Immigrant, take a vote!
Project presentation

In the recent years, Poland has become one of the world leaders in accepting migrant workers. However, this group does not have a proportional voice in the political and media space, and the current political narrative still relies on archaic, often stigmatising categories that divide residents of Poland: into citizens and non-citizens. Such a dissonance in the enforced immigration policy results in complicating the integration processes, or even discrimination and exclusion.

In the project titled Immigrant, take a vote! the author refers to the issue of exclusion of new residents from making political decisions. By initiating impossible events, Marta Romankiv aims to raise the question of an immigrant’s role in a national state, and attempts to challenge the established norms and definitions. Who is a citizen? Are the accepted forms of democracy suited to the needs of today’s globalised society? Why in the light of rapid changes, outdated divisions still define the perception of the “other”?

An intervention happening which was carried out from 22 to 28 June – before the first round of presidential elections in Poland, was supposed to symbolically collect the votes of immigrants. For the very first time, residents of Poland who do not hold the Polish citizenship could “vote” for the president of this country. The action was organised in six cities: Białystok, Gdańsk, Lublin, Poznań, Szczecin and Warsaw.

Documentation of the action will be presented from 24 to 31 July in the window of Biennale Warszawa at Marszałkowska 34/50 (MA34/50).
Please join us on the open day with the author of the project and presentation of the action documentation on 24 July, 17:00–19:00.

The admission is free.

The project is a part of the Master’s degree graduation work in the Szczecin Academy of Art, under the supervision of Dr hab. Aleksandra Ska, Dr Katarzyna Szeszycka and Dr Łukasz Jasturbczak. Marta Romankiv is a Biennale Warszawa resident in the programme “Covid-19. The World After the Pandemic.”

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