The strike must go on!

The installation, based on archival photographs, "reconstructs" the backstage of the 1981 Student Strike at the University of Łódź. The selected images focus on female students, highlighting their significant contributions to various organisational tasks, such as communications, poster printing, meal preparations, and cleaning.

The situational photos depict women students in the press office, resting in sleeping bags, and debating at the kitchen table. Notably, their absence from photographs depicting negotiations among students, university authorities, and the government is striking. No female students are sitting at the negotiation table.

Enlarged black-and-white photographs featuring these female students, with their silhouettes colored and printed on fabric, were hung as part of the installation in the gallery space. These formal design choices aim to emphasise the presence and role of women in this strike and in numerous other political movements, whose contributions are often marginalised in dominant narratives. Accompanying the photographs are hand-painted quilts featuring slogans from the student strike at the University of Łódź, referencing the weeks-long occupation of the university.

These politically charged slogans encompass both irony and poetry, showcasing how the students wielded their most potent weapon against the authoritarian government and its propaganda: their intelligence and intellect.

One slogan, "Those who have broader horizons usually have worse prospects," refers to the suppression of initiatives and viewpoints from individuals who disagreed with the official government policy. Another, "One joint strike is more effective than studying six volumes of political economy," alludes to the compulsory, biased classes on Marxism and Leninism.

The project is based on photographs from the University of Łódź Archive.