(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

Although over a century has passed since Stanisław Wyspiański’s death, his work still shapes the collective Polish imaginary. His writings are an indispensable component of the school curriculum, and, thanks to the possibilities of contemporary digital reproduction, his paintings and designs are present almost everywhere in Poland. However, in many respects, this visual abundance trivialises the multilayered character of Wyspiański’s thought. Moreover, it obscures his place in the artistic network of Central Europe around 1900 by marginalising visual contexts (e.g. by marginalising the significance of German-speaking countries’ culture) by making Wyspiański’s art and design autotelic. This tendency is amplified by the widespread tendency in Polish art history to narrow down interpretations of artists’ oeuvre to the Polish independence issues. Nevertheless, in the last decade, recent research by Urszula Kozakowska-Zaucha, Agata Wójcik, and Dorota Kudelska steadily changed this view by showing that Wyspiański was immersed in the Central European, especially Viennese, art scene. In my presentation, I will suggest how new technologies can overcome the aforementioned disadvantages. For this purpose, I will discuss the role of digital comparative tools in the research on archaisation in Wyspiański’s works (i. e., de-contextualising and re-scaling historical motifs and patterns to evoke supra historical associations) in the context of similar tendencies present in Vienna of his time. The significance of these tools does not merely limit to recalling resemblances but also may re-shape the image of centre–periphery relations within the Austro-Hungarian monarchy by showing its dynamics, fluctuations and amplitude. This re-constructing of Habsburg heritage in the works of one of the most prominent Polish artists may help restore the memory of the Central-European origins of modern Polish culture and make it easier to build new platforms for future heritage and memory projects in the region.