The performance/installation/lecture is a continuation of the research associated with the Gutta project, which has been running since 2021 and focuses on Central European contributions to the global colonial system. The research site and starting point becomes Poznań — one of the major Polish cities where the colonial past is hidden deep in the narrative stream. Like the story of the skulls stored in the Berlin Museum, whose temples bear the handwritten signature of Jan Czekanowski — the post-war director of the Anthropology Department at the University of Poznań. Or the photographs and trophies from overseas expeditions collected by Arkady Fiedler in the museum in Puszczykowo, visited by school groups.

We want to believe that Poland was a colonized country, not a colonial one, but this narrative seems very inconsistent and full of gaps. What about the Maritime and Colonial League, which flourished in Poznan between the wars? What about the Zoological Garden, which hosted so-called "ethnographic exhibitions" that were incredibly popular with the bourgeoisie? What about the bourgeoisie itself, which (as Kasper Bajon writes in his article in dwutygodnik.com) kept (or perhaps still keeps) bones of non-European peoples in its cupboards?

Like a phantom, Czekanowski roams the corridors of the UAM, the city's institutions, and the closets of private homes. The dream of the country's colonial power has faded somewhat, but its traces are still present in dusty corners and attics. Perhaps it is time to sweep them out and take a closer look....

Idea and realisation: Ludomir Franczak
Music: Robert Piotrowicz
Fragments of texts by: Joseph Conrad, Jan Czekanowski, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Iryumugabe Robert, W.G. Sebald, Ludomir Franczak, Magazyn „Morze” (1934), Arkady Fiedler, Grzegorz Łyś
Producer: Olga Strizhniova
Sound realization: Maciej Frycz
Communication: Ola Jaruszewska
Poster: Wiktoria Szydłowska
Production: Społeczne Miejsce Kultury SCENA ROBOCZA

Subsidized from the budget of the City of Poznań