TRIUMPH OF POTYOMKIN/Battleship Potemkin

On 10 and 11 October in the trolleybus depot, next to the resettlement wagon, we invite you to an event dedicated to the critical analysis of the two totalitarian systems that marked the history of the 20th century and the history of Warmia — Nazism and Communism.

Ivan Dimitrijević, a political philosopher from the University of Warsaw, will talk about the mechanisms of both systems. In his lectures, he will examine their ideological promises and the mechanisms by which Nazism and Communism were able to gain support, shape the collective imagination, and portray individual subordination and violence as means to create a new order.

A special place will be occupied by the question of how propaganda was able to give an attractive and convincing form to ideas leading to exclusion, violence and the deprivation of subjectivity of the individual.

In the context of Warmia, this question takes on a special meaning: the experience of war, the change of borders, resettlement and population exchanges made great historical processes here leave very concrete traces in the fate of people, families and entire communities. The displacement wagon therefore provides an important context for the event. It is a material trace of the post-war transformations that profoundly changed the social and cultural face of Warmia.

Two classic examples of propaganda cinema will illustrate these totalitarian mechanisms: the Nazi “Triumph of the Will” (1934) by Leni Riefenstahl and “Battleship Potemkin” (1925) by Sergei Eisenstein. The screenings will be accompanied by an in-depth, critical analysis of both films — their language, means of persuasion, ways of portraying power and violence.

Ivan Dimitrijević (1984) was an Italian philosopher of Yugoslav origin. Vice-dean and lecturer at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales” of the University of Warsaw. Author of three monographs in Italian devoted to modern political philosophy, numerous essays and articles (in Italian, English and Polish) and the English translation of Alessandro Biral Platona e la conoscenza di sé (Plato and the Political Knowledge, 2016). He has published one book in Polish so far — Disputa o dziele (2022).

Event for people over the age of 18.

TRIUMPH OF POTYOMKIN
10-11 October 2026 (Saturday-Sunday), 17:30
Trolleybus depot, 3A Knosały str.
Free admission 18+