Pasja is an installation art by Dorota Nieznalska, a contemporary Polish artist, belonging to the trend of 'critical art', exhibited at the Gdańsk in 2001. The installation consisted of two parts: a video showing a man exercising in a gym and a metal cross suspended on a chain with an embedded photograph of a penis in the central place.
The juxtaposition of these two elements – a symbol sacred to Christians and male genitalia – sparked significant controversy in the media and subsequently in society, provoking a discussion about the boundaries of art and freedom of artistic expression. Nieznalska was accused of offending religious sentiments and in 2003 was sentenced to perform community service. However, she appealed the verdict and in 2010 was acquitted of all charges.
Circumstances of creation In 1999, Nieznalska first addressed religion and religiosity in her diploma work titled Absolution (an installation composed of photographs, video, and a wooden confessional). At that time, she was also interested in issues related to the sources of evil, domination, violence, aggression, and earlier, the problem of rape (the installation Modus Operandi from 1998). This is reflected, among other works, in her untitled series of photographs from 1999, depicting the relationship between a naked man and a submissive dog.
Through her partner, she became acquainted with the community of men exercising in amateur gyms. Visits to such places inspired her in 2000 to create the installation Omnipotence: A Male Kind, consisting of gym equipment (rubber mat, chalk, mirrors, steel exercise bars). The entire installation was illuminated with red light, accompanied by sounds recorded in the gym aimed at evoking sexual connotations: panting, groaning, and swearing. In 2001, Nieznalska exhibited a photograph titled Potency, depicting a man with a clenched fist in the groin area and tense muscles. The Pasja installation was a continuation of the theme of masculinity, including physical strength and the cult of machismo, which the artist emphasized in numerous interviews.
Description of the installation Pasja installation consists of a 45-minute looping, colorful video material (without sound), depicting in slow motion the face of a man exercising in a gym, and a steel cross measuring 104.7 x 90 x 19.5 cm suspended on a chain. The structural elements of the cross were custom-made at the Center of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, then cut and welded together by Nieznalska. The entire surface of the cross features a colorful photograph of a penis, with the genitalia located at the central point.Nieznalska never revealed the personalities of the person posing for this photograph, also before the court she refused to answer this question (). The cross was of the Greek type, as evidenced by its proportions – different from those of a Latin cross. The film was projected using a video projector, and the entire installation was presented in a darkened room.
Exhibitions
Pasja installation was first exhibited in 2001 at the . At the request of the director, Monika Szewczyk, the central place of the steel cross was covered with a white card (the director feared protests from local politicians from the League of Polish Families). On the occasion of the exhibition, a 28-page catalogue was issued () in Polish and English.
The installation was fully shown for the first time as part of the exhibition New Works, open from 14 December 2001, to 20 January 2002, from Monday to Friday from 11 AM to 2 PM, at the Wyspa Gallery in Gdańsk ( at 13/16 ). The exhibition received funding from the city budget (amounting to 2000 PLN), and its description and project were approved by the Vice President of Gdańsk, Adam Landowski, and the Director of the Department of Social Affairs in Gdańsk, Krystyna Konieczna. The curator was , a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and the promoter of Nieznalska's diploma work. At his suggestion, the artist stayed in the gallery every day during the exhibition to explain the meaning of Pasja to visitors.
Meaning The work explores the theme of the cult of the male body and the associated suffering. The title refers to the ambiguity of the word pasja (English: passion), which in Polish means both great enthusiasm for something and the suffering of Christ (its description, representation, and cult of this suffering). It is a term that refers to both the sacred and profane spheres. The artist juxtaposed in the installation the physical pain willingly undertaken by men who want to have a stronger body through exercise, as well as the suffering resulting from religious faith. This juxtaposition gave the installation an ironic undertone.
Nieznalska commented on her work as follows:Pasja, which was in no way related to religion or faith, and solely addressed the current passion in our culture for arming masculinity with muscles through persistent workouts in gyms, was mistakenly interpreted as an attack on the greatest sanctities.According to , the figure of the cross used in the installation does not refer to the figure of Christ, as he was crucified on a Latin cross. Nieznalska, however, used a Greek cross, symbolizing an ideal. The genitals in Nieznalska's work symbolize masculinity, and their placement on the Greek cross shows that they are an idealized symbol.
On the other hand, according to , the juxtaposition of genitals (symbolizing masculinity) with the cross and gym workouts places masculinity in two contexts: the Catholic and consumerist models of life. She associates them with meanings such as suffering and self-sacrifice, showing that the standards set for men are practically unattainable. Kowalczyk also interprets Pasja as a work about the contemporary adoption of a new religion by consumer culture, seeing the gym in this context as a new temple.
According to American theater researcher Magda Romanska, in Pasja, the male body is objectified and subjected to violence, similar to what traditionally happened to the female body. At the same time, the researcher sees in the installation an expression of empathy and an attempt to understand the tormented and pressured masculinity. The symbol of the cross used in Pasja does not have a religious dimension; it represents suffering as such. The genitals inscribed within it indicate the source of this suffering: the cultural ideal of masculinity, which forces men to exceed their physical capabilities to confirm their gender identity. Romanska also associates Pasja with feminist art, which addressed the oppressive action of culture on femininity and the compulsive behaviors it induced in women.
A different interpretation was proposed by literary scholar Marcin Kowalczyk, placing Pasja in the context of carnivalesque. According to him, while the author did touch upon the theme of training for masculinity and the persistent building of a muscular silhouette through suffering, by using the symbol of the cross with a photograph of a penis in her work, she desacralized this symbol (placing it in the realm of the material and corporeal). Kowalczyk refers to other works of contemporary art that fit into the logic of carnivalesque: Andres Serrano's Piss Christ, Chris Ofili's The Holy Virgin Mary, Renée Cox's Yo Mama's Last Supper, and others.
Other interpretations relate the genitals placed on the cross to Christian iconography, in which the visible genitals on depictions of the crucified Christ symbolized his humanity. Critic and curator Paweł Leszkowicz interpreted Pasja as a portrait of male masochism, where men continually increase their physical strength. On the other hand, according to , Nieznalska's work is not a work of art (i.e., it lacks artistic value) but rather a statement of engaged, social, and feminist journalism and should only be considered through this prism.
, the former rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, testified in court that in his opinion, Nieznalska's work does not present any artistic value, is graphomaniacal, and was created only to provoke.
Reaction from the media and politicians
Background In the 1990s and early 2000s, many works of artists, especially those belonging to the movement, sparked controversy in the media and Polish society. The first work to provoke such a reaction was Katarzyna Kozyra's (1993), followed by works such as Piotr Uklański's (1998), Zbigniew Libera's (1996), and Maurizio Cattelan's sculpture depicting Pope John Paul II crushed by a meteorite. However, the greatest controversy was stirred by Nieznalska's installation, due to the juxtaposition of the cross (a Christian symbol of the death and resurrection of Jesus) and the genitals.
Media On the day of the exhibition opening, an article titled Feminist Passion appeared in the supplement to Gazeta Wyborcza's "Co jest grane?" ("What's on?") section, informing about the exhibition and the planned vernissage at 7:00 PM. Three days before the end of the exhibition, on 17 January 2002, an article titled Controversial Passion by Anna Urbańczyk was published in the local supplement to Gazeta Wyborcza. According to the author, the juxtaposition of the cross and male genitalia was surprising: It's no wonder that the realization shocks; it can (and does) offend religious feelings.
On January 18, in the main edition of the Fakty TVN news program, a segment about Pasja was aired, titled Trick. On January 19, other press and television media also expressed interest in the installation, and the matter gained enormous publicity. Everyone who commented on the exhibition admitted that they had not seen it personally.
Incident at the gallery On 21 January 2002, an incident involving members of the League of Polish Families, including , Stanisław Żyła, and Robert Strąk, occurred in the gallery, which was closed to the public that day. They barged into the exhibition rooms demanding the release of the installation, specifically the steel cross, claiming that Nieznalska's work offended their religious feelings. However, their intention did not materialize because the exhibition had already been dismantled, and the artist refused to hand over the cross to them. Journalists were witnesses to this incident. Robert Strąk, a member of the League of Polish Families from Gdynia, issued a statement to the press at that time, in which he wrote, among other things:We believe that there should be an ethical code for artists or pseudo-artists because what Mrs. Nieznalska is doing, for example, is seeking cheap publicity. I believe that promoting one's name by insulting the religious feelings of others is disgraceful, and such things should not happen in our country, in the center of Europe.
Criminal proceedings
Prosecution and trial