Computerstudio 001

The first scenes in Hubert Czerepok’s video could suggest that the artist has recorded a mundane and banal office situation. We are taken into an orderly space shared by a few people focusing on their computer work. After a while, however, the atmosphere begins to change – somebody’s stretching, somebody else is riding his chair on wheels, somebody else still is throwing paper balls into a basket. Boredom and relaxation start invading the room, and the activities only appear to be real work. The gradual loss of concentration and the senselessness of the different gestures is underlined by the slowing pace of the video.

In his Computerstudio 001, Czerepok is taking a closer look at a few elements of the everyday: the work place, the people there, and work itself. The office, where the plot is set, can be seen as a space of oppression; its function has been predetermined – people are to work here. The work should be done in a solid manner and generate measurable results. The work place is to be conducive to this task. In Czerepok’s video, however, the interdependencies between the three elements have been reversed. The office does not make work easy, nor does it help concentrate – the activities performed lead to nothing and the workers seem only to want to shirk their duties.

Czerepok takes the predetermined functionality away from the work place, only seemingly undermining the essence of one of the daily human duties. His ironic gaze is directed especially at the notion of institutionalized work – the imposed discipline is not an effective means of control as one can be extremely unproductive during the eight working hours. The situation shown in Computerstudio 001 shows work performed routinely, with no passion or actual interest. Such work is often perceived as the necessary evil, a duty which generates no satisfaction but only financial compensation. The lethargy of the office not only reflects the absurdity of regular working hours and standard work conditions but also reveals the frequent attitude to work which inevitably leads to routine, apathy and indifference.

Izabela Kopania