In 1981, for a short moment in the Polish history, an honest attempt was made to realize the idea of political and economic self-governance without class and cultural privileges. An idea from which we are quite far removed today. The 1st “Solidarity” prepared and voted on a programme answering the needs of all of its members. Supported by 10 million people, it proposed a different, alternative vision of Poland founded, among others, on self-governance, fair access to public services, as well as environmental protection and social development through culture and education. This unprecedented project was abruptly thwarted by the Martial Law, and after ‘89, the idea of direct democracy was finally put on the back burner, also by “Solidarity” elites that readily implemented models of neoliberal capitalism, effectively cutting citizens off from ideas and opportunities to make the state more social. “Solidarity. New Project” explores the idea of constituting a mass social movement, based on the principles pf direct democracy. It is a performative leaning into the future and an attempt to assess the current chances for self-determination of societies, as a democratic answer to the rise of nationalist spirits and authoritarian actions of authorities.
In 2017, the performance Solidarity. A New Project was produced. Its script was based on the transcripts of the First National Congress of ‘Solidarity’, which met in the Olivia Hall in Gdańsk in two rounds: from 5 to 10 September and from 26 September to 7 October 1981. The intention of the artists was, starting from the experience of the first ‘Solidarity’, to rethink and create a new, democratic and equal political project that would be able to prevent further conflicts and tensions and that would propose a just world. The Polish experience that sets such a political and economic horizon is the first Solidarity.
The performance premiered on 29 October 2017 at TR Warszawa and marked the inauguration of the Biennale Warszawa.
