THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ACTIVITY OF ZOFIA POTOCKAZofia Potocka, daughter of Franciszek Ksawery Branicki and Aleksandra Engelhardt and wife of Artur Potocki, the proprietor of the “Pod Baranami” palace in Kraków as well as of the palace in Krzeszowice, was well-known and respected personage in Kraków. From the moment she moved into the “Pod Baranami” Palacez with her husband, she took part in numerous charitable and cultural events in the city. She was often referred to as a guardian angel, as she supported such organizations as: the Fraternity of Mercy, the Religious Bank and the Charitable Society. Following the great fire of Kraków in 1850, she organized help to the fire victims. After her husband’s death in 1832, she obtained permission to bury him in the chapel dedicated to the Cleansing of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary in the Wawel Cathedral. The cathedral chapter even gave her permission to introduce certain architectural alterations in the above chapel. Zofia Potocka also contributed to the restoration of the royal tombs in the cathedral crypt and she also funded the purchase of the painting for the main altar of the Franciscan church in Kraków.She was active not only on the social and cultural arena, but also led a busy social life. The “Pod Baranami” Palace became a social salon of Kraków which set the tone in the entire city and which had to be reckoned with. The other place where Zofia Potocka spent her days was Krzeszowice, where a palace and a church were built during her lifetime. Zofia purchased a plot of land in Krzeszowice where a spring with sulfurous water possessing medicinal properties was located. Later on, a home for senior citizens and the handicapped as well as a hospital were built there, from her initiative. During the January insurrection, Zofia Potocka organized a hospital for the wounded in Krzeszowice. Zofia Potocka and her life’s achievements have become a permanent element of history and are remembered by the inhabitants of both Kraków and Krzeszowice.
The article concerns the beginnings of the history of the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, which were interpreted in the perspective of decolonial museology. Using concepts such as “Polish colonial complex” and “internal European colonization”, the author points to the entanglement of the Museum and ethnography in the network of global colonialism, and at the same time describes the different situation of a country in the Central and Eastern Europe, which did not have the position of an empire and did not established overseas colonies. The last part of the article includes postulates for decolonial activities in museums in this region, where the colonial past and involvement is not as clear and unequivocal as in the case of Western colonial empires.
PL
Artykuł dotyczy początków historii Państwowego Muzeum Etnograficznego w Warszawie, które zinterpretowane zostały w perspektywie dekolonialnych badań nad muzeami i kolekcjami. Używając pojęć takich, jak „polski kompleks kolonialny” i „wewnętrzna kolonizacja europejska”, autorka wskazuje na uwikłanie Muzeum i etnografii w sieć globalnego kolonializmu, a zarazem opisuje odmienność sytuacji w kraju Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej, który nie miał pozycji imperium i nie posiadał zamorskich kolonii. W ostatniej części artykułu pojawiają się postulaty dotyczące działań dekolonialnych w muzeach tego regionu, gdzie kolonialna przeszłość i uwikłanie nie jest tak jednoznaczne, jak w przypadku imperiów kolonialnych Zachodu.
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