of Art with Architecture. Modern Affinities and Contemporary Integrations] (2013), Aporie
architektury [Aporias of Architecture] (2012), Writing on Fragments: Philosophy, Architecture, and the Horizons of Modernity (2009). Editor
of the volumes: Awangarda w bloku / Avant-garde in the Bloc (2009), Transfer (2006), Zachęta 1860–2000 (2003). Head of the department
of the documentation of contemporary art at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art. Curator of the exhibition Jarosław Kozakiewicz. Transfer in the
Polonia Pavilion, in the frame of the 10th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice (2006). The main field of her research interest is the
history and philosophy of architecture, methodologies of the history of art and contemporary visual culture.
1.15–3.15 p.m.
II. Social Engineering for the General Good
Introduction and Moderation – Dr. Magdalena Gawin
Prof. Ewa Łętowska
The Traps of the Use of Law in the Service of Ideology
Law can constitute a sword actively serving the promotion of axiologies and political or social programmes. In
such cases, one sometimes refers to using “strong means” of promotion. Law can equally be a shield defending
the weaker, the discriminated or those excluded by the authorities. The law-shield often serves as defence from
the law-sword. The dilemmas of progress and hygiene, to which the exhibition is devoted, encourage a reflection
on the traps that can be encountered through a striving for progress, when in one’s activities the temptation to
apply the “strong means” of law arises. In its turn, law as a defensive shield can be clumsy and not very effective,
as the examples of history demonstrate. If we are concerned to “submit utopias to social control, so that they do
not become “convenient ideologies” (as discussed in the curatorial text to the exhibition catalogue) then we must
take care that the law-sword is not used lege artis, and that the shield is not too heavy or porous. Then we can
avoid the traps of law harnessed to the excessively assiduous service of ideology.
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Father Wojciech Lemański
An Attempt at an Interpretation of Vadim Zakharov’s Installation The Philsophers’ Ship
Restaurant as a Parable
Reality brings with it innumerable challenges in the face of which a person turns out to be lost, unprepared and
alone. For centuries, parables have offered us the opportunity to participate in extreme situations that are at the
same time both typical and unique. They offered, and still, offer the possibility for the listener to find his or her
place in them. An encounter with such a reality I experienced looking at Vadim Zakharov’s installation.
Prof. Magdalena Fikus
Genetics, Eugenics, Art
The exhibition refers to the concepts and attainments of science: it can create the impression that the subjective
evaluation of genetically observed features can be accepted with the same level of trust as the results of
scientific research. Meanwhile, the techniques used by science do not constitute a basis for research into the
nature of the phenomena of which they make use. These differences deepen when attempts are made to convert
observations of the applications of scientific techniques into the language of art. Objective criteria for inscribing
value to works of art do not exist, while scientific research of phenomena is submitted to quantitative, verifiable
evaluation. In this paper, emphasis will be placed on the question of what is genetics, and what are the technical
applications arising from genetic discoveries and the dangers stemming from these.
dr Magdalena Gawin – historian, essayist, works in the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Has published amongst others
in the newspapers and journals, Tygodnik Powszechny, Rzeczpospospolita, Teksty Drugie, Kronos, Teologia Polityczna and Wiedza i Życie.
She published her first monographic work on the Polish eugenics movement: Rasa i nowoczesność. Historia polskiego ruchu eugenicznego
(1880–1954) [Race and Modernity. The History of the Polish Eugenics Movement (1880–1954)] (Warsaw: Neriton, IH PAN, 2002); Eugenika,
modernizacja, państwo [Eugenics, Modernisation, The State], (co-edited and co-authored with Kamila Uzarczyk, Warsaw: Neriton 2010);
Historie Polski w XIX wieku, t. 1: Kominy, dymy i obłoki; modernizacja i kultura [Polish Stories in the 19th Century, vol. 1: Chimneys, Smoke and
Clouds; Modernisation and Culture], (Warsaw: MHP, DiG, 2013). Most recently, has published an essay on culture in the 19th-20th century,
Bilet do nowoczesności [Ticket to Modernity] (Warsaw: Teologia Polityczna, IH PAN, 2014).
The curator (together with Dr. Sylwia Kuźma) of the multi-media exhibition W walce z degeneracją rasy [In the Fight with the Degeneration
of Race] presented at the Warsaw University Library in 2008. She is the writer of the screenplay for the documentary film Śmierć psychiatry.
Eugenika i totalitaryzm [Death of a Psychiatrist. Eugenics and Totalitarianism] (dir. Amelia Łukasiak and Sławomir Małoicki) about the life and
death of Dr. Karol Mikulski.
Ewa Łętowska – Professor and Habilitated Doctor of the Legal Sciences; a real member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, a correspondent
member of PAU (the Polish Academy of Abilities (1987-1992), and judge of the Supreme Administrative Court (1999-2002) and the
Constitutional Tribunal (2002-2011). An author of books, articles, essays and regular magazine columns, as well as radio and television
programmes devoted to law and classical music.
Prof. Magdalena Fikus – biochemist, works in Warsaw University and the Polish Academy of Sciences for over 50 years as a biophysicist
and geneticist of micro-organisms. A co-creator of the first Polish Festival of Science in Warsaw (1997–2009). Director of the Board for the
Dissemination of Science at the Polish Academy of Sciences. Actively participates in the popularisation of science in a variety of centres and
media: at universities, in the press, on TV, at Children’s Universities and Universities of the Third Age, and eanywhere where they wish to listen
to her.
4.15–6 p.m.
III. The Mythology of the Other
Anda Rottenberg – Introduction and Moderation
Prof. Andrzej Leder
Hygiene, Cleanness, Children’s Imagination
Numerous thinkers, from Adorno to Bauman, have marked out a paradigm in which hygiene, the desire for cleanliness, is connected with the Enlightenment and modernity. I want to submit this thought calque to discussion
from the perspective of psychoanalytic theory treated as a critical theory. For it turns out that the fear of getting
dirty, of “stains”, has precious little with the “leaving immaturity” that for Kant is the definition of the Enlightenment, as it is rather characteristic precisely for a childish imagination.
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Dr. Andrzej Wajs
Mythologies of Otherness
The concept of hygiene percolated through to social analyses as a result of the biologism of the second half of
the 19th century. With hygiene we connect three basic functions which have found and still find their echoes in
social and political practices: preservation, conservation, nursing; eliminating, reducing, washing away, erasing;
expansion and the project of extending the perfection of the individual and social body. “Hygienic” practices are
inevitably accompanied by the oppression of minority groups. Against this background, during the 20th century
can be witnessed a revision of the status of the Other. Initially, the Other appeared as the hated Stranger, only
after the Second World War to undergo a rehabilitation. This rehabilitation takes on forms of idolatry of ideology that sometimes threatening, sometimes comical.The cult of the Other leads to the celebritisation of sexual,
racial and social difference. Before our very eyes, a process of the mytholigisation of the Other is taking place to
which fall victim ever more numerous really excluded groups. The “well-born” of today are television celebrities,
wallowing in the light of the cameras, highlighting at every step the oppressiveness of the system that marginalizes them. These are genuine threats that Anda Rottenberg’s exhibition anticipates, showing the borders beyond
which the mytholigisation of otherness is transformed into a collection of uncritically accepted credos.
Prof. Małgorzata Omilanowska, Minister of Culture and National Heritage – Reflections on
the Conference
Anda Rottenberg – art historian, critic and curator of numerous exhibitions. From 1993-2001, was Director of the Zachęta – National Gallery
of Art in Warsaw. Since 2011, has lectured in the Media Arts Department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. The author of the books
Sztuka w Polsce 1945–2005 [Art in Poland, 1945–2005] (2005); Przeciąg. Teksty o sztuce polskiej lat 80. [Draft: Essays on Polish Art in the
1980s] (2009); and the autobiography Proszę bardzo [You’re Very Welcome] (2009); a long-form interview with Dorota Jarecka titled Już
trudno [Too Bad] (2014), and the creator of numerous exhibitions, including Unknown Europe (1991); Where is Abel, Thy Brother? (1995);
Postindustrial Sorrow (2000); Grey in Colour, 1956–1970 (2000); Polonia–Polonia (2000); The White Mazurka (2003); Warsaw–Moscow /
Moscow–Warsaw (2004–2005); Continental Breakfast (2004); Next Door: Poland and Germany –1000 Years of History in Art (2011); VOID
(2012); and UNI/JA — UNI/ON (2013). She has curated the Polish exhibitions at events including the Venice, Istanbul and Sao Paulo Biennials.
prof. Andrzej Leder – professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Is the author of the
philosophical works Nieświadomość jako pustka. Wokół myśli Freuda i Husserla [The Unconscious as an Emptiness. Around the Ideas of Freud
and Husserl] (Warsaw 2001), and Nauka Freuda w epoce „Sein und Zeit” [The Science of Freud in the Epoch of “Being and Time”] (Warsaw,
2007), and works on the theme of Polish history Prześniona rewolucja, ćwiczenie z logiki historycznej [Dreamed Revolution, Exercises in
Historical Logic] (Warsaw, 2014), as well as a book in English, The Changing Guise of Myths (Frankfurt am Main, 2014). Lives in Warsaw.
Prof. Małgorzata Omilanowska – art historian. Specialises in problems of architecture of the 19th and 20th centuries, art theory and the
conservation of monuments. Since 1985, has worked as a researcher at the Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences. From 1999 to
2007, worked as deputy director, and most recently – as chief editor of the Dictionary of Polish Architects. At the same time, since 2006,
has worked as Professor at the Institute of Art History, University of Gdańsk, and from 2008 to 2012 as Director of the Institute. A member
of the Association of Art Historians and of the Polish Committee of ICOMOS.Author of academic books, such as Most i wiadukt im. ks.
Józefa Poniatowskiego [Prince Józef Poniatowski Bridge and Viaduct]; Stefan Szyller (1857-1933). Warszawski architekt doby historyzmu
[Stefan Szyller (1857-1933). A Warsaw Architect of the Historicism Period]; Atlas zabytków architektury w Polsce [Atlas of Architectural
Monuments in Poland] (co-author); Nadbałtyckie Zakopane. Połąga w czasach Tyszkiewiczów [The Baltic Zakopane. Palanga in the Times of
the Tyszkiewicz family]. Also involved in the popularization of knowledge about the history of art and monuments, publishing books such as:
Zagadki z historii sztuki [Puzzles in Art History]; Polska. Pałace i dwory [Poland. Palaces and Mansions]; and Polska. Świątynie, klasztory
i domy modlitw [Poland. Temples, Monasteries and Houses of Prayer].
7 p.m.
IV. Sonia Khurana – Performative Lecture
Sonia Khurana – works with video, photography, installation, text, drawing and performance. Masters from the Royal College of Art in London
(1999) after graduating from Delhi University (1993), followed by a two-year research residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam (2002).
Has taught in various art institutions across the world, and currently part of visiting Faculty at the Shiv Nadar University in Delhi. Her recent
solo exhibitions include: Living in the Round, Goethe Institute, Delhi (2007); Oneiric House, Outset India and KNMA Museum, Delhi (2014).
Has participated in, among others: Capital and Karma, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2001); Global Feminisms (2007), Brooklyn Museum, New
York; elles@pompidou (2009) and Paris-Delhi-Bombay (2011), Musee nationale d’Art moderne Centre Pompidou, Paris; Place, Time, Play: the
West Heavens Project, Shanghai (2010); Where Three Dreams Cross, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (2010); 7 Decades of Drawing, IGNCA
Museum, Delhi (2014); Ethereal, Leila Heller Gallery, New York (2014); Yvonne Rainer Projects, Jeu de Paume, Paris (2014), as well as the
biennales of Pusan (2004); Gwangju (2008); Liverpool (2010) and the Aichi Triennale (2010).
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