Ewa Toniak – art historian, critic, curator. She is ... - ERSTE Stiftung

Ewa Toniak – art historian, critic, curator. She is interested in contemporary art in the
feminist perspective, the media image of women artists, ‘blank spots’ in Polish history and
women’s presence in history. Between 2003-2005, she taught in the Gender Studies course at
the Institute of Applied Social Sciences, Warsaw University,. Author of numerous critical
texts. In 2008, she published Olbrzymki: kobiety i socrealizm [The Giants: Women and
Socialist Realism].
Ewa Franus – art historian and critic, author of texts on feminist art history and women’s art.
She has published in Magazyn Sztuki, Nowy Nurt and D’Art. Translator into Polish of Lynda
Nead’s The Female Nude and fragments of Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto. She
lectures on Eastern European art at the Kunsthistorisch Centrum Amsterdam.
Katarzyna Murawska-Muthenius, PhD – deputy director of the National Museum in
Warsaw, art historian, interested in, among other issues, the relationships between
contemporary art and ideology. Lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her
publications, exhibitions and conferences promoting Polish art in Britain include, among
others, Borders in Art: Revisiting Kunstgeographie (2000), An Impossible Journey: The Art
and Theatre of Tadeusz Kantor (Norwich, 2009), or Rebels, Martyrs and the Others:
Rethinking Polish Modernism ( London, 2009).
Dominika Cieślikowska – transcultural psychologist, she is interested in, among other things,
cultural identity issues as well as gender difference and gender relations. She works in the
Department of Cross-Cultural Psychology at the Warsaw School of Social Sciences and
Humanities’ Institute of Social Psychology. She collaborates on multiculturality issues with a
number of governmental and non-governmental institutions in Poland and abroad.
Izabela Kowalczyk, PhD – art historian, critic, curator and commentator. She lectures at the
School of Humanities and Journalism in Poznań. Co-founder and chief editor of the online
periodical Artmix devoted to visual culture and the plastic arts (in 2006 merged with Obieg).
Author of two books, Niebezpieczne związki sztuki z ciałem [Dangerous Liaisons Between Art
and the Body] (2002), and Ciało i władza. Polska sztuka krytyczna lat 90. [The Body and
Power. Polish Critical Art of the 90s] (2002). With Ewa Ziarkiewicz, editor of collections of
texts: Kobiety w kulturze popularnej [Women in Popular Culture] (2002), W poszukiwaniu
małej dziewczynki [In Search of the Little Girl] (2003), and Kobiety, feminizm i media
[Women, Feminism, and the Media] (2005).
Paweł Leszkowicz, PhD – art historian, critic and curator interested in contemporary art and
visual culture as well as studies of sexuality. He lectures at the Adam Mickiewicz University
and the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań. Author of the book Helen Chadwick. Ikonografia
podmiotowości [Helen Chadwick: An Iconography of Subjectivity] (2001), devoted to a
psychoanalytical interpretation of contemporary art; co-author of Miłość i demokracja.
Rozważania o kwestia homoseksualnej w Polsce [Love and Democracy. Reflections on the
Homosexual Question in Poland] (2005). Curator of the exhibition Art Homo Erotica at the
National Museum in Warsaw, opening in June 2010.
Prof Magdalena Środa – ethicist, philosopher, commentator, feminist. She works in the
Department of Ethics of the Warsaw University’s Institute of Philosophy. She is interested in
the history of ethical ideas, applied ethics, political philosophy and women’s issues (she
lectures at Gender Studies, Warsaw University). Author of numerous publications on political
and moral philosophy and books such as Idea godności w historii i etyce [The Idea of Dignity

in History and Ethics] (1993), Idee, normy i wartości moralne [Ideas, Norms, and Moral
Values] (1994), Historia idei etycznych: starożytność i średniowiecze [A History of Ethical
Ideas: Antiquity and the Middle Ages] (1995), Historia idei etycznych: nowożytność i czasy
współczesne [A History of Ethical Ideas: Modernity and Contemporary Times] (1998),
Indywidualizm i jego krytycy. Współczesne spory między liberałami, komunitarianami i
feministkami na temat podmiotu, wspólnoty i płci [Individualism and Its Critics:
Contemporary Disputes Between Liberals, Communitarians and Feminists about the Subject,
Community, and Gender] (2003), Kobiety i władza [Women and Power] (2009). She was the
Government Representative for Equal Status of Women and Men in the Marek Belka cabinet
(2004-2005). She was also member of the European Monitoring Centre for Racism and
Xenophobia in Vienna.
Paulina Kwiatkowska – PhD in the Department of Film and Audiovisuality at the Warsaw
University’s Institute of Polish Culture. She is interested in film aesthetics and theory, body
anthropology and history of audiovisual culture. Co-founder and chief editor of the proculture
project Orgia Myśli. She writes for periodicals such as Kwartalnik Filmowy, Nowe
Książki or Dialog.
Bartosz Żurawicki – film critic, writer, columnist. He holds a degree in cultural studies with
a specialisation in film and theatre from the Adam Mickiewicz University’s Faculty of Social
Sciences. Author of the novel Trzech panów w łóżku nie licząc kota. Romans pasywny [Three
Men in a Bed (To Say Nothing of the Cat). A Passive Love Story] (2005) and three dramas
collected into the volume Erotica alla polacca (2006). Co-author of books such as Autorzy
kina polskiego [Polish Cinema Authors] (2004) or Homofobia po polsku [Homophobia, Polish
Style] (2004). He has published in periodicals such as Film, Przekrój, Tygodnik Powszechny,
Dialog, Aktivist, Ha!art. Laureate of the 1996 Krzysztof Mętrak Prize for young film critics.
Bożena Umińska-Keff – poet, writer, essayist, commentator. She lectures in Gender Studies
at the Warsaw University. Works at the Jewish Historical Institute. Author of Razem Osobno
[Together Separately] (1986), Sen o znaczeniu snów [A Dream about the Meaning of Dreams]
(1994), Nie jest gotowy [He Is Not Ready] (2000), Postać z cieniem. Portrety Żydówek w
polskiej literaturze [Figure with a Shadow. Portraits of Jewish Women in Polish Literature]
(2001), nominated for the Nike literary prize; Barykady. Kroniki obsesyjne [Barricades.
Obsessive Chronicles] (2006), Utwór o matce i ojczyźnie [Opus about Mother and Fatherland]
(2008), nominated for the Nike literary prize. She published in periodicals such as Przekrój,
Res Publica Nowa, Zadra, Midrasz or Przegląd. One of the first scholars in Poland to study
the linkages between nationalism and cultural gender constructions. In her journalism, she
deals with the discriminating aspects of Polish culture – misogyny, homophobia, anti-
Semitism.
Małgorzata Radkiewicz – film scholar, assistant professor in the Chair of the Audiovisual
Media of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. She ins interested in gender and feminist
issues, most particularly the cultural identity of gender in popular culture: the mass media and
contemporary, especially Polish, cinema, after 1989. Founder and coordinator of the
Postgraduate Gender Studies Course at the Jagiellonian University’s Institute of Audiovisual
Arts. Author of the monograph W poszukiwaniu sposobu ekspresji. O filmach Jane Campion
i Sally Potter [Searching for a Means of Expression. On the Films of Jane Campion and Sally
Potter] (2001), editor and co-editor of several joint publications, e.g. Gender w humanistyce
[Gender in the Humanities] (2001), Gender, kultura, społeczeństwo [Gender, Culture,
Society] (2002), Gender w kulturze popularnej [Gender in Popular Culture] (2003), Gender –

konteksty [Gender - Contexts] (2004), Gender: wizerunki kobiet i mężczyzn w kulturze
[Gender: Images of Women and Men in Culture] (2005), as well as articles in joint
publications and scholarly periodicals. Reżyserki kina, tradycja i współczesność [Women
Filmmakers: Tradition and the Present], a volume devoted to the most influential international
women filmmakers, which she edited, was published in March 2005. In 2006, she published a
volume devoted to the 90s debuts, „Młode wilki” polskiego kina [The ‘Young Wolves’ of
Polish Cinema].
Jacek Kochanowski, PhD – philosopher, commentator, associate professor in the Warsaw
University’s Institute of the Sociology of Culture. He is interested in the sociology and
philosophy of culture and in sketching his own project of social queer theory. His main
inspiration is Michel Foucault. Author of Fantazmat zróżnicowany. Socjologiczne studium
przemian tożsamości gejów [A Differentiated Phantasm: A Sociological Study of the Changes
in Gay Identity] (2004), Spektakl i wiedza. Perspektywa społecznej teorii queer [The
Spectacle and Knowledge: The Prospect of a Social Queer Theory] (2009), and numerous
press publications.
Jerzy Bereś – sculptor, performance artist, student of Xawery Dunikowski’s at the Cracow
Academy of Fine Arts (graduated 1956). From 1966 member of the Cracow Group. In 1968,
showed his first artistic action, Prophecy I, at Warsaw’s Galeria Foksal. It was the beginning
of a series of happenings, commenting on political, religious, artistic and philosophical issues,
in which the artist often employed his own body. Since the 1970s, he has carried out
numerous actions/manifestations (series like Visions, Altars, Masses, Prophecies) in which
the artist’s body plays a prominent part, as well as creating large-scale wooden constructions.
His objects employ simple forms and materials – wood, field stones, hemp rope, burlap,
leather thong. Bereś’s unique style has gained him recognition in Poland and abroad. He has
had some 200 solo exhibitions and performances. He has participated in numerous group
shows presenting Polish art abroad (including representing Poland at the 9th Sao Paulo
Biennale 1967/69). Husband of the sculptor Maria Pinińska-Bereś.
Bettina Bereś – painter, holder of a degree in art history from the Jagiellonian University
(graduated 1981). Between 1985-89, she organised and ran the Zderzak gallery in Cracow
(with Maria Tarabuła). Since 1995, member of the Otwarta Pracownia association and gallery.
She has participated in numerous solo and group shows (e.g. Painting of the Year 2002: Top
100 at Galeria Królikarnia in Warsaw). Daughter of Jerzy Bereś and Maria Pinińska-Bereś.
Anna Taszycka, PhD – film scholar, commentator, she is also interested in contemporary art
and audiovisual communication. She lectures in Gender Studies at the Warsaw University and
in the Jagiellonian University’s Faculty of Management and Social Communication.
Sylwia Chutnik – culture scholar, social activist, writer, laureate of the Paszport Polityki
award (2008). Graduate of Gender Studies. Head of the MaMa foundation which focuses on
mothers’ rights issues.
Ewa Majewska, PhD – philosopher, feminist activist, she lectures in Gender Studies at the
Warsaw University.
Agnieszka Graff, PhD – writer, translator, commentator, member of the feminist movement,
she lectures in the Warsaw University’s American Studies Center and in Gender Studies.

Prof Paweł Dybel – philosopher, psychoanalysis theoretician, literature scholar, he works in
the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Philosophy and Sociology and at the Warsaw
University’s Institute of Applied Social Sciences. Translator of, among other authors, Fichte,
Freud and Žižek.
Małgorzata Furmanik-Kowalska – doctoral student in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the
Mikołaj Kopernik University in Toruń, lecturer in Gender Studies at the Warsaw University.
Samuel Nowak – doctoral student in Jagiellonian University’s Institute of Audiovisual Arts.
He has studied in Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium, and King’s College, London. He is
interested in media theory in the formulation of cultural studies.
Ewa Małgorzata Tatar – curator, art critic. Doctoral student in the Jagiellonian University’s
Institute of Art History. She is interested in, among other things, art in the context of gender
in the anthropological and social formulation. She has studied in the Masaryk University,
Brno, and the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań.
Dominik Kuryłek – art critic, curator, curator at the National Museum in Cracow, doctoral
student in the Jagiellonian University’s Institute of Art History.
Agata Adamiecka-Sitek, PhD – graduate of cultural studies at the Silesian University. She
works at Instytut Teatralny im. Zbigniewa Raszewskiego, where she is responsible for the
project Inna Scena [The Other Stage], which aims to include cultural gender identity and
sexual identity issues, seen through the lens of gender studies and queer theory, in studies of
the history and present of Polish theatre. Editor of the publications Inna Scena. Ciało, płeć,
pożądanie. Tożsamość seksualna i tożsamość płci w polskim dramacie i teatrze [The Other
Stage. The Body, Gender, Desire. Sexual Identity and Gender Identity in Polish Drama and
Theatre] and Inna Scena. Kobiety w historii i współczesności teatru polskiego [The Other
Stage. Women in the History and Present of Polish Theatre]. Fellow of the Kosciuszko
Foundation. Since 2002, head of the theatre section of the quarterly Kwartalnik Kulturalny
Opcje.
Prof Maria Poprzęcka – professor in the Warsaw University’s Institute of Art History, head
of the Postgraduate Museum Studies course at the Warsaw University’s Faculty of History.
President of the Association of Art Historians. Her main interests include art, theory and art
criticism from the 19th century to the present, and the methodology of art studies. She has
recently published Inne obrazy [The Other Pictures], a book devoted to those elements in our
perception of the world that over the centuries have been eliminated or ignored by cultural
conventions.
Marcin Teodorczyk – holder of a postgraduate degree in gender studies. Deputy president of
the association Stowarzyszenie Otwarte Forum. Writes for the feminist periodical Zadra.
Editor of the online periodical uniGENDER and of Homiki.pl.