Tempus passionis according to Stanisław Kulon

Abstract

The text discusses several sculptures and drawings by Stanisław Kulon on the theme of the martyrology of the Polish nation. The first to be analysed are the drawings depicting the Volhynian massacres (2010), a cycle of autobiographical bas-reliefs Testimony 1939-1946, showing the ordeal of Polish deportees to the Urals (2013), and twenty-eight bas-reliefs The Way of the Cross (1991), which conflate the fate of Poles at the Soviet labour camps with references to Christ’s suffering and death on the cross. The conviction that he had a moral lesson to teach – which rules out ambiguity and the temptation to let one’s imagination run riot – made Kulon focus on the “bare facts” only and adopt a this-is-what-really-happened kind of approach. In lieu of the shorthand, symbol, and the radical deformities frequently employed in his previous work, they use a more quasi-documental style of narration in order to emphasise the enormity of the crime. The works show in drastic detail the tortures inflicted on the deportees and their gruelling work in the “inhuman land”. Martyrological themes are also present in Kulon’s other works, both religious and secular. They feature numerous references to the situation of Poles living under Soviet occupation and during martial law in the years 1981–1983. The tragic view of the human condition is not without an appeal to a “higher power”. On the contrary, his belief in the supernatural status of man’s existence is often accentuated, thus revealing an eschatological perspective, especially in the sculptures inspired by the Passion of Christ. Regardless of its themes and modes of artistic creation, Kulon’s entire legacy shows a man entangled in a traumatic past, marked by the trauma of the genocide he witnessed and the years of captivity under communist rule.