Collection

This work was prepared specially for the Museum collection as a painted reconstruction of an AMS Outdoor Gallery billboard. 400 copies of the poster appeared on the streets of several Polish cities in 1998. Years later, the artist has reversed the art-flow by symbolically taking her work back off the streets and into the museum. Her intention was to recall and capture one of the most publicly effective artistic campaigns of the 1990s.

Converting, Taming, Training uses the language of persuasion in an attempt to mould the consumer. Such language is also to be found in the omnipresent advertising in public space, and in political statements. On the one hand, it is commanding—calling for action and producing results—but it is also oppressive, since it has the power to harm and insult. By repeating the NIE suffix (meaning ‘no’) at the end of each word in the Polish title (NAWRACANIE, OSWAJANIE, TRESOWANIE), the artist subverts its oppressive nature. This work is a record of how life and language were brutalised in 1990s Poland, and also a reminder of the artistic protests which took place in response to the situation.