The Polish Forest

Is Marek Wasilewski’s The Polish Forest a true presentation of a Polish forest, or is it merely a perfectly edited fantasy? In the video and the photographs, we see South American monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi yucatanensis) jumping around birch trees. Whilst the trees here are typical of the Polish landscape, evoking strong literary and symbolic references to the topos of the Polish countryside and the Romantic martyrdom represented by the lone insurgent’s grave by the birch tree, the furry simians with their long tails belong to an entirely different order, sparking an immediate clash between the familiar and the exotic. The juxtaposition of the incompatible worlds of orbis interior and orbis exterior makes us suddenly realize that reality is perceived with no reflection.

Wasilewski’s work is suspended somewhere between a well done reportage and an imaginary creation. The informative and neutral (theoretically, at least) form of the communication gives way to an abundance of colours and perfectly composed frames. If it wasn’t for the fact that the situation recorded took place in the nearby zoo, one could actually ask whether we were not exposed to Baudrillard’s simulacra, the blurring of the line dividing reality from its representation.

Wasilewski forces the viewer to adapt a critical view of a documentary film and popular TV shows about nature. On the one hand, he analyses their patterns, on the other, he exposes the unnatural aspect of the situation he has recorded. It is so strong that it actually undermines the objectivism of the image. These monkeys can only jump around birch trees in artificially created circumstances, and when devoid of the context created by the trees, they do not seem all that exotic. It is when they are placed outside of their natural environment that they become strange and peculiar. As such, they also demolish the Romantic symbolism attached to the notion of the Polish forest. It is quite possible that we would not notice the absurdity of seeing a monkey on a birch tree when visiting the zoo. In the video and in the photographs, however, the image has gained an extraordinarily real dimension.

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