Znamia

Mikolaj Sobczak’s painting Znamia is inspired by the history of the Białystok anarchist movement. It was created for the exhibition “In the beginning was the deed!” (Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, 2021), which tackled the hitherto rarely acknowledged issue of insurrectionist anarchism in the city’s working-class environment. In the early twentieth century, anarchists (most of whom were of Jewish origin) were an important force of political and social resistance in Białystok, then a thriving centre of textile industry under the Russian rule. The title of Sobczak’s work is a direct reference to the name of an anarchist communist organisation Chernoe Znamia (Russian: Чёрное знамя, Black Banner), the most important, and one of the most radical, of the Russian Empire’s worker organisations, which emerged in 1905. Its members, known as the chernoznamentsy, inspired economic boycotts and worker’s revolts against factory owners, committed acts of industrial sabotage and practised open violence against the bourgeoisie, the police and the army of Russia.

In his work, Sobczak draws on the archives of Russian anarchism. The three groups of figures on the left-hand side were painted from photographs showing activists: members of the Black Banner at a meeting in Minsk (1906), anarchists in a penal colony in Nerchinsk (1907), and young revolutionaries from Krynki near Białystok in a Grodno prison (1906). Other images refer to footage documenting bomb attacks, workers’ marches and the Białystok pogrom, a mass killing of the Jewish population, inspired by the authorities (1906). The caricatured figure on the right refers to a postcard with a satirical depiction of the anarchist Vladimir “Striga” Lapidus, who was killed in the Bois de Vincennes in Paris when a bomb he was carrying accidentally exploded. In the top left corner, there is the seal of a prisoner-support organisation, the Anarchist Red Cross.

Sobczak juxtaposes historical events and figures with contemporary Polish anarchist movements. The painting features portraits of Margot, Łania and Lu from the queer collective Stop Bzdurom. Discernible at the bottom are blurred press photos from the nationalist counter-demonstration staged during the 2019 Equality March in Białystok. Sobczak seeks parallels between the past and the present, pointing to similar mechanisms of repression and active resistance. In his perception, the past is strongly reflected in the present, time loses its linearity and history well nigh comes full circle.

Izabela Kopania
translated from Polish by Klaudyna Michałowicz

A monumental painting pays homage to the Chernoe Znamia [Black Banner] and the anarchist movement of Białystok. The painting contains group portraits of anarchist men and women from the region and a stamp from the Bialystok Anarchist Red Cross, one of the first of such prisoner-support organizations, that lives on today as the Anarchist Black Cross. It also features an illustration of Black Banner member Vladimir Lapidus “Striga” accidentally blowing himself up. Among a mass of rioting workers are the portraits of Margot, Łania and Lu from the contemporary Polish queer anarchist collective Stop Bzdurom, who have been notable for their direct actions, but also for the persecution they have endured. With references to the 1906 Bialystok Pogrom and to the violent counter-demonstrations of the 2019 Bialystok Equality March, the artist links the past and present, and generates a transgressive and alternative “history painting” for the future.

Katarzyna Różniak & Post Brothers

Text originally published in Na początku był czyn! Zin 2 / In the Beginning Was the Deed!: Zine 2, Galeria Arsenał w Białymstoku, Białystok 2022