The Woke and the Trad

Scenes from a Two-Front Culture War

If you think this is gonna win the culture war—brother, I have news for you.

A little while ago, I came across a news story that seems to sum up where we are right now.

The story is about Poland’s selection for the Venice Biennale, which is, as the name implies, a biennial art festival in Venice that is supposed to represent the very height of the elite “artworld.” It’s organized a bit like Eurovision (which represents low-brow pop culture, yet somehow produces equally awful results) in that every country gets to select its own contributors.

Under the control of a right-wing authoritarian administration, the Polish government did what the nationalist conservatives in the US would like to do. They used their control of the state to support politically connected right-wing “traditionalist” artists. Here’s the result.