Duchowe samokształcenie jako strategia oporu. „Mandale” Urszuli Broll

The article offers an analysis of the so-called Mandalas by Urszula Broll, an artist associated with the group of Katowice artists called Oneiron. The genesis of Broll's nomadic identity, which transcends geopolitical and cultural boundaries, lies in her biography, in which her origins from Upper Silesia, her creative practices outside the main art centres and the perspective of the woman-artist were equally significant. Since the 1960s, the pathways of Broll's spiritual, intellectual and artistic explorations have been marked by the C. G. Jung's writings and the religious traditions of the Far East. This radical turn towards an individual psyche should not be considered as a form of internal emigration or escapism, but rather as a form of emancipation. The adopted theoretical framework focuses on the perspective of altermodernism: both in the occult/esoteric and Buddhist versions. Both of them focus on the dialogical and reactive nature of individual spiritual practices. Broll's resistance was articulated not in direct criticism of reality, but in the unbreakable consequence of expressing one's own subjectivity through self-knowledge. This was facilitated – or even made possible – by Mandalas. The authenticity of Mandalas, which was created long before the marketization of Far Eastern spirituality in Poland and under difficult political conditions, only reinforces the standpoint that meditation and breathing can constitute micro-politics of resistance.