Zapaść, Która Trwa do Dziś. O Książce Jakuba Banasiaka Proteuszowe czasy. Rozpad państwowego systemu sztuki 1982-1993. Stan wojenny, druga odwilż, transformacja ustrojowa
A Collapse that Continues Till Today. Review of the Book by Jakub Banasiak Proteus Times. The Collapse of the State Art System 1982-1993. Martial Law, the Second Thaw, System Transformation

Summary/Abstract: This article is devoted to Jakub Banasiak’s book Proteus Times. The collapse of the state art system 1982-1993. Martial law, the second thaw, political transformation. The author deals with the period of changes of the visual arts sector from the period after Martial Law to the first half of the 1990s after the political transformation in Poland. Reviewing this 500-page publication, I would like to draw attention to the three most important threads touched upon by Banasiak, which make his book worth attention and broaden the discussion on patronage and state interventionism in the area of culture. The first concerns the changes, which gradually lasted almost a decade, and not just a year, as is often accepted when talking about 1989. The second concerns adopting a perspective that rejects the totalitarian paradigm, i.e. looking at the period of the Polish People’s Republic of in a broader spectrum, taking into account the many factors of its functioning through the prism of both the pros and cons of the system. The third one concerns describing the artistic scene without moralizing and not only in the dualism of collaboration-resistance, but also outlining a broader view of the context in which Polish art functioned in those years. I would also like to draw attention to the enormous amount of work Banasiak has done by conducting numerous searches, interviews and archive analyses, as well as to the enormous contribution his book makes to the discourse on the legacy of patronage in the Polish People’s Republic and how it can be applied to today.

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