The return of Rafał Jakubowicz’s work Arbeitsdisziplin to Arsenal Municipal Gallery is a truly memorable event. The original attempt to exhibit the installation took place in 2002. At the time, the then-director of the Gallery succumbed to pressure from the management of the Volkswagen plant and the city’s major. As a result, the exhibition was cancelled. This seemingly unprecedented act of censorship sparked a media storm and a nationwide discussion about the political nature of art and the ways in which art can be a critical tool for examining social reality. Showcasing Jakubowicz’s artwork, recently acquired for the Gallery’s collection, is thus part of a self-reflective cultural institution’s strategy of critically evaluating its own history.
Created in 2002, Arbeitsdisziplin is the most important work in Rafał Jakubowicz’s oeuvre. It has been presented in several group exhibitions around the world, including: Death Does Not Have the Last Word: The Experience of Auschwitz Today, Zentrum fur verfolgte Kunste/Center for Persecuted Arts in the Art Museum Solingen (2015); Poland – Israel – Germany. Experiencing Auschwitz, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art, Kraków (2012); Dobre Sąsiedztwo? Wątki niemieckie we współczesnej sztuce polskiej/wątki polskie we współczesnej sztuce niemieckiej/Good Neighbourhood? German Themes in Contemporary Polish Art/Polish Themes in Contemporary German Art, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien/Studio 1, Berlin (2010); Neighbours/Nachbarn. On the Tectonics of History, International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York (2009); Souvenirs: Repressed Historical and Personal Memory in the Works of Israeli and Polish Artists, The Senate Gallery, George Shrut Visitors’ Center, The Samuel and Milada Ayrton University Center, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2008).
All the fundamental themes underlying Jakubowicz’s work come together in Arbeitsdisziplin: the exploration and rewriting of history, the analysis of power relations within the social space, remembering the often misrepresented history of the Holocaust. The piece critiques the economic strategies of multinational corporations and simultaneously addresses social, labour, and anti-capitalist issues. The installation, consisting of a relatively straightforward video and photographic documentation, links a modern automotive plant with a historical Nazi concentration camp. Such associations come to mind unprompted, as soon as the viewer observes, for example, a security guard pacing along a barbed wire fence, against the backdrop of a tall tower crowned with the auto company’s logo. Incorporating an old-fashioned typeface, the work’s title brings to mind the widely recognized motto from the gates of Auschwitz and other concentration camps: Arbeit macht frei, or: “Work sets one free.” Jakubowicz’s installation not only poses questions about the historical entanglement of major German corporations within the Nazi extermination machine. It also calls into question the promises associated with capitalism. Do we really need work discipline? Will work truly set us free? Rafał Jakubowicz’s piece reveals a number of interconnections and points of contradiction characteristic of Poland during the period of political transformation. The artist reveals the trajectory of the shifting centre of political and economic power, exposes the logic of privatization, and the ways in which non-societal actors seize control over social space. He also highlights the workings of conformism and self-censorship within public cultural institutions and local authorities.
From today’s perspective, it is obvious that Arbeitsdisziplin, although created more than two decades ago, was a rather prophetic piece and is just as relevant today – if not more so – than it was in 2002. We are currently witnessing major changes in the economic and social system, in which the former role of the state is being taken over by corporations. The oligarchs who oversee these corporations are becoming increasingly influential in our lives and are not only revealing their ambitions to control the media and dominate the public space, but also – and above all – to influence our thinking. This is precisely why Arbeitsdisziplin is a persistently compelling and uncomfortable work. Rafał Jakubowicz’s installation – and the discussion it provokes – is an integral part of Arsenal’s history and will endure as one of the most important elements of the Gallery’s collection, determining its critical, discursive, and polemical character.
Marek Wasilewski
Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund
