Ryszard Górecki. Ornitologia w służbie NATO | Ryszard Górecki. Ornithology in the Service of NATO

Ornithology in the Service of NATO is an object book created by Ryszard Górecki (1956-) as part of a series of fictional publications released by the non-existent Invisible Sign Publishing House in 2008-2009. Most of the nine books published at that time deal with various aspects of militarism. The thread of critical interest in militarism is ever-present and firmly embedded in the artist's biographical experience. Górecki grew up in Słubice, on the Polish-German border, where in the 1960s life revolved around military units and two large barracks complexes. Górecki's father was a professional soldier, and his grandfather was a veteran of the First World War, an amateur naturalist and a staunch pacifist. As a boy, Górecki had a brief interest in aviation, collecting aviation books and magazines, drawing air battles and assembling model aircraft. This passion was soon replaced by an interest in ornithology and anti-militarist beliefs. The motif of a fighter plane formed from a flock of flying birds, which appears on the cover of the work on display, brilliantly combines both childhood fascination with mature artistic reflection and a perverse sense of humour. Magdalena Lewoc