05/04/2024
_Malarstwo_
By RADEK SZLAGA
Connects the worlds of the east and the west.
The word MALARSTWO (Painting in Polish) painted in the font of Metallica.
The KILL YOUR IDOLS series started with Szlaga’s curiosity about a fascinating event involving PsyOps, CIA, hard rock and heavy metal music and its significant impact on geopolitics and cultural evolution.
USA military utilized a compilation of hard rock and heavy metal tracks to coerce Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega out of hiding. The series borrows its title from a slogan on a T-shirt worn by Guns N’ Roses frontman Axel Rose, a contributor to the playlist that led to Noriega’s surrender. This strategic musical torture, ultimately compelled the dictator, known for his affinity for opera, to capitulate to the American forces. Meanwhile, in late 1980s Poland, bands like Guns N’ Roses and AC/DC held immense significance for the youth amidst the nation’s transformation, marked notably by Metallica’s influential 1987 concert in Katowice………
Szlaga captures the absurdity and humor of this event in this series of works. Through a visual depiction spanning continents and individual experiences Szlaga intertwines these narratives within a ‘transatlantic’ framework, encapsulating the cultural and geopolitical dynamics of the era, from the Eastern Bloc’s collapse to the surge of Western mainstream culture, and America’s global influence.