Collection

This project was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, and concerns the way in which women involved in the “Solidarity” liberation movement have been marginalised in Polish historical narrative and politics. In her desire to produce “a monument to the invisible women”, the artist concentrated on private narratives that were never part of right- or left-wing discourse in contemporary Polish politics. One of Iveković’s first actions was to “appropriate” the cover of Wysokie Obcasy (High Heels) magazine, the women’s supplement to the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. It showed a modified version of Tomasz Sarnecki’s famous poster used during Poland’s first free elections in 1989—referencing the Western “High Noon”, Gary Cooper was depicted holding a ballot paper instead of a revolver—whereas Iveković’s version of the poster featured the silhouette of a woman. Another part of the project involved publishing—in a “pictorial” issue of Krytyka Polityczna (Political Critique) magazine, designed by Artur Żmijewski and Maurycy Gomulicki—portraits of women who were engaged in opposition activity but, says Iveković, were later erased from the collective memory.