A MASS FOR THE CITY OF ARRAS

A MASS FOR THE CITY OF ARRAS

(the second part of civil responsibilities triptych)

       I am looking at the results of the elections as a mass insanity, bribery by election promises, money. That better part will wonder why did the half of society voted so. We are humanists; posthuman, postnationalist defends their own freedom. They became armed with ideas – free choice. Free choice of a lifepath, occupation, surrounding, gender, orientation. That we will always protect. This resulted of our Tradition, democratic tradition brought out from the Greek’s and Rome’s antique. Behind us stand education, multilingualism, knowledge of the world. On the other side we have a mirage of threats. Football hooligans, nationalists, xenophobes, racists. The water curtain is here a mirage, the real image emerges there, where we can stand and nullify it, on the subfloor – but it requires interaction, group action and face to face relation.

        Therefore I attempt to set up a reverse thesis. No two sides exist. There are only people who landed better. More than 200 years ago Staszic wrote: “None are born with the inseparable privilege of idleness and richness or unchanging work and poverty. None are born with the mark of being a subject, regretting life, receiving disrespect and feeling ashamed because of life taken away, as none are born with the privilege of nobility, ruling, respect and honor. Only utility stands between others as originality.” So this mirage we made ourselves. Intelligence does not go with responsibility. Creating rainbow collages I fill them with the image of life we unawarely create, images of life from our social profiles. Upon a closer inspection we do not defend freedom, democratic ideals, constitution. In this search I have seen two things. We like poking fun at Adrian, bishop, that or other MP; we become offended at stupidity, ask how is it possible? As a counter we like to show how one should live. Where to drive, what to eat. What kind of cool children we possess, friends, houses and hobbies. This constitution, democracy and human rights are an ideal for a for a banner, because something must unite. Because none will say that they defend their own lifestyle… We want Sweden, but without taxes, France, but without Muslims and art and Germany, but without the work. The how great we are is understood only through self. And we want this understanding, but without education, without dialogue, without communication. Success is not measured by work, co-participation and co-existence. It is by vacation, car, house, child studying in Boston.

        There is not a counter, there is no second side. We would like to see it and we create it – for ourselves to feel better even more. When we write about that in our newspapers, on our accounts, only for us. We write poignantly, with good language, we analyze – for ourselves, for our friends. These texts will not reach anywhere, will not persuade anyone. They are for us, they create a mirage – of evil. Evil which comes to take what is ours, await maliciously for our values, Europe’s ideals, of humanism, freedom. Is this really what we are afraid of? That it will take our ideals? Or maybe our cars, maybe it will raise taxes, undermine our way of life? The way of life is here sanctity, god, pope and whatever else. We show these all things to others, without comment or reflexion. And if they do not have them and we do, then what has happened? Who is the thief? Constance or interruption? Is the process of society being abandoned by the leaders in our nature or is it a phenomena of a generation. Some will see in this process lack of templates, that a social change came to be, that Germans, that Russians, that communists.

      We locked lions in reservoirs and cages, but they sometimes leave the arena and eat someone. Even if not like lions, then like Indians and Aborigines. They can be removed, killed, homes taken away. But they will return from the afterlife to take the debt - remorse. One cannot eat till not hungry in the company of hungry people and keep saying that hunger is their fault, because they had equal chances.

Or maybe one can, one has to only install bulletproof glass in his car and buy a weapon.

Selected quotes from the book “Msza za Miasto Arras” by Andrzej Szczypiorski

(performative reading during the vernissage, read Jarosław Tyrański)

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