The Polish Failures Club (Club der Polnischen Versager)

It goes without saying that the Polish Failures Club can be found on the Internet. On YouTube there are currently over 100 episodes of “Conversations with interesting people”, over 30 episodes of “Questioned in Beranu” and several episodes of the soap opera “Frau Selke und der Hass”. All these formats use a light satirical approach to comment on German-Polish and European history, and everyday madness in Germany..

In 2012 Rowohlt Verlag published a book entitled “Club der Polnischen Versager”, in which the authors Piotr Mordel and Adam Gusowski describe life in Germany from the point of view of Polish failures.

Despite its easy-going name the Polish Failures Club has a serious intention. It is dedicated to fiascos, to disappointments, in short to failure. Its members are convinced that failure is an integral part of life. Wherever there is success there must also be letdowns, especially in a society which defines itself by success. There’s nothing bad about failure. It is a part of every learning process, every successful result. Disappointments are a necessary part of life and there is no reason for Polish failures to deny, suppress or be silent about failure. Quite the opposite! Under certain conditions to recognise that you’re a failure can have a therapeutic effect.

The Polish Failures Club is not a commercial club. All its members work on an honorary basis. The Polish Failures Club finances itself from donations and membership fees. And as it so often says on our posters and flyers: “Financially sponsored by no one!”

The Mini Manifesto of Polish Failures

There are not many of our sort in the city. Only one or two, perhaps 10 or more. The remainder are successful people, cool and cold-blooded specialists – whatever they do they do to the best of their ability.

We – the weak, the less talented, scarcely control anything: we try to buy milk in the chemist’s and a pound of cheese at the hairdressers. Cars hoot at us, we stumble over smooth paths, always step in the dog shit, and are simply unable to get lucky.

We let the terror of other people’s perfection engulfr over us. Their presence inhibits us. That’s fine by them because they live in fear of losing the monopoly of creation they claim for themselves.

We have a tendency to recognise their superiority. Nonetheless we want to remain creators, but according to our potentials, at a lower level.

“Demiurg worshipped selected, perfect and complicated material; we prefer trash”

Adam Gusowski, June 2014