ARTUR ZMIJEWSKI

Artur Zmijewski (1966) is among the most prominent figures of the current Polish art scene. Zmijewski works predominantly with video and photography. Observing human behaviour and unsettling any prevailing social and cultural consensus lie at the core of his documentary-style work. Unusual and surprising situations, usually provocatively induced by the artist himself, constitute the raw material for a body of work which blurs the divide between normal and abnormal, regulated and deregulated. In 80064, for instance, he renews the identification tattoo of an aged former prisoner of the Auschwitz concentration camp, or in Singing Lesson 2 deaf people interpret a cantata by Bach. The work of Zmijewski, in which sick people and the elderly, physically handicapped people, religious fanatics or naked soldiers take up a prominent position, the familiar is turned inside out. Because conventional ethics and morality are parenthesisedin his work, since they do not lead to knowledge and insight, his workis perceived as controversial in some circles. In itself this is not a bad thing. A conscience should be jolted every now and again. The three-day retrospective at Argos comprises a selection of Zmijewski’s most important videos and it is rather exceptional, since his work is usually presented within the context of an exhibition. Internationally, Zmijewski has exhibited widely over the last years. He represented Poland in the last Venice Biennial, and will be presenting new work at Documenta 12 in Kassel this summer.

FRI 27/04
20:30

• Repetition
  2005, 75’, video, colour, Polish spoken, English subtitles
  Repetition is a remake of the ’Stanford Prison Experiment’ from 1971, a famous psychological experiment studying human behaviour in prison conditions. Zmijewski reconstructed the architecture and hired unemployed men to re-enact the roles of prisoners and guards in a simulated prison environment. The video is a thought-provoking reflection on the human desire for power and lack of empathy.

• 80064
  2004, 11’05”, video, colour, Polish spoken, English subtitlesZmijewski decided to persuade a former World War II concentration camp prisoner, the 92-year-old Józef Tarnawa, to ’renew’ his prisoner number, tattooed on the man’s forearm. In the memory of Tarnawa, the condition for survival, necessitated by the extremely oppressive and restrictive environment, was extreme conformity. And in the video such an act of conformism, consent, and subordination is repeated.

SAT 28.04
20:30

• Eye for an Eye
  1998, 10’, video, colour, sound
  The work depicts disabled people and healthy ones. A physically fit young woman lends a disabled man her fingers to wash his body. Two men (one missing a limb) climb stairs, walk, and play together as a two-headed, three-legged being.

• Out for a Walk
  2001, 9’, video, colour, sound
  Able-bodied men animate the inert bodies of tetraparetics (completely paralyzed individuals with fully functional minds) making it possible for them to ‘walk’.

• Rendez-vous
  2004, 8’, video, colour, sound, Polish spoken, English subtitlesThe video features actor Wojciech Królikiewicz, who suffers from Huntington’s chorea, a hereditary condition inevitably leading to disability and death.

• Our Songbook
  2003, 11’, video, colour, Polish spoken, English subtitlesZmijewski asks elderly Polish immigrants in a Tel Aviv nursing home and senior citizens’ centre to sing the Polish National Anthem and other Polish songs. An examination of the effect a first language has on the shaping of identity regardless of intervening circumstances.

• Karolina
  2002, 8’08”, video, colour, Polish spoken, English subtitlles
  A 18-year old girl with advanced osteoporosis responded to an appeal by the artist for someone willing to share her pain.

• KR WP
  2000, 7’30”, video, colour, Polish spoken, English subtitles
  Former soldiers from the Polish Army’s Honour Guard unit, whom Zmijewski had persuaded to recreate the ceremonial drill ritual, perform in the first part in full uniform on the parade ground. In the second part the drill takes place in a gym with the soldiers being naked. The Second time, the soldiers are naked. They humorously demonstrate that men in uniform are, under their uniforms, just men after all.

• Singing Lesson 1
  2001, 14’, video, colour, sound
  Hearing-impaired teenagers from Warsaw’s Institute for the Deaf and Dumb are taught to sing a fragment of the ‘Kyrie’ from Jan Maklakiewicz’s Polish Mass. The irony of the text is inescapable: “In this holy place, in this holiest place, our voice rises to You and erupts as the sea roars from a deep abyss. O Christ, hear us! O Christ, listen to us!”.

• Singing Lesson 2
  2003, 16’30”, video, colour, sound
  Deaf teenagers from the Samuel Heinicke School learn and perform Johan Sebastian Bach’s cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life) in the St. Thomas’ Church in Leipzig. The two versions of Singing Lesson address conventional views of the limitations of speech and musicality and also offer a reminder that the Church once denied the deaf the Holy Sacrament.

SUN 29.04
20:30

• Dorota
  2006, 15’, colour, Polish spoken, English subtitles
  An observation of Dorota who works as a cash-keeper in the a Polish mega supermarket Real. At home she has a blue and a pink room, a husband and two kids. While vacuum cleaning Dorota keeps the theatre of the harmonious family going on. Not until night and asleep is Dorota fragile. At that moment Zmijewski’s camera is unmerciful as ever.

• Halina
  2006, 16’, colour, Polish spoken, English subtitles
  Halina Kozial works in a laundry house where she is responsible for ironing clothes. She likes ironing; she does a lot of it at home too. She has a daughter and a son. They both live with her in Falenica, a far outskirt of Warsaw.

• Pilgrimage
  2003, 29’30”, video, colour, Polish spoken, English subtitlles
  A priest leads a group of Catholic penitents (among them co-director Pawel Althamer, a witness attesting to the reality of the situation) through the Holy Land of their religion. Zmijewski exposes the mechanism of manipulation to which the Polish pilgrims fall prey.

• LSD
  2003-2004, 15’40”, video, colour, Polish spoken, English subtitles
  Hashish
  2003-2004, 14’, video, colour, Polish spoken, English subtitles
  Magic Mushrooms
  2003-2004, 11’20”, video, colour, Polish spoken, English subtitles
  Truth Serum
  2003-2004, 20’, video, colour, Polish spoken, English subtitles
  Four titles out of an eight-part series that Zmijewski co-directed with Pawel Althamer. Protagonist Althamer subjects himself to the action of various drugs, as well as a ‘truth serum’. The body of the ecstatic tripper eludes the control of the subject and the restraint of social conventions to become a transmitter of voices and movements not belonging to it. Althamer: “It is a great thing to realise that the body is only an instrument of the soul. I feel like an astronaut in the spacesuit of my body; I am a trapped soul.

Supported by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland
Thanks to Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw.