Drawing

Maciej Sieńczyk’s drawing from the cover of Znak magazine, June 2017 (no. 745). "Biografie rzeczy żydowskich" [Biographies of Jewish Things] was the theme of the month’s issue. One of the published articles, by Beata Chomątowska, described, i.a. the POLIN collection (see: www.miesiecznik.znak.com.pl/745-spis-tresci, accessed 9.09.2020). The title of the issue was a direct reference to the Museum’s second periodical exhibition of its collection: "Biografie rzeczy. Dary z kolekcji Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich" [Biographies of Things. Gifts from the Collection of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews] (2013, curators: Judyta Pawlak, Wojciech Leder; the title of the exhibition was, in turn, a reference to Ewa Domańska’s theoretical works).

By depicting an open box of burnt matches with some unspecified elements under them, Sieńczyk, on the one hand, refers to the idea of everyday objects used by the Polish Jews annihilated during the war (there is the star of David on the box), and on the other – to the Polish guilt complex, and controversies connected with the involvement of Poles in the crimes against Jews – burnt matches connote the Jedwabne pogrom, which constitutes a symbol of massacres of the kind. The first to make the metaphorical connection between the matches and the Star of David in this context was Bartosz Kosowski (on the cover of Przekrój 2011, no. 28). The theme of the issue was: "My, Polacy, zabójcy Żydów. Jedwabne 70 lat później" [We, the Poles, Murderers of the Jews. Jedwabne 70 Years Later] (see: bartoszkosowski.com/jedwabne-massacre-przekroj-cover, accessed 9.09.2020).

Maciej Sieńczyk is a comic artist (author of i.a. the albums Wrzątkun, 2009, and Przygody na bezludnej wyspie, 2012), a writer (novel Wśród przyjaciół, 2016), and an illustrator (i.a. illustrations to books by Dorota Masłowska and Michał Witkowski; collaboration with magazines Lampa, Wysokie Obcasy and Press). The work exhibits the most characteristic features of the artist’s style: his fascination with objects, the geometrised representations (referring to Polish propaganda leaflets from the 1980s), and the multiplying of small elements, drawn every time with equal accuracy (clumps of grass). The drawing was created – which is also typical for Sieńczyk – on a reused sheet with a design for a vitamin pack printed on it (overleaf).