Marysia Lewandowska’s work is an intimate, quiet narrative featuring a single female narrator who nostalgically leads the viewers through the empty corridors of the university. The absent protagonist is Czesław Znamierowski (1888-1967), professor of philosophy at the Department of the Theory and Philosophy of Law at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. The professor, the artist’s great-grandfather, understood the concept of ethics in a rather particular way, i.e., “as a set of rules for good social coexistence dictated by benevolence.” With her film, the artist pays tribute to Znamierowski, simultaneously admonishing values that are currently neglected. Before making the film, the artist carried out extensive search in the family archives and at the UAM.

The project is the result of Marysia Lewandowska’s interest in the question of value and property within the sphere of culture, economics, and ethics.

Arsenal Municipal Gallery is the producer of Dissecting the School of Law.

Marysia Lewandowska, born in 1955 in Szczecin, is an artist and educator. She creates projects and installations on the intersection of art and theoretical research. She studied art history at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków (1974-1977) and at the University of Warsaw (1978-1980). Before leaving Poland, she was associated with the Academy of Fine Arts and the Dziekanka Studio in Warsaw. She has lived in London since 1982. She has taught at, among others, Concordia University in Montreal, School of Art Institute in Chicago, School of Visual Arts in New York, Canterbury College of Art and Design, and Konstfack University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm.

The artist researches the public functions of archives, museums, and exhibitions. She initiates projects that provoke reflection on social and immaterial public spaces.

She has been working with Neil Cummings since 1995.