Public Displays of Affection (2017), also known by the acronym PDA, describes acts of intimacy viewed by others. The right to public gatherings is one of democracy's privileges, which allows you to formulate and express your views publicly. The right to peaceful public assembly is guaranteed by the constitution, and it is on these two concepts – or rather the tension between them – that Liliana Piskorska's work Public Displays of Affection focuses. The artist examines the physical aspect of the barrier between law enforcement and the participants of assemblies – it's often the case that members of both sides are in constant intimate body contact; however, this intimacy is a result of the role of the police. Piskorska wonders about the impermanent nature of this phenomenon, which depends on the variability of the participants' individual and mass needs.
Rewolucje (Revolutions) is a play created by Lena Bielska in cooperation with Liliana Piskorska on the occasion of International Theatre Day in Łódź in October 2017. The performance is a lesbian-queer manifesto that incorporates a wide spectrum of extreme emotions; it also includes scenes of violence and unconventional eroticism. The plot of the play was based on an internal conflict between the desire to destroy oppressive, patriarchal relationship patterns and the primal need of belonging to a group or a pack. Piskorska created the audio-visual part of the show.
Liliana Piskorska's two individual exhibitions opened in May 2019. The first was in CCA Kronika in Bytom entitled Długi Marsz Przez Instytucje (Long March Through Institutions) and the second called Skutki Uboczne (Side Effects) at the Poznań Municipal Gallery Arsenał.
The eponymous ‘long march through institutions’ is a concept of a creeping revolution that aims at gradual but profound ideological change, training qualified personnel and taking up important positions to take over institutions of social life from the inside and transform their structures. This has been a long-term terror of the right wing, which has now turned into an element of a political conspiracy theory. It assumes that the march through the institutions has already been completed and is now maintained by European communities and the contemporary fifth column. The goal of the march is the downfall of traditional Christian values, and is therefore an attack on the current social order. A clear message flows from propaganda narratives –the enemies include sexual minorities, feminists, gender minorities, immigrants, activists and ecological movements, they profess communist and ‘anti-human’ ideals in the form of so-called cultural Marxism.
Through her exhibition at the CCA Kronika, Liliana Piskorska examines this rhetoric and tries to understand its development, at the same time using her works – which, although not radical are very educational – to lead her personal long march through art institutions. The artist's exhibition in Bytom combines the language of politics with magical thinking. Piskorska visits various Polish 'places of power' – from Mount Ślęża through Odry's stone circles to the Wawel hill – which become the backdrop for women's collective exchange of social fears. A magical look is a strong contrast to radicalising environments and growing social polarization. Piskorska reaches deeper to our pre-Christian roots, wanting to find what the common elements, which are now forgotten.
On the pharmaceutical side, a side effect is a possible adverse drug reaction. In her exhibition of the same title, Liliana Piskorska asks about the ‘side effects’ of living in a society,showing the harmful and unwanted elements of functioning in the world of globalisation, growing populism and democratic crises. The artist decided to put on display what usually remains on the peripheries of public attention.
Amongst the most interesting works of the Skutki Uboczne (Side Effects) exhibition was thePraktyki Grupowe (Group Practices) installation, which combined photographs with text. It included portraits of people associated with feminist groups in Poland, as well as activists from various organisations and collectives who agreed to be photographed in action. These photos are accompanied by fragments of conversations and – as the curator of the exhibition explains – it is an attempt to capture a community that emerges despite different feminist strategies. Another noteworthy piece by Piskorska is entitled Ład Prawny (Legal Order)–it's an installation made of wood, plaster casts and prints on paper and fabric, prepared especially for the exposition at Arsenał Gallery. The work reflects on the ways in which law is created and the entities that are responsible for this process, who determine– according to the majority's ‘common sense’–what is socially acceptable and what is not. Piskorska herself defines this work as:
… a group portrait of 25 members of the Institute for Legal Culture OrdoIuris as tongues of a golden lion, with special emphasis on the President of the Board and Director of the Centre for Religious Freedom.
The artist wonders about the role of legal discourse, which affects real people – who does it protect, who is excluded and who is harmed? The law, which in theory is neutral, is created by (some more or less) privileged people. Nowadays, someone also formulates and sustains legal regulations, which means that they do not serve everyone equally.
A similar point was raised in the piece Dobrze Napisana Ustawa (Well-Written Act), which presents the Polish version of a Russian law concerning the protection of children against information posing a hazard to their health and development. The artist borrowed from terminology and language used to stigmatise sexual minorities, but the title was taken from an interview with Polish President Andrzej Duda, who said that if a law of this kind was to be enforced in Poland, it would have to be well written (‘Nasz Dziennik’, 10/12/11/2018 , No. 261, p. 7). The entire installation consists of well-written draft law, an invitation to the exhibition for the Polish President, the original Russian law, analyses by international organisations of said Russian law and commentary from a lawyer, as well as explanations and statements from people who are involved in science and advocate for human rights: Agnieszka Graff, Maciej Duda and Krzysztof Śmiszek.
Piskorska's manifesto entitled Silne Siostry Powedziały Braciom (Strong Sisters Told the Brothers)– displayed in Zachęta as part of the Views 2019 competition as well as in the Arsenał Gallery – evokes other lesbian and queer declarations made by Radicalesbians and Queer Nation. In her film Piskorska recites classic texts, while on the screen we can see different close-ups of plants; the visual setting is very poetic and romantic whilst the text prompts reflection on the privilege of heteronormative people. The video calls for solidarity and empathy towards others, especially those that are part of a minority group.
