2001-07-20 - Poland
THE END OF FREEDOM?
The idea of changing the statutes of any suspicious modern art gallery and gaining control over it by means of new programme councils has gained considerable popularity. After CCA Ujazdowski Castle and Zacheta Gallery, another public institution whose status quo is being threatened is the CCA ŁaĽnia in Gdansk.
The municipal authorities of Gdansk are trying to change the statute of ŁaĽnia - one of the best art institutions in Poland (see: top 10 galleries, nr.9) and reduce the liberty of action of Aneta Szyłak, the gallery's director. A group of city councillors is trying to introduce a project of ŁaĽnia's new statute, according to which a new programme council is to be established. The new council is to have decidedly wider prerogatives, including the prerogative of dismissing the gallery's director. The project is signed, among others, by Adam Ladnowski, the vice-president of Gdansk. Among the expressions he uses are: "permanent observation of the Centre's functioning"; "discipline of the institution", and a "greater influence of outside factors". This is notable, especially because a year has hardly passed since Ladnowski has signed the current statute of ŁaĽnia Centre, which was to ensure "a greater independence of the gallery's director" which, then, was supposed to "improve the organisational processes" in cultural institutions. Well... However, the good news is that the Commission of Culture of the Gdansk City Council opposes this project, and although the vice-president stated, in the interview for "Gazeta Wyborcza" that "this is not a private gallery of Mrs. Szyłak", the project has been suspended.
Source: Raster http://raster.art.pl/ by MT