in collaboration with Karolina Kubik
part of 'Alternatives of destruction' exhibition curated by Richard Gregor

‘Tadeusze’ is a project, which presents the alternate history fiction of the solid monument of two soldiers holding a girl. 

The original ‘Monument of Gratitude for the Soviet Army’ was founded in the city center of Legnica, small Polish city in 1951. Since then it becomes a controversial element of the local landscape. At one time, people referred to it as ‘Two Ivans’ or 'Two Gays’.

In 2018, new de-communization law required removal of the monument. We managed to discover that it was transported in parts to the Legnica's cemetery.

Our project re-writes the scenario by presenting them as a family who relieved themselves from the stiff structures of human minds by skateboarding. We decided to give them a freedom they never had. 

The title of the project is a reference to the epic poem ‘Sir Thaddeus’ (Polish title ‘Pan Tadeusz’), an iconic example of Polish Romanticism in literature written by Adam Mickiewicz and published in 1836.