The show, titled "To Be Like Jacek Kuroń", is divided into eleven stations tracing key moments from the co-founder of KOR — the Workers' Defense Committee — from his 1965 Open Letter with Karol Modzelewski through the 1968 student protests, the 1976 Radom and Ursus strikes, the birth of Solidarity, martial law, and the June 4, 1989 elections.
Among its highlights are a fragment of the Gdańsk Shipyard gate, a black-and-white television showing archival protest footage, a miniature Round Table, and a recreation of Kuroń's living room, complete with a coffee cup, two packs of cigarettes, and a telephone playing a recorded conversation. In the phone booth — brought from Warsaw's Żoliborz district — visitors can hear Kuroń reporting to Aleksander Smolar in Paris on Radio Free Europe about a secret police raid on his home.
"Our main idea was to create an exhibition that would stop MEPs and visitors — to let them experience something, touch something, hear Jacek's real voice", said exhibition designer Zuza Słomińska. "We wanted to catch every passerby for even a few seconds and tell a story that many people simply don't know".
The exhibition was conceived by Robert Kijak, producer of the upcoming film "Our Revolution" about Kuroń and his wife Grażyna, known as Gajka, set for release on November 11. "When I started working on the film, it turned out that very few people, even in Poland, know who Jacek Kuroń was" Kijak said.
Former Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, speaking at the opening, noted that Kuroń's name had entered everyday Polish language through the word "Kuroniówka", adding that "this shows Jacek Kuroń was ahead of his time".
Maciej Szudek, head of the Polish National Foundation, which co-financed the exhibition, said the show is especially relevant today. "At a time when totalitarianism is resurging, it is worth showing figures like Kuroń, who demonstrated with his whole life that fighting totalitarianism is both necessary and worthwhile".
The exhibition, held under the patronage of European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, marks its world premiere and is set to travel to Polish cities.
(jh)
Source: PAP