Please, sign in the defence of Dorota Nieznalska

[Aneta Szyłak]

Open letter concerning the conviction of Dorota Nieznalska

 

The conviction of Dorota Nieznalska on the charge of insulting religious feelings is shocking proof that the fundamental statute of the Polish Republic is not respected in a country which until recently seemed to be a symbol of freedom. The principle of the freedom of expressing one's views has been totally violated and has made the artist a victim of an ideologised vision of a religious state, which the League of Polish Families is attempting to impose on Polish society. Civic freedoms are not established in order that they may serve one ideology. We all have the right to live and function in this country and to express our own views freely. Every culture needs its own sphere of freedom, incorrectness, difference. Art is one such sphere. Art is not created in order to decorate walls; it is above all a testimony to its own time and it expresses that which public discourse cannot perhaps express in any other form. Art is a living and volatile manifestation and its boundaries cannot be regulated by the clauses of the penal code. This has clearly been testified to by the judgements of the Human Rights Tribunal in Strasbourg.

 

Polish society is not homogeneous. We can talk about majorities and minorities belonging to the same society. Dorota Nieznalska, in dealing with one of the problems which is present in this society, is expressing her right to be different.

 

We demand the respecting of the right to freedom of expression as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Polish Republic.

 

  1.. Aneta Szyłak, art critic, Wyspa Progress Foundation, Gdańsk
  2.. Professor Grzegorz Klaman, artist, Wyspa Progress Foundation, Gdańsk
If you want to sign the letter please mail your name, position and the nanme of the city you based in to: wyspa_mode at wp.pl 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://tekspost.no/mailman/private/syndicate/attachments/20030726/af8d4455/attachment.html>