✝︎ Hey world ✝︎
Warmly welcome to a thesis page by Paulina Trzeciak

Abstract:

Using the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe as a starting point, my thesis investigates how oppressed, capitalistic desires have exploded in post-communist Poland. As a result of socio-political changes, the need to create a new identity was very strong among Polish society. This need was driven by importing Western ideologies into the Polish visual culture. New types of images brought by TV commercials, lifestyle magazines, billboards or VHS cassettes had widely spread in Poland. By providing points of reference, these images were supporting the neoliberal transition. Therefore, I am interested in exploring how these oppressed desires manifested themselves in the public sphere?

In early 2000s my parents ran a wedding store in Gdańsk. They were teenagers when communist Poland collapsed, and were growing up in the time of fake hope for a better life that was promised by American economists treating Polish transformation as an experiment. Suddenly, everyone could become successful self-made man and climb the social ladder by following the logic of the free-market. If a marriage ceremony promises eternal love united under God, then my parents’ business was the attempt to chase their own American dream, united under Capitalism. The fall of communism in Poland has highlighted two overlapping processes birth of Capitalism and the Church becoming the largest landowner in Poland, paving its way to be a major actor in politics.

In my project, I will explore my findings through the lens of wedding ceremony and personification of desire. In my thesis, I combine writing from a non-human perspective (desire) with more of an essayist approach to express my personal thoughts. I also make reference to a few academic standpoints that I borrowed from the book “Norms of Visibility. Identity in Times of Transition” by Polish scholar Magda Szczesniak, whose opinions built my theoretical framework and enriched my research on visual culture studies on Polish socio-political transformation. I will reflect further upon my research by analysing wedding garments such as bridal accessories, dresses, veils and gloves I retrieved from my parents’ store. Through these materials, I wish to create a metaphorical image of the Polish desire for commercialism, which can be viewed as a contract amongst three parties: capitalism, Polish authorities and the Catholic Church. The words of the oath emerged as such:

“In the name of God, I, Poland, take you, Capitalism, to be my husband, as long as we both shall live.”