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Paper short abstract:

To what extent are we entitled to talk about the political past of our interlocutors? What a picture of socialist authorities emerge from their narratives? I try to answer these and other questions in relation to memory research on the example of folk art community of Zalipie (Lesser Poland).

Paper long abstract:

The paper discusses the issues of memory research on the political entanglement of folk art in the People's Republic of Poland (PRL) on the example of Zalipie (Lesser Poland), a village world famous for painting floral ornaments.

Starting from the 1940s, the phenomenon was influenced by researchers directly or indirectly cooperating with the socialist authorities. Those activities were closely related to the official cultural policy of the PRL and have a direct impact on Zalipie artists at that time. Folk art activities brought measurable economic benefits. Female painters could sell their handicrafts and had the opportunity to travel abroad.

The turning point in the history of Zalipie was the political transformation (1989) and its consequences for Polish folk artists. The rejecting the policy of caring about folk culture and the deep economic crisis of the 1990s make up ‘the trauma of great change’ (Sztompka 2000).

In the contemporary research in Zalipie, references to the PRL are constantly appearing. That memory turns out to be troublesome, and evoke opinions inconsistent with the dominant narrative of criticism of the socialist authorities.

Research in the field of anthropology of memory in relation to the socialist past of folk art is a source of methodological dilemmas. To what extent are we entitled to talk about the political past of our interlocutors? What a picture of the PRL emerge from their narratives? How to read them in relation to archives and other existing sources? Finally: what mark has the transformation left on these stories?