Can an Art Exhibit on Gay Love Combat Homophobia in Poland?

To say that the political situation in Poland is complex right now might just be the understatement of the year. The country is still reeling from the death of its President, Lech Kaczynski, and a host of military officials and government dignitaries who perished in a tragic plane crash in April 2010. As a result of the political chaos, all sorts of voices are clamoring for attention, including radical right groups with a huge history of homophobia and anti-gay policies.

Indeed, Poland has often been seen as one of the most anti-gay countries in Europe. As Change.org's Nathan Tabak wrote in April, Poland has quite the history of harshing on gay rights, whether in the form of squashing gay pride events, or inflammatory rhetoric from political leaders (the former President, after all, said that homosexuality would "lead to the disappearance of the human race").

But a new art exhibit opening in two days hopes to tweak Poland's reputation as a bastion of homophobia, and open eyes, minds and hearts inside the country. That exhibit? It's called "Ars Homo Erotica," and it'll launch at the National Museum in Warsaw as an effort to spotlight homoeroticism in art.

The goal is to feature artwork from Central and Eastern European countries that deal with same-sex love. The reason for such a narrow geographical focus, at least according to Museum direct Piotr Piotrowski, is "here the battle for equal rights for homosexuals continues."

Boy, does it ever. This exhibit alone is causing enough angst and anger among anti-gay forces in Poland that the Museum itself is worried that there could be significant backlash. One Polish lawmaker even went on record saying that there's no such thing as "homosexual art," just as there's no such thing as pedophilic art or zoophilic art.

That's a nasty comparison, of course, but perhaps it's not all that surprising that's it's being made inside the country, given that Poland's religious make-up skews overwhelmingly Catholic, and the Catholic Church has been all too quick on the trigger to blame their global sex scandal on pedophilic priests. In other words, the gay pedophile myth is alive in well in some religious circles, even if there's no accuracy to the comparison at all.

Still, the threat of a boycott, and an already released letter from anti-gay groups chastising the exhibit, is not enough to deter the National Museum from moving forward with the exhibit. Piotrowski, who took over as the museum's director in 2009, wants to use his post and his museum as a vehicle for transforming the country. And this exhibit might just start that sort of movement.

Photo credit: malias