Daniel Kotowski – Monument to the Victims of Biopower

The power over the body is often part of a well-thought-out political strategy aimed at placing individuals under the strictest possible control. Daniel Kotowski is particularly interested in biopower and biopolitics as defined by Michel Foucault. He observes the reality, noting the manifestations of these as brutal as seemingly unnoticeable interference.

Exhibition opening: 08/10/2021 (Friday) at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Galeria Labirynt, ul. Popiełuszki 5
Accessibility: Opening interpreted into the Polish sign language (PJM); interpreter: Jolanta Gromada. Opening interpreted simultaneously into English – please pick up the device at the bookstore before the event; interpreter: Krystian Kamiński. The exhibition is held on the ground floor. At the bookstore, you can borrow a wheelchair and earmuffs for free during your stay in the gallery. The gallery has 6 portable induction loops
Admission: free of charge.

The exhibition on display until October 31st, 2021

The monument to the victims of biopower had its first presentation in Wrocław near the hospital at Poniatowskiego street, where infertility treatments were performed under the legislation of the Third Reich. The date of unveiling the monument was not accidental – October 18th, 2020 – 85 years after the enactment of the hereditary health protection law of the German nation. In 1935, there was already a ban on marrying people of non-Aryan descent, and this law went even further, as it specified who had the right to a legal relationship. People suffering from hereditary or mental diseases or previously sterilised people were among those excluded from this group.  The unmarried partnerships were accompanied by denunciations, police investigations, referrals for examinations and threats of imprisonment in concentration camps. All in the name of “health” and “the good of the nation”.

The procedure of interference in the most intimate areas of life is in full swing, although it takes on different faces. In Lublin, during the second presentation of his work, Daniel Kotowski refers to the Equality Marches as well as to the enormous scale of homophobia that accompanied them. His exhibition is a video of performance in the streets of Lublin, when each person could push this unique, wandering monument through a fragment of the route, leaving a fingerprint on its surface. In this way, the monument to the victims also becomes a monument of support and collective strength. The slogans accompanying it at the exhibition are key words revealing the mechanisms of contemporary biopower. The artist’s work is a disagreement with the related mechanisms of excluding and generating categories of unwanted or defective individuals.

Anyone and everyone can lay flowers at the monument or honour it in any way they like.

Daniel Kotowski – visual artist, performer. Born in 1993 A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (2018) and the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw (2016). PhD student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. His artistic practice is the starting point for reflection on the ways of existence. He observes experiences and interpersonal relationships, as well as the way we are perceived by other individuals. His works often refer to the concept of biopower and biopolitics. He is particularly interested in the categories of “completeness” and “incompleteness”, their ambivalence and hidden potential. He says about himself that he is an indicator of incompleteness, inconsistent with the norm, because he is Deaf and does not use phonic speech. Through his art, he develops his own communication strategy.

Curator: Agata Sztorc-Gromaszek

Cooperation: Lublin Equality March Association in Lublin and Azyl Library