Video Clip

Video Clip, a video by Paweł Althamer featuring the Poznań Boys’ Choir, is an example of the artist’s socially oriented projects. The impulse to create the project was a pedophilia scandal involving the choir’s conductor. In the film, however, we do not find any direct allusions to the event. Video Clip is first and foremost a voice in the discussion about the condition of contemporary youth – their plans, opinions, opportunities and ways of experiencing the world.

The artist assigned a very special role to the choir boys: they were asked to write the lyrics and the music to a song whose chorus is played between subsequent sequences in the film. The artist recorded the opinions of young people from different social groups, all of more or less the same age and coming from the same town (Poznań) but of different backgrounds shaping their attitudes. The differences are apparent not only in their gestures, ways of expression and attitudes towards school and family, but also in their visions of the future. The nihilistic declaration “I have no ego, I have no identity” constantly mingles with optimistic intentions and plans, or with the conviction that “I will manage”.

The characters in Paweł Althamer’s video represent a new generation, growing up after the political breakthrough of 1989. For them, the “new” social and economic reality is something natural, they are not burdened by memories of the times before the changes. The extreme declarations appearing in the video are very reflective of the social divisions, but also of the split personalities of the characters – their dual footing in reality. On the one hand, they see the world as generalized, incompatible and negative, while on the other, they are aware of the opportunities offered to them by the here and now. Althamer points out a very significant fissure in the mental portrait of young Poles: the feeling of generational alienation, an absence or rather an inability to see common denominators which would help them identify with the group. The declaration of “I have no ego” is supplemented by “funny thing, this lack of connectivity”. This lack of connection, also diagnosed by sociologists, is a new element in the collective portrait of Polish society.

Izabela Kopania

The text was published in the book I. Kopania ‘Open Set. Works from Kolekcja II of Galeria Arsenał in Białystok and Podlaskie Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych’, Białystok 2012