no mental scars, no nursed grudges
3-channel video installation, 2022, medium format analog photographs, 2021
The video work presents two young acrobats creating figures together — the older girl becomes a support for the younger. There is also a pose performed individually, however on an object, which is the handstand canes. The exercises are recorded with two cameras, one of which is fixed on a bolt. The robot analyses the movements in close-ups and slow motion, in order that all the gestures and strains are detectable. It is visible in the distance shots and becomes a character himself.
The title of the project comes from Zygmunt Bauman’s From Pilgrim to Tourist — Or A Short History of Identity, from the passage The Player.
no mental scars, no nursed grudges video was realized with and thanks to ia:
Director of photography: Marcin Gołąb
Assistant director: Kuba Gryżewski
Performers: Zuzanna Ćwikła, Magdalena Wróblewska
Studio, bolt, cameras: bites studio
Lenses: Fast Media
Postproduction: Black Photon
The exhibition in eastcontemporary gallery in Milan in January 2022, when the project was shown for the first time, was produced thanks to the support of the Consulate General of Poland in Milan, the Polish Institute in Rome, and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Documentation of the exhibition in eastcontemporary, Milan, 2022, with the text by Antonio Grulli.
Documentation of the exhibition published by Contemporary Art Library.
Video
3-channel video installation, 2022, medium format analog photographs, 2021
The video work presents two young acrobats creating figures together — the older girl becomes a support for the younger. There is also a pose performed individually, however on an object, which is the handstand canes. The exercises are recorded with two cameras, one of which is fixed on a bolt. The robot analyses the movements in close-ups and slow motion, in order that all the gestures and strains are detectable. It is visible in the distance shots and becomes a character himself.
The title of the project comes from Zygmunt Bauman’s From Pilgrim to Tourist — Or A Short History of Identity, from the passage The Player.
no mental scars, no nursed grudges video was realized with and thanks to ia:
Director of photography: Marcin Gołąb
Assistant director: Kuba Gryżewski
Performers: Zuzanna Ćwikła, Magdalena Wróblewska
Studio, bolt, cameras: bites studio
Lenses: Fast Media
Postproduction: Black Photon
The exhibition in eastcontemporary gallery in Milan in January 2022, when the project was shown for the first time, was produced thanks to the support of the Consulate General of Poland in Milan, the Polish Institute in Rome, and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Documentation of the exhibition in eastcontemporary, Milan, 2022, with the text by Antonio Grulli.
Documentation of the exhibition published by Contemporary Art Library.
Video
Supports
Medium format analog photographs, 2020-
While taking a walk through the University of Warsaw Botanical Garden, I noticed sculpture-like, rickety, steel structures used for shaping plants. Although their purpose is to define how the plants will grow and in which direction they should develop, they also restrict their movement.
I have been observing and analyzing these architectural constructions and making analog photographs of them. They are black and white to focus on the composition of lines.
Single photographs from the Supports series were presented in the group shows in Lescer Art Center, Zalesie Gorne 2023, Palazzo Franzone Spinola di Luccoli, Genova, 2022, as a part of Fondazione Francesco Fabbri Prize (special jury mention), Pieve di Soligo, 2022, as well as during the Warsaw Gallery Weekend, 2020.
The video inspired by the series, realized during the Artist Development Programme at the European Investment Bank Institute, 2021, and acquired by the institution, along with 3 photographs framed in steel (100x100cm).
Medium format analog photographs, 2020-
While taking a walk through the University of Warsaw Botanical Garden, I noticed sculpture-like, rickety, steel structures used for shaping plants. Although their purpose is to define how the plants will grow and in which direction they should develop, they also restrict their movement.
I have been observing and analyzing these architectural constructions and making analog photographs of them. They are black and white to focus on the composition of lines.
Single photographs from the Supports series were presented in the group shows in Lescer Art Center, Zalesie Gorne 2023, Palazzo Franzone Spinola di Luccoli, Genova, 2022, as a part of Fondazione Francesco Fabbri Prize (special jury mention), Pieve di Soligo, 2022, as well as during the Warsaw Gallery Weekend, 2020.
The video inspired by the series, realized during the Artist Development Programme at the European Investment Bank Institute, 2021, and acquired by the institution, along with 3 photographs framed in steel (100x100cm).
Supports
Video, 2021
Work realized during the Artist Development Program, 2021 — residency in Luxembourg thanks to EIB Institute, as a continuation of Supports photographic series about constructions used to shape plants.
Choreographer and performer: Elisabeth Schilling
Location: Philharmonie Luxembourg
Music: Żaneta Rydzewska
1st edition is in the collection of the European Investment Bank.
Video
Video, 2021
Work realized during the Artist Development Program, 2021 — residency in Luxembourg thanks to EIB Institute, as a continuation of Supports photographic series about constructions used to shape plants.
Choreographer and performer: Elisabeth Schilling
Location: Philharmonie Luxembourg
Music: Żaneta Rydzewska
1st edition is in the collection of the European Investment Bank.
Video
Bloodstream
Installation, thermal wire, 2019
Bloodstream refers to the floating movement made by employees within the Spectra building. In a significant communication route, we put a symbolic blue vein made out of thermal wire and connected it with a wall of the company premises. The shape of the installation resembled the topologist’s sine curve characteristic for the study of continua. By choosing the thin line and this particular colour we wanted to reflect on Edward Krasiński whose works are a part of Starak Family Foundation’s collection.
While going down the passageway, the perception of this organic system changed. It was possible to touch the cable and feel the energy that responded to ambient temperature.
Duo work with Michał Szaranowicz for the Starak Family Foundation, presented in the Spectra Art Space in Warsaw, 2019.
Phot. Michał Szaranowicz
Installation, thermal wire, 2019
Bloodstream refers to the floating movement made by employees within the Spectra building. In a significant communication route, we put a symbolic blue vein made out of thermal wire and connected it with a wall of the company premises. The shape of the installation resembled the topologist’s sine curve characteristic for the study of continua. By choosing the thin line and this particular colour we wanted to reflect on Edward Krasiński whose works are a part of Starak Family Foundation’s collection.
While going down the passageway, the perception of this organic system changed. It was possible to touch the cable and feel the energy that responded to ambient temperature.
Duo work with Michał Szaranowicz for the Starak Family Foundation, presented in the Spectra Art Space in Warsaw, 2019.
Phot. Michał Szaranowicz
H (Reconstruction Of Position)
Video, 2018
The work reconstructs the positions on the archival photographs in Neuengamme, Hamburg. As opposed to the documented event, in the video, no one influences the girl’s posture by holding her body - she repeats the choreography after somebody standing behind the camera.
Girl: Maria Kamińska
Choreography: Magdalena Fejdasz
Sound: Żaneta Rydzewska (Delirium-Edition - organisation for tomorrow’s art)
Location: former Bersohn and Bauman Hospital in Warsaw
The project was financially supported by the Masovian Voivodeship.
The video was presented ia as part of the group show in Palazzo Franzone Spinola di Luccoli, Genova, 2022 and the Three Plagues exhibition in the Labirynt gallery in Lublin, 2019. It was selected for the Ducato Prize, 2021.
In 2023, together with UZ, 2020, its first edition was acquired by the Warsaw Ghetto Museum.
Video
Video, 2018
The work reconstructs the positions on the archival photographs in Neuengamme, Hamburg. As opposed to the documented event, in the video, no one influences the girl’s posture by holding her body - she repeats the choreography after somebody standing behind the camera.
Girl: Maria Kamińska
Choreography: Magdalena Fejdasz
Sound: Żaneta Rydzewska (Delirium-Edition - organisation for tomorrow’s art)
Location: former Bersohn and Bauman Hospital in Warsaw
The project was financially supported by the Masovian Voivodeship.
The video was presented ia as part of the group show in Palazzo Franzone Spinola di Luccoli, Genova, 2022 and the Three Plagues exhibition in the Labirynt gallery in Lublin, 2019. It was selected for the Ducato Prize, 2021.
In 2023, together with UZ, 2020, its first edition was acquired by the Warsaw Ghetto Museum.
Video
Sluice
3-channel video installation, oyster shells, 2018
In Warsaw, on the East bank of the Vistula, across the river from the Museum of Modern Art, an investment in Port Praski (in English: Praga Harbor) is being realized. Between 1885-2012 the area served as a harbor, which was surrounded by rather poor tenement buildings and a green wasteland, there was also a slaughterhouse. The ambitious emerging housing development should change the place’s aura and turn it into a European-class district (the architects even refer to the City of London).
The investment cannot be finished until a water lock is built. In our installation, we would like to touch upon Port Praski and point out the lock’s function — as a mechanism that changes the level of the substance that flows through it.
For the exposition, we chose a room that contained different levels. The space was located in the vicinity of Port Praski.
Master’s degree duo work with Michał Szaranowicz realized in Mirosław Bałka Studio of Spatial Activities, presented in Komputer Gallery in Warsaw, 2018. Shown also in MOS, Gorzow Wielkopolski, 2020.
Video documentation
Phot. Michał Szaranowicz
3-channel video installation, oyster shells, 2018
In Warsaw, on the East bank of the Vistula, across the river from the Museum of Modern Art, an investment in Port Praski (in English: Praga Harbor) is being realized. Between 1885-2012 the area served as a harbor, which was surrounded by rather poor tenement buildings and a green wasteland, there was also a slaughterhouse. The ambitious emerging housing development should change the place’s aura and turn it into a European-class district (the architects even refer to the City of London).
The investment cannot be finished until a water lock is built. In our installation, we would like to touch upon Port Praski and point out the lock’s function — as a mechanism that changes the level of the substance that flows through it.
For the exposition, we chose a room that contained different levels. The space was located in the vicinity of Port Praski.
Master’s degree duo work with Michał Szaranowicz realized in Mirosław Bałka Studio of Spatial Activities, presented in Komputer Gallery in Warsaw, 2018. Shown also in MOS, Gorzow Wielkopolski, 2020.
Video documentation
Phot. Michał Szaranowicz
Primary Swarm
Video, digital photograph, 2020
Duo work with Michał Szaranowicz, next chapter of Sluice (2018)
From Swarm in (Non-)Motion by Anna Ptak:
Swarm relies on an event developing in a given time. A group of Explorers traverses a cocoon-like space. Its rounded shape defines the manner of movement. The space on the outside plays the role of the queen bee. The figures look as if they had to learn to walk anew: slow-paced movement, careful gesture, the absorbing hole of the turbine where the eponymous swarm thrusts into. The movement from the point A to the point B. The other image, however, placed on the opposite side of the gallery, though belonging to that part of the cycle, counterpoints the adventurous nature of this journey. It is a photograph presenting an antihero: a child mannequin whose movement is being analyzed. Here, this is how the movement occurs. An infantile body’s single achievement of acquiring the ability to move, of defying gravity and oneselve’s idleness is framed by a photograph, an anthropometric device that photography proves itself to be - continue reading.
The work was presented in Fabbri Schenker Projects, London, 2021, at the exhibition during HER Docs Film Festival in Warsaw, 2021, in Spazio Volta, Bergamo, 2021, in GAMU, Prague, 2020, in Neuer Friedhof St. Jacobi during Berlin Art Week, 2020, and in MOS, Gorzow Wielkopolski, 2020.
Fragment of the video
Video, digital photograph, 2020
Duo work with Michał Szaranowicz, next chapter of Sluice (2018)
From Swarm in (Non-)Motion by Anna Ptak:
Swarm relies on an event developing in a given time. A group of Explorers traverses a cocoon-like space. Its rounded shape defines the manner of movement. The space on the outside plays the role of the queen bee. The figures look as if they had to learn to walk anew: slow-paced movement, careful gesture, the absorbing hole of the turbine where the eponymous swarm thrusts into. The movement from the point A to the point B. The other image, however, placed on the opposite side of the gallery, though belonging to that part of the cycle, counterpoints the adventurous nature of this journey. It is a photograph presenting an antihero: a child mannequin whose movement is being analyzed. Here, this is how the movement occurs. An infantile body’s single achievement of acquiring the ability to move, of defying gravity and oneselve’s idleness is framed by a photograph, an anthropometric device that photography proves itself to be - continue reading.
The work was presented in Fabbri Schenker Projects, London, 2021, at the exhibition during HER Docs Film Festival in Warsaw, 2021, in Spazio Volta, Bergamo, 2021, in GAMU, Prague, 2020, in Neuer Friedhof St. Jacobi during Berlin Art Week, 2020, and in MOS, Gorzow Wielkopolski, 2020.
Fragment of the video
UZ
Video out of echograms, 2020
Projection of over a dozen echograms of the walls of a conference room in a modern hotel at Grzybowska street in Warsaw. The hotel stands close to the place where until 1942 the building of the Jewish Council was located. The echograms refer to the last work by Symcha Trachter — an undocumented polychromic wall painting in the Jewish Council meeting hall depicting the biblical figure of Job. It is possible that the room that accommodated the destroyed painting was on the first floor, just like the one in the contemporary building photographed by myself. The title of the work, UZ, alludes to the biblical name of Job’s land of origin.
The video was presented at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, at the exhibition Symcha Trachter, 1894–1942. Light and Color, 2020 as well as within Materializing curated by Piotr Rypson and Anna Straetemans at the NS-Dokumentazionszentrum in Munich, 2023.
In 2023, together with H (Reconstruction of Position), 2018, the first edition of UZ was acquired by the Warsaw Ghetto Museum.
Video
Video out of echograms, 2020
Projection of over a dozen echograms of the walls of a conference room in a modern hotel at Grzybowska street in Warsaw. The hotel stands close to the place where until 1942 the building of the Jewish Council was located. The echograms refer to the last work by Symcha Trachter — an undocumented polychromic wall painting in the Jewish Council meeting hall depicting the biblical figure of Job. It is possible that the room that accommodated the destroyed painting was on the first floor, just like the one in the contemporary building photographed by myself. The title of the work, UZ, alludes to the biblical name of Job’s land of origin.
The video was presented at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, at the exhibition Symcha Trachter, 1894–1942. Light and Color, 2020 as well as within Materializing curated by Piotr Rypson and Anna Straetemans at the NS-Dokumentazionszentrum in Munich, 2023.
In 2023, together with H (Reconstruction of Position), 2018, the first edition of UZ was acquired by the Warsaw Ghetto Museum.
Video
Trajectory of Bodies
Performative action, 2018
Electronic readers have been installed in all buildings of the ERGO Group. The employees use them when entering or leaving the company premises. The system can identify an employee with his or her personal card and record the exact time spent at work.
I chose thoughts as something unpredictable: something that escapes monitoring and examination with the technical capabilities of ERGO Hestia as both the insurer and the employer. I focused on the relationship between the corporation and the individual. I was interested in control and privacy, risk management, and the limits of predictability. I wanted to move away from the digitization of data and image.
I asked the ERGO Hestia Group employees to write down any dream they remembered. The only requirement was that the report would be handwritten and anonymous. 2624 people were informed about the action.
The card registration system was switched off for one day and 40 boxes for the contributions were placed next to the telematics readers. I have received 232 responses.
The outcomes of the action were presented at the exhibition of the finalists of the 17. Hestia Artistic Journey Competition, in the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, 2018.
In the ERGO Hestia Group’s Collection.
Performative action, 2018
Electronic readers have been installed in all buildings of the ERGO Group. The employees use them when entering or leaving the company premises. The system can identify an employee with his or her personal card and record the exact time spent at work.
I chose thoughts as something unpredictable: something that escapes monitoring and examination with the technical capabilities of ERGO Hestia as both the insurer and the employer. I focused on the relationship between the corporation and the individual. I was interested in control and privacy, risk management, and the limits of predictability. I wanted to move away from the digitization of data and image.
I asked the ERGO Hestia Group employees to write down any dream they remembered. The only requirement was that the report would be handwritten and anonymous. 2624 people were informed about the action.
The card registration system was switched off for one day and 40 boxes for the contributions were placed next to the telematics readers. I have received 232 responses.
The outcomes of the action were presented at the exhibition of the finalists of the 17. Hestia Artistic Journey Competition, in the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, 2018.
In the ERGO Hestia Group’s Collection.
Disciplinary Mechanisms
Digital and analog photographs, moving images, 2016
By analyzing the shape and material of hunting gear, the work examines the oppressiveness of environment geometrization and looks at the analogy between hunting and photography: between firearms and camera, appropriating through firing a shot and capturing within a frame, pulling the trigger and pushing the shutter release button, between the moment of entrapping and recording.
By comparing individual devices according to their size, shape, material, and the way they function, the series poses the question about the limits of interference in freedom.
Grand Prix at 12. Inspirations Festival in TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art in Szczecin, 2017.
Moving images
Digital and analog photographs, moving images, 2016
By analyzing the shape and material of hunting gear, the work examines the oppressiveness of environment geometrization and looks at the analogy between hunting and photography: between firearms and camera, appropriating through firing a shot and capturing within a frame, pulling the trigger and pushing the shutter release button, between the moment of entrapping and recording.
By comparing individual devices according to their size, shape, material, and the way they function, the series poses the question about the limits of interference in freedom.
Grand Prix at 12. Inspirations Festival in TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art in Szczecin, 2017.
Moving images
Play Down
Video, digital photograph, 2017
Registration of semen collection from a stallion for the purpose of artificial insemination.
Courtesy of Wechta Stallion Station.
The video was projected in Fabbri Schenker Projects in London, 2021, in the Center for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci, Prato, 2021 and in MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome, 2021 among the works selected by Julian Rosefeldt from the collection Fondazione In Between Art Film by Beatrice Bulgari, at the exhibition VISIO. Moving Images After Post-Internet curated by Leonardo Bigazzi in Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 2019, during the 9. Polish Biennale of Young Art in the Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art in Slupsk, 2017, at the exhibition Nothing Happens in The Fort Institute of Photography in Warsaw, 2017.
First edition of the video has been acquired by the Fondazione In Between Art Film by Beatrice Bulgari.
Video
Video, digital photograph, 2017
Registration of semen collection from a stallion for the purpose of artificial insemination.
Courtesy of Wechta Stallion Station.
The video was projected in Fabbri Schenker Projects in London, 2021, in the Center for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci, Prato, 2021 and in MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome, 2021 among the works selected by Julian Rosefeldt from the collection Fondazione In Between Art Film by Beatrice Bulgari, at the exhibition VISIO. Moving Images After Post-Internet curated by Leonardo Bigazzi in Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 2019, during the 9. Polish Biennale of Young Art in the Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art in Slupsk, 2017, at the exhibition Nothing Happens in The Fort Institute of Photography in Warsaw, 2017.
First edition of the video has been acquired by the Fondazione In Between Art Film by Beatrice Bulgari.
Video
Untitled (Remote Control)
9 x 30x40cm, digital print on dibond, archive paper: Moab Entrada Natural Rag 190gsm
Exhibition of the finalists of the 16. Hestia Artistic Journey Competition (laureate), Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, 2017, phot. Piotr Litwic.
In the the ERGO Hestia Group’s Collection.
9 x 30x40cm, digital print on dibond, archive paper: Moab Entrada Natural Rag 190gsm
Exhibition of the finalists of the 16. Hestia Artistic Journey Competition (laureate), Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, 2017, phot. Piotr Litwic.
In the the ERGO Hestia Group’s Collection.
Untitled (Remote Control)
Thermograms, 2017
Topographic series of thermograms featuring places in Warsaw, Poland, where political decisions are being/have been made. The way of depicting deflects the relation between the state and an individual and diverts the direction of observation.
Thermography detects radiation in the long-infrared range and records the temperature emitted by objects. The thermographic camera used in the project exposes the construction of significant, influential buildings, the inside of their organisms as well as their tissues.
The work was presented at the exhibition of the finalists of the 16. Hestia Artistic Journey Competition (laureate) in the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, 2017, as well as within Immobilized show at Fondation Hippocrène, Paris, 2018, promoting the emerging art scene in Poland.
In the the ERGO Hestia Group’s Collection.
Thermograms, 2017
Topographic series of thermograms featuring places in Warsaw, Poland, where political decisions are being/have been made. The way of depicting deflects the relation between the state and an individual and diverts the direction of observation.
Thermography detects radiation in the long-infrared range and records the temperature emitted by objects. The thermographic camera used in the project exposes the construction of significant, influential buildings, the inside of their organisms as well as their tissues.
The work was presented at the exhibition of the finalists of the 16. Hestia Artistic Journey Competition (laureate) in the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, 2017, as well as within Immobilized show at Fondation Hippocrène, Paris, 2018, promoting the emerging art scene in Poland.
In the the ERGO Hestia Group’s Collection.
white marianna
Packshots, 2020
Series of 30 photographs depicting different fragments of so-called white marianna marble taken from closed quarries in Lower Silesia, Poland.
The project was realized for (Un)common Ground conference in the Raffles Europejski Hotel, Warsaw.
More on (un)commongroud.pl.
Packshots, 2020
Series of 30 photographs depicting different fragments of so-called white marianna marble taken from closed quarries in Lower Silesia, Poland.
The project was realized for (Un)common Ground conference in the Raffles Europejski Hotel, Warsaw.
More on (un)commongroud.pl.
Engadin (a wanderer)
Video, 2021
At the time of recording this video, I was 30 years old. I was spending a few summer weeks in the Alpine valley of the Engadine, by the river Inn. The beginnings of the trip unfold in the company of my mother, who has offered to share the two-day journey from Warsaw with me. According to our plan, after a few days I took my mother to the airport in Zurich - together still, we crossed the Flüela Pass, open for the season, and I returned to Susch, where I temporarily stayed and worked, alone.
Music: Żaneta Rydzewska ("e-t-s #2")
Video was realized during the residency in Muzeum Susch, supported by Fuji Film Polska.
It was shown in the group show in Palazzo Franzone Spinola di Luccoli, Genova, 2022, and was screened during the Her Docs Film Festival in Warsaw, 2021.
Video
Video, 2021
At the time of recording this video, I was 30 years old. I was spending a few summer weeks in the Alpine valley of the Engadine, by the river Inn. The beginnings of the trip unfold in the company of my mother, who has offered to share the two-day journey from Warsaw with me. According to our plan, after a few days I took my mother to the airport in Zurich - together still, we crossed the Flüela Pass, open for the season, and I returned to Susch, where I temporarily stayed and worked, alone.
Music: Żaneta Rydzewska ("e-t-s #2")
Video was realized during the residency in Muzeum Susch, supported by Fuji Film Polska.
It was shown in the group show in Palazzo Franzone Spinola di Luccoli, Genova, 2022, and was screened during the Her Docs Film Festival in Warsaw, 2021.
Video
Night Flight
Video, 2019
The work touches upon the ways of sharing and sustaining data and is inspired by Gustawa Jarecka, a novelist and archivist. She translated, supposedly during one night, "Night Flight" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – a story about a pilot responsible for transporting mail by plane.
Jarecka was living in Warsaw Ghetto, where, from 1940, she worked for the Judenrat as a telephonist and typist in the Jewish District. She was a member of underground organization "Oneg Shabbat," in which she was responsible to chronicle what she was seeing and experiencing within the Ghetto. The so-called Ringelblum Archives she contributed to, were buried in the area of the Ghetto in three caches. After the war, two of the three caches were recovered, containing about 6,000 documents. In 1999, the Ringelblum Archives were listed on the Memory of the World Register by UNESCO.
Saint-Exupéry's novel focuses on the pioneering night flights and the challenges faced in ensuring punctual mail delivery. It follows the pilot Fabien on the Patagonia run, depicting his final hours as his plane gets caught in a cyclone, runs out of fuel, and loses radio contact. The future of the night mail-run to Europe hangs in the balance. A central theme of the text is the conflict between prioritizing a long-term goal over an individual's life. Saint-Exupéry draws on his own experiences and those of his fellow pilots to portray their willingness to sacrifice everything for a cause they believe in.
The video depicts a young woman seated in a cockpit at night. She gazes into the distance and emits increasingly loud nonverbal sounds, as though calling out. During the recording, she wore an earbud through which she listened to a musical piece to which she was expected to respond vocally. On set, the woman improvised as she had never heard the piece before. The music was composed specifically for the video and was inspired by the sounds produced in contemporary server rooms.
While creating the video, I contemplated the transmission of information — once only done through voice (for example, by Xenophanes, a poet who traveled throughout the Greek-speaking world) and now data is archived in the server rooms. I pondered the dialogue between humans and machines, as well as the contrast between the personality and impersonality of sound sources.
Her: Monika Łopuszyńska
Sound: Żaneta Rydzewska
The video was presented in Stary Browar in Poznan, 2019, as well as at Adam Mickiewicz University in Kalisz, 2019.
The project was financially supported by the Greater Poland Voivodeship.
Video
Video, 2019
The work touches upon the ways of sharing and sustaining data and is inspired by Gustawa Jarecka, a novelist and archivist. She translated, supposedly during one night, "Night Flight" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – a story about a pilot responsible for transporting mail by plane.
Jarecka was living in Warsaw Ghetto, where, from 1940, she worked for the Judenrat as a telephonist and typist in the Jewish District. She was a member of underground organization "Oneg Shabbat," in which she was responsible to chronicle what she was seeing and experiencing within the Ghetto. The so-called Ringelblum Archives she contributed to, were buried in the area of the Ghetto in three caches. After the war, two of the three caches were recovered, containing about 6,000 documents. In 1999, the Ringelblum Archives were listed on the Memory of the World Register by UNESCO.
Saint-Exupéry's novel focuses on the pioneering night flights and the challenges faced in ensuring punctual mail delivery. It follows the pilot Fabien on the Patagonia run, depicting his final hours as his plane gets caught in a cyclone, runs out of fuel, and loses radio contact. The future of the night mail-run to Europe hangs in the balance. A central theme of the text is the conflict between prioritizing a long-term goal over an individual's life. Saint-Exupéry draws on his own experiences and those of his fellow pilots to portray their willingness to sacrifice everything for a cause they believe in.
The video depicts a young woman seated in a cockpit at night. She gazes into the distance and emits increasingly loud nonverbal sounds, as though calling out. During the recording, she wore an earbud through which she listened to a musical piece to which she was expected to respond vocally. On set, the woman improvised as she had never heard the piece before. The music was composed specifically for the video and was inspired by the sounds produced in contemporary server rooms.
While creating the video, I contemplated the transmission of information — once only done through voice (for example, by Xenophanes, a poet who traveled throughout the Greek-speaking world) and now data is archived in the server rooms. I pondered the dialogue between humans and machines, as well as the contrast between the personality and impersonality of sound sources.
Her: Monika Łopuszyńska
Sound: Żaneta Rydzewska
The video was presented in Stary Browar in Poznan, 2019, as well as at Adam Mickiewicz University in Kalisz, 2019.
The project was financially supported by the Greater Poland Voivodeship.
Video