Ryszard Górecki. Wojna jest piękna. Estetyka konfliktu zbrojnego. | Ryszard Góreki. War is Beautiful. The Easthetics of Armed Conflict.

Ryszard Górecki (1956- ) is an artist and curator who has lived and worked in Berlin since 2002. His biographical experiences and his ability to transform them critically and creatively have played an important role in his prolific and varied career. A recurring theme in the artist's work is militarism. Górecki's interest in this subject has a long history and a unique context. The artist was born in the border town of Słubice a few years after the end of the Second World War. He grew up at the height of the Cold War, in a heavily militarised town where Polish army units were stationed and where the traces of war were still tangible. Commenting on the climate in Słubice in the 1960s, Górecki emphasised that the military played an important role there, and that life and military technology in the two elaborate barracks complexes in the centre of the town were of great interest to every adolescent boy. Many of them, like Górecki, then discovered a passion for collecting, carrying out amateur military excavations and collecting "anything surprising or related to the military". In Górecki's case, his childhood fascination soon gave way to an attitude of distancing himself from militarism. The artist recalled that the first person to open his eyes to the world was his grandfather, a veteran of the First World War and a pacifist. Since then, the subject of war, conflict and military technology has been one of the main targets of his intelligent and brilliant criticism, often using ironic distance, paradox and absurdity as his tools. Various aspects of armed conflict are the leitmotif of both the present volume, War is Beautiful, and the entire series of nine book objects in the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin. Magdalena Lewoc