Before half time 0:1. Football in People’s Republic of PolandDate:
2012-04-23
- 2012-11-30
While the Ball’s in Still in Play…
Just before the Euro 2012 football championships kick off in June, it’s worth recalling the role played by football in post-war Poland. Was it simply one more sports discipline, or was it a game which – by making up for the chronic food shortages – allowed Poles to escape their grim realities, however briefly?
The achievements of Cieślik and Brychczy, Lubański and Pol, Deyna and Boniek, have written themselves indelibly in our memories. We still recall the reaction of the hundred thousand-strong crowd to Poland’s victory over the Soviet Union – the only way of expressing patriotic, anti-Soviet feeling permissible in 1957. During the 1970s, the achievements of Kazimierz Górski’s team were supposed to stress Poland’s successes under Gierek’s leadership. The final great triumph of Polish football, silver in the 1982 World Cup, sweetened somewhat the trauma brought on by martial law, while the efforts of state-controlled TV to hide the Solidarity flags flying in the stands have gone down in the history of media manipulation.
All this, when football was heavily influenced by the party, while the successes of subsidised clubs from “strategically important workers’ regions” were frequently tied with the distribution of power in the Communist politburo. Football matches were used as propaganda, while the results were often decided by party officials. In any case, the streets emptied during important matches, Poles gathered around their radio and TV sets, and sports commentators – such as the legendary Jan Ciszewski – had unquestionable star status.
This world is recalled through the exhibition Before half time 0:1, held at the Muzeum PRL-u (Museum of Communist Poland) – the Cracovian Branch of the Polish History Museum. The socialist realist building, formerly home of Nowa Huta’s Światowid cinema, uses a variety of ways – multimedia installations, reconstructed interiors (including the stadium!), memorabilia, photos, films and songs – to make us experience more than just the sporting atmosphere of the days when your team’s successes had to compensate for a miserable existence.
The exhibition will be accompanied by lectures, interactive games, and a film review held during the Euro 2012 tournament. (Grzegorz Słącz, "Karnet" monthly)
12 May – 30 November 2012
Just before the Euro 2012 football championships kick off in June, it’s worth recalling the role played by football in post-war Poland. Was it simply one more sports discipline, or was it a game which – by making up for the chronic food shortages – allowed Poles to escape their grim realities, however briefly?
The achievements of Cieślik and Brychczy, Lubański and Pol, Deyna and Boniek, have written themselves indelibly in our memories. We still recall the reaction of the hundred thousand-strong crowd to Poland’s victory over the Soviet Union – the only way of expressing patriotic, anti-Soviet feeling permissible in 1957. During the 1970s, the achievements of Kazimierz Górski’s team were supposed to stress Poland’s successes under Gierek’s leadership. The final great triumph of Polish football, silver in the 1982 World Cup, sweetened somewhat the trauma brought on by martial law, while the efforts of state-controlled TV to hide the Solidarity flags flying in the stands have gone down in the history of media manipulation.
All this, when football was heavily influenced by the party, while the successes of subsidised clubs from “strategically important workers’ regions” were frequently tied with the distribution of power in the Communist politburo. Football matches were used as propaganda, while the results were often decided by party officials. In any case, the streets emptied during important matches, Poles gathered around their radio and TV sets, and sports commentators – such as the legendary Jan Ciszewski – had unquestionable star status.
This world is recalled through the exhibition Before half time 0:1, held at the Muzeum PRL-u (Museum of Communist Poland) – the Cracovian Branch of the Polish History Museum. The socialist realist building, formerly home of Nowa Huta’s Światowid cinema, uses a variety of ways – multimedia installations, reconstructed interiors (including the stadium!), memorabilia, photos, films and songs – to make us experience more than just the sporting atmosphere of the days when your team’s successes had to compensate for a miserable existence.
The exhibition will be accompanied by lectures, interactive games, and a film review held during the Euro 2012 tournament. (Grzegorz Słącz, "Karnet" monthly)
12 May – 30 November 2012
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