Books and ArtsArt and activismA place in the countryDaniel Rycharski uses his art to build bridges between communitiesWhen two teenagers committed suicide in a quiet corner of north-west Poland in 2015, in part because of opposition to their gay relationship,Daniel Rycharski travelled to the village, took branches from the tree where the pair had killed themselves and made a simple crucifix.He carried his work, “The Cross”, to Warsaw and set it up in front of the presidential palace.Another cross once stood in the same spot to commemorate the traumatic plane crash in Smolensk in 2010 that killed Poland’s president and many other senior officials.A legion of Polish artists are trying to shine a light on the country’s swing towards intolerance under the ruling Law and Justice party.But Mr Rycharski’s corner of the art scene is a lonely one.He has set up his studio in the village of Kurowko, some 110km from Warsaw.He considers himself a devout Catholic, but as a gay man he is rejected by the Polish church.“For me, to live in Poland is to live in a cage,” Mr Rycharski says.
