One of the events that strongly affected the conception of Tomasz Bajer’s project La Republique Geniale was the eruption of uncontrolled violence of Muslims in the suburbs of French cities at the end of 2005. In reaction to this unrest, the French government proposes to introduce a positive discrimination.
Another factor was the wave of protests of Muslim followers against the caricatures of the prophet Mahomet, published in one of the Danish journals in the beginning of 2006.
Both events revealed some weak points of laic Europe, i.e. the problem of liberty of speech and lack of understanding of the depth of other people’s faith.
Bajer’s project is a contemporary paraphrase of ideas accompanying the creation of French Republic and constitutes an attempt to consider the needs of the Arab minority living in France. Creation of a new visual identity for the citizens of La Republique Geniale includes both irony and provocation, bringing to mind the protodadaist Arthur Cravan, Duchamp and some French members of Fluxus. Stamps with Marianna indicate that La Republique Geniale exists outside French jurisdiction, in exterritorial and utopian space. The screen is the clue of the project La Republique Geniale – a sort of ready mades immitating an industrial item, modifying the French flag with the slogans Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite, also in Arabic. This piece of furniture would once assist the wardrobe of each elegant woman, indicating the impassable border. Nowadays, screens are used in hospitals to protect the ill and the dead. The screen manifests tendencies to isolation of the French society. The types were modelled on Le Monde, so eagerly read by the wealthy part of French society, indifferent to the pauperization of the nations from the postcolonial countries. Centrally placed slogan Egalite expresses the idea of EQUALITY, being of the most universal character, according to the author, since it pertains to all aspects of social, political and economic existence, as well as to any differentiation introduced by law, such as e.g. interdiction of discrimination irrespective of reason. It is also here that one finds the face of Marianna, wearing a yashmak on the Arab side of her face – this version of the flag is directed to French Muslim women, which might help them find their identity and belonging to the Genius Republic by means of this identification.
Precision of the realisation and harmonious form of the object are an attempt to correspond to the fine taste of the French, undisturbed cult of food and ritual of drinking wine. But the end of year 2005 troubled this idyllic mood, and Molotow coctails ignited many cars and shops. Allumettes (matches) and Cocktail Set, along with the Screen introduce uneasiness to this apparently middle-class set. A bottle drying rack is a far reminiscence of the Duchamp’s Bottle Rack, who - having settled in New York - wrote: “I believe that the idea of destroying old buildings and past souvenirs is excellent... The dead should not be stronger then the alive. We need to learn to forget the past and live our own life in our times”. Meanwhile, the Europeans are always behaving as if Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and others existed. But they are not there any more, they have become unreal. Urlich Beck, a German sociologist, warns of further application of nationalist perspective in politics, with all its attributes, such as the rules of territorial integrality and sovereignty. Nowadays, the Europeans admit that the phenomenon called identity-shopping wins with the old loyalty towards the state and nation. However, many young European Muslims confess that it is Umma – the world Islam – that touches their hearts the strongest. Cultural differences are flagrant. A survey published in June 2006 by The Pew Research Center indicates that as many as 66% of the French assess very negatively relations between the Muslims and the West. Polish society is not that much affected by the problem of national and religious minorities, though integration of Poles with Jews and Romanies leaves a lot to be desired.
An advantage of positive discrimination in France, or in other words affirmative action, may be the fact that thanks to students originating from a minority, new contacts and friendships will emerge between the members of various cultures. Opponents of positive discrimination describe it sometimes as rasism and to some extent they are right, as it means favouring a part of a society for, say, having another skin colour. Certain states of the European Union consider it contradictory to the constitution which assures equality of all races, ethnic or sexual minorities. Positive discrimination is considered by some ethnic minorities as insult. Some of the opponents of affirmative action are, for example, National Leadership Network of Black Conservatives, Project 21 in USA. Governments, instead of assuring that everyone is guaranteed possibility of education, compensate for thier lack of competence with delayed affirmative action.
Tomasz Bajer dealt with issues of national identity crisis in his earlier works. During his scholarship in Bavaria he carried out a project teasing local patriotism of the Bavaria nation and their nationalism. To this end, he prepared a chemist’s with a logo based on his own name, deceptively resembling the known identification sign of a famous pharmaceutical company, with its headquarters in North Rhine-Westphalia. The multimedia presentation, accompanying the objects, included equally photos of old labels and posters, that would market Zyklon B, produced once by the said concern. The artist in a hardly visible way appropriated the logo of this known company.
His artistic critique touched also Polish phobias concerning fanatic catholicism (Opus Dei, Konfigurations I and II), the problem of so-called Western Territories and Wroclaw, formerly a German city, in which one tried to erase all foreign traces. Fire bricks with peepholes, sealed with a pre-war name of Wroclaw – BRESLAU, were actually a collection of photos of old floors in after-German houses, with pre-war numbers and names. In 1996 this piece of art caused controversy among elderly people. Fortunately, today’s approach is more reasonable and the historical truth has been accepted.
Project KUNSTBOMBE constitutes of 7 objects created during the project Transfer in Essen. Apart from the military motif connecting Wroclaw (Festung Breslau) and Essen, where the Krupp factories (producing ammunition) were located, a philosophical reflection appears, a desire to transform the lead of nature into the gold of spiritual illumination. Kunstbomben have an inscription on them, the medieval alchemic formula: V.I.T.R.I.O.L., each peephole revealing one of the seven metals.
Earlier works often oscillated around the theme related to heritage of European mysticism (Mobile Epitaphium of Angelus Silesius) and gnostic tradition (Heimweh concerning Jacob Boehme* and Microcosmos).
The most recent object, designated for public space, is YAPPER, created by Tomasz Bajer together with Jerzy Kosalka and Andrzej Dudek-Dürer in the scope of the international project Urban Potentials. It is a multmedial vehicle, reminding of a huge loudspeaker, that would be used during the totalitarian propaganda, then commonly known as szczekaczka (yapper), whose task now is to fill the empty space in European cities with soothing music and multimedial presentation. Yapper reflects the independent, mobile gallery, travelling alternative cinema, with own source of power and loudspeakers.

Jolanta Bielanska Text
Sylwia Hladik English translation