"Barmaid with no language skills wanted
for work in Belgium"

Among many historical things you can see in Bystrzyca Kłodzka, there is a stone pranger in the Mały Rynek square. It bears a moralizing inscription which reads: DEUS IMPIOS PUNIT – God punishes the impious. We learn that two prostitutes were flogged here on 27th October 1571; having been punished, the two women were driven out from the town.
When I was invited to take part in the Silesia Art Biennale, I had only stereotypical knowledge of the phenomenon of prostitution. I was convinced that it was an occupation of a woman's choice, that no-one was forced to do it: some had an insatiable sexual appetite, others did it for money. I was soon to discover how mistaken I was; prostitution has countless facets and it cannot be easily described or classified. Motives that move women to take up prostitution are equally hard to define.

According to journalist Isabel Pisano, whose book Me Whore is a collection of conversations with prostitutes, only four per cent of them prostitute themselves voluntarily. Others are compelled to whore by adverse circumstances (financial difficulties) or made to against their will (recruited, purchased or smuggled by sex trafficking mafia). The UN reports that human traffic – buying children and women to force them to prostitution or labourers to make them work like slaves – is the most lucrative crime in Europe. The annual profit amounts to 2.5 billion euro and the number of victims increases by 50% per year. It is difficult to accurately estimate how many people fall victim to traffickers, but it is probably 700 thousand to 2 million people. Reports claim that about 80% of victims are female and half of them are minors. Approximately 200 thousand are abducted to work as prostitutes. This number includes 15 thousand Polish women. The majority of these women have not made an independent decision to prostitute themselves, they have been forced to do that. According to grassroots organizations dealing with the problem, gangs trafficking in people are highly hermetic and thus difficult to uncover. Victims are too terrified to talk about their tragedy and escaping the mafia is almost impossible.

The information which I managed to collect on female trafficking suggests that the number of Central and Eastern European victims has been on the increase since the early 1990s; before that, they predominantly came from Asia, South America or Africa. This change is the result of geopolitical transformations of the last 20 years: the disintegration of the Soviet bloc, radical questioning of communist ideology, and globalization of communication. All these processes have led to degeneration of the idea of "sexual liberation" into treating women as commodities.

Human trafficking affects our country in a manifold fashion: Poland is where victims come from (they are transferred to most European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Italy and the United Kingdom), where victims come (mainly from behind the eastern border – Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, etc.) and where they are in transit – people are smuggled from the East to the West via Poland.

The Polish Feminist Association (Polskie Stowarzyszenie Feministyczne – PSF) first received tidings of trafficked Polish women from the Dutch Foundation against Trafficking in Women (Stichting Tegen Vrouwenhandel – STV) in the mid-1990s. In 1995, the most of prostituted women in the Netherlands and Germany were Polish. For this reason, representatives of the Amsterdam-based Foundation against Trafficking in Women resolved to come to Warsaw to find an ally in combating the scourge. That was when the crime was first acknowledged in Poland. In 1997, Polish feminists established a non-governmental foundation La Strada, providing help to trafficking victims. They organized trainings for police officers, border guards and prosecutors. Prior to this, the police rarely received reports of the crime and those they did receive were mostly ignored. Therefore, the problem was considered nonexistent. As they experience social ostracism, few prostitutes are willing to go to the police. Women who were trafficked tend to be stigmatized and blamed for what happened to them. It should be stressed, however, that the majority of victims are young girls, who – although physically mature – are still psychically and emotionally vulnerable and prone to manipulation.

There are several methods of recruitment into prostitution. The most popular include offering a job (not as a prostitute!) and so-called lover boy method, when a man seduces a girl and then forces her to prostitute herself in the name of love or takes her abroad to sell her to traffickers.

Results of research conducted in America demonstrate that prostitutes develop symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, typically observed in people who have been raped, have survived a catastrophe or have been involved in other extreme events. They are gnawed by a sense of guilt, which they dull by using defense mechanisms, such as, for instance, denial.

For centuries, prostitution was accepted, justified and regarded as a lesser evil. This has not changed. But the "exquisitely embroidered coat" of an escort agency hides female misery. Nevertheless, it is far easier to believe that there is no problem and women working as prostitutes have chosen to do so.

Here is an excerpt from a letter written by a Polish prostitute after reading an article on prostitution in the Wprost weekly: "The victims of human trafficking are made to believe that all they deserve is being taken advantage of. They have been reduced to a commodity and regaining self-awareness is extremely difficult for them. And so is making decisions independently and knowing your rights" – Irena Dawid-Olczyk, La Strada Foundation.

Research shows that every tenth man in Poland uses prostitutes – how often they have sex with trafficking victims is difficult to estimate…

The work I produced in Bystrzyca involved enactment of the 1571 flogging. The entire square with a diameter of 6 metres as well as the phallus-shaped pranger were covered with pink fabric. One hundred female names were embroidered with sequins on the fabric for women to know that they all were potential trafficking victims. The part of the flogger was played by a man in black, a leather balaclava on his head, symbolizing the contemporary malefactor. Two life-size dummies were flogged. They were not dressed in sixteenth-century costumes because what happened in 1571 was merely a pretext for calling people's attention to a topical problem.
I glued print screens with information about trafficking in women to the paving underneath the fabric. The beautiful pink scene with sequin names sparkling in the sunlight concealed bitter truth. Every person attending the flogging received a matchbox issued in a special edition. On one side of the box there was a photograph of a smiling girl, while the reverse included information on the number of victims and ways of recruiting women. Instead of matches each box contained a handwritten story of a trafficked woman. These were true stories from the La Strada Foundation.
The photographs on matchboxes featured my friends, my students and their daughters. The stories were rewritten by my friends, who copied more than 100 letters before I arrived in Bystrzyca. Once I came there, I "occupied" the pranger for several days. Everyone could join me in embroidering the names or rewriting the stories, if they wished to. Many did… We talked to people as our activities attracted attention of those crossing the Mały Rynek square, locals and visitors.

I would be extremely ungrateful if I did not mention those who volunteered for my project. I am much indebted to Witold Stelmachniewicz for taking the part of the flogger.
I want to thank my students, my friends and their daughters as well as my sister, who let me use their pictures: Zuza Buk, Ania Przybyło, Kasia Hajto, Kasia Kowalska, Dorota Wołoszyńska, Ania Folek, Maria Apoleika, Yasmine Shaban, Suzanne Shaban, Wiktoria Stelmachniewicz and Joanna Demko. I am grateful to my mum and my friends who rewrote the stories: Teresa Demko, Gosia Żukowska, Kasia Kowalska and Ania Folek, as well as to all the people who helped me embroider and write by the pranger in Mały Rynek in Bystrzyca Kłodzka. The friendly reception I was given and the commitment displayed by people in Bystrzyca exceeded my expectations. Everyone I talked to expressed interest and willingness to unite in order to curb human traffic. I soon realized that the proper way of raising awareness of a problem can foster understanding in people whom I would have never expected to be empathic.
I was also very glad to see how helpful and supporting the people who organized the Silesia Art Biennale in Bystrzyca were. Krysia Kolonko and Kajetan Dyrda of the Artystyka association assisted me every day of my stay; they invited people to embroider and write with me, publicized the action, helped me to physically carry out my project and made me feel more than welcome in their lovely house, treating me to delicious meals and stimulating conversation. I am also greatly indebted to Tomek Nowicki, Director of the Phillumeny Museum, and his staff who suffered my countless requests with infinite patience and were always there for me (even after working hours!). Last but not least, I wish to thank Agnieszka Chodysz for giving attention to every single thing – for her almost nonstop assistance.
My apologies to those whom I have not mentioned here, I do realize that there are so many of them…

text from catalog "Silesia Art Biennale" The 1st Biennale of Contemporary Art in Lower Silesia - Art and Culture Centre in Wrocław
translation: Monika Ujma