Rocznik Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie (1(37).2012/2013)

Krzysztof Pomian, Antoni Ziemba, Grażyna Bastek

I The Exhibition “The Elevated:
From the Pharaohs to Lady Gaga”
(17 May - 23 September 2012)
The exhibition “The Elevated: From the Pharaohs to Lady Gaga” was devoted to a key prob-
lem in human societies, the tension between hierarchy and equality, with the need for hierar-
chical order and the desire (utopia?) of equality. Its main theme was the relationship between
two great governing principles: the traditions of old hierarchical societies and the democra-
tic tradition and formula, with parliamentarism and soi-disant egalitarianism. It was the first
time in Poland and the world that this concept thus defined became the subject of a museum
exhibition.
The exhibition synthesized the history of hierarchical societies and mechanisms of con-
temporary society such as equality and hierarchization of communications on the Internet,
media spectacularity as a way to represent powers and individuals, the role of the fourth estate
(television, press and Internet media) in shaping today’s society; celebritism (media stars as
simulacra of culture); the virtualization of the public image and strategies for creating it; the
crisis of tradition and the challenges of the new media civilization. The exhibition shows the
most typical ways of raising the social status of individuals and groups, in other words, meth-
ods of building a public image yesterday and today, from antiquity to contemporary media
celebrities. Making up the show were 546 exhibits, mostly from the holdings of the National
Museum in Warsaw, with a dozen or so from other Polish museums and collections.
The exhibition was created by Krzysztof Pomian (CNRS, Paris; Musée de l’Europe,
Brussels), Antoni Ziemba (University of Warsaw, National Museum in Warsaw), Grażyna
Bastek (NMW), Aleksandra Janiszewska (NMW) and the whole team of the museum’s cura-
tors and researchers. The museum’s partners were Musée de l’Europe in Brussels and the
Institute of Art History, University of Warsaw. Accompanying it were two major projects, the
publication of a large, eponymous book discussing the issues focal to the exhibition1 and an

1 Wywyższeni. Od faraona do Lady Gagi, Krzysztof Pomian, ed. (Warsaw: Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie,
2012). The book consists of the following articles: Krzysztof Pomian, “Krótka historia nierówności między ludźmi na
przykładzie Europy” [A short history of unequality between people using the example of Europe]; Antoni Ziemba,
“Dawna sztuka w służbie władzy - mechanizmy sprawowania władzy poprzez sztukę w społecznościach hierarchicz-
nych” [Old art in the service of people in power: The mechanisms of exercising power with art in hierarchical socie-
ties]; Mirosława Marody, “Wywyższenie w dobie różnorodności” [The elevated in an era of diversity]; Paweł Majewski,
“Pojawiać się i znikać - somatyka w przedstawieniach władzy. Szkic” [To appear and to disappear: The somatics in
representing those in power. A sketch]; Monika Dolińska, “Prawo do nieśmiertelności - mumia i sarkofag” [The
right to immortality: The mummy and the sarcophagus]; Juliusz A. Chrościcki, “Prawo do nieśmiertelności: trumna
z ciałem, uroczysty pochówek, pomnik” [The right to immortality: The coffin with the body, the burial ceremony,
the monument]; Antoni Ziemba, “Prawo do twarzy - przywilej imiennego wizerunku. Społeczne i antropologiczne
funkcje portretu” [The right to a face: The privilege to a named image. The social and anthropological functions of
the portrait]; Zofia Keler-Pigłowska, “Medal - dokument z życia wyższych sfer” [The medal: A document from the
life of the upper strata of society]; Barbara Arciszewska, “Wywyższeni: architektura jako instrument hierarchizacji
społecznej” [The elevated: Architecture as an instrument of social hierarchization]; Ewa Orlińska-Mianowska,
“Ubiór i jego ozdoby jako oznaki wyższości” [Dress and its embellishments as signs of superiority]; Ryszard Bobrow