STOP

STOP.

Language is being devalued. Commentators, journalists, photojournalists, and NGOs raise the alarm about the situation at the border. Stories of people freezing to death in forests, being pushed through barbed wire fences, have already earned descriptions of human rights violations, lack of humanity, even genocide. And perhaps rightly so. We talk about the “browning” of our country, a caricature of “patriotism” in the supposed defense of borders, the threat of a wave of refugees. But no one listens anymore. Language has been devalued; society remains deaf to the message. The border blockade serves only to block images. Because in today’s world, it is the image that speaks. A single photograph can say more than the tirades of politicians or NGO activists.

So perhaps the image, the symbol, should speak—scream with its last breath.

It is a good day—December 13th, forty years later. It is a good place—the Gdańsk Shipyard, where freedom once began. We decided it was worth it. Images—despite everything.

The act of driving a post into the ground on the grounds of the Gdańsk Shipyard. Concept and execution: Jacek Kornacki and Maciej Śmietański. The work remained in place for four days. It is unknown who destroyed it…

Let me know if you’d like a more poetic, more formal, or more journalistic version — I can adjust it to your audience.