Vernissage of exhibition titled “1981 protests of the NCU student community in the photographic material by Dariusz W. Czerniakowski: an NCU archaeology alumnus”

Abstract

On 11 December 2025, the hall of Collegium Humanisticum housed a vernissage of an exhibition of over ten large format photographs evidencing protests of the student community in 1981. The presented large format photographs are merely a small fragment of a collection of several hundreds of negatives donated by D. Czerniakowski to the collections of the University Library, NCU.  

Dariusz Czerniakowski completed archaeology courses in 1984. In the hot months of 1981, regardless of his engagement in student protests, he was making photographic records of these protests, both the ones taking place inside the university buildings and in the Toruń old town. He made about 750 photographs perpetuating the dramatic climate of those days in the form of numerous street protests and the strike-focused life of students of our University. Dariusz Czerniakowski made also photographic records of manifestations of remonstrative artistic creativity. The latter consist of various posters created as a public mark of disagreement for the reality of those days. They were hung on the walls of university buildings and in the Toruń old town. The photographic exhibition is complemented by archives from the collections of our Donor and several other archaeology alumni: Marek Kołyszko, Leszek Kucharski, and Andrzej Bokiniec. The collection is kept at the Department of Special Collections of the University Library in Toruń. At the vernissage, in recognition of Czerniakowski’s contribution, Vice Marshal of Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Zbigniew Ostrowski awarded him the Unitas Durat Palatinatus Cuiaviano-Pomeraniensis medal.