Good Conversation Centre: Saint Judas? Traitor and Martyr | meeting around the Passion by Daniel Rycharski

The silent but key protagonist of Daniel Rycharski’s open-air installation Passion, created especially for the Łódź of Many Cultures Festival, is Judas. Judas, who in Christian culture and its products has become the personification of betrayal, and his story a convenient pretext to justify anti-Semitism and – often – anti-Jewish violence. On the other hand, Judas is a key biblical figure in the story of the Lord’s passion and salvation, whose fate can be read as the reverse of the story of Jesus.

The fascinating, ambiguous and problematic figure of Judas in Christian, Jewish, religious and secular cultures will be discussed by prof. dr hab. Magdalena Zowczak, anthropologist of religion from the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Warsaw, author of the book The Folk Bible of Central-Eastern Europe ; Dr Anna Piątek, adiunkt at the Department of Hebrew Studies – the University of Warsaw, author of the book We are all Judas. Betrayal in modern Hebrew literature and dr hab. Daniel Rycharski, professor at the Academy of Art in Szczecin, visual artist, author of Passion. The meeting will be moderated by dr Sebastian Duda, theologian and publicist, member of the ‘Więź’ quarterly team.

Bio

Daniel Rycharski – born 1986 in Sierpc. He describes himself as a conceptual and avant-garde artist. He uses a variety of techniques, mainly installation. Between 2005 and 2009 he studied graphic design at the Faculty of Art at the Pedagogical University in Kraków. He then defended his doctorate at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. In his artistic practice, he explores the themes of provincialism, religiosity, christianity and LGBTQ+ identity, looking for tensions and new connections between them. Rycharski’s art manifests his personal search for a space where non-heteronormativity and Christian faith can function together. The artist works with activists from the LGBTQ+ community, as well as religious and agricultural associations, to express their problems and experiences and to contribute to building understanding between the inhabitants of Polish towns and villages. As one of Rycharski’s main aims is to promote art in the countryside, he often involves his local community in the production of art. He teaches at the Academy of Art in Szczecin. He lives and works in Kurówek and Szczecin. A film based on Daniel Rycharski’s life, All Our Fears, directed by Łukasz Ronduda and Łukasz Gutt, was released in 2021.

Phot. Katarzyna Legendź. Courtesy of Gunia Nowik Gallery