Dreams of Might

Dreams of Might is a project that promotes the idea of creating a “memory chamber” referring to the colonial exhibitions held in Poland in the inter-war period and the tradition of decorating corridors and public spaces with portraits of distinguished figures. The selected images commemorate “Polish colonial conquests” by referring, among other things, to Poland’s colonial ambitions, the expeditions of anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski and archival newsreels such as /n the Thicket of Liberia (1936) and Polish Pioneers on the Black Continent (1936). The Polish Maritime and Colonial League, which functioned under various names since 1918, was one of the largest social organisations, with around 1 million members in 1939. The League’s press organs called for the recovery of the Polish spirit of conquest, describing colonial expansion as a cure for historical wrongs: “Only expansion will make it possible to compensate for losses, level out contrasts and heal wounds” (S. Pawłowski, 1939). Overseas colonies were supposed to be a miraculous remedy for the poverty of the reborn Poland, which suffered from a lack of raw materials, rural overpopulation and unemployment. Łukasz Dziedzic’s series of paintings focuses on the inter-war period – the two decades after Poland regained its independence in 1918 – when romantic ideas about the uniqueness of our nation, its heroic history and the struggle for sovereignty still held sway over society. This thinking often reinforced a sense of national superiority and a belief in the uniqueness of Polish culture and tradition. This in turn fueled dreams of creating an empire modelled on European powers by conquering overseas colonies.