Anna Konik, In the Middle of the Way / Gra w miasto (Bialystok) – film screening

Anna Konik, In the Middle of the Way / Gra w miasto (Białystok), 2008

two-channel video, 19 min 35 sec, 6 photographs, 31 x 40,5 cm.

3 July, Sunday, 10.00-18.00
Arsenal Gallery, ul. A. Mickiewicza 2, Białystok
Free entry!

Work purchased by Podlaskie Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych.

Work description:

Gra w miasto (Białystok) is another edition of Anna Konik’s project In the Middle of the Way which began in 2001. Each video belonging to the series is an emotional and personal presentation of a chosen city, e.g. Cleveland, Warsaw or Moscow. The artist films the streets which she roams, and the people she meets there. The common feature of all those she encounters is that they function on the margins of society, be it due to homelessness or being constantly on the move – a situation which is, to an effect, also that of the artist, as she makes all her videos when away from home, making her perspective that of a nomad. Everywhere she goes, she is a guest who does not put down roots.

Białystok is the second city after Bytom to which the artist was introduced by the participants of a workshop she conducted there.* Konik asked to be shown around the town, and the young people she worked with served as her guides and gave her a tour along their favourite routes. Each took the artist to places of special relevance to him/her. The landmarks shown on the alternative map of Białystok include the Branicki Palace, Kościuszko Square, the “Włókniarz” sports hall, or a café at the Planty park. Reaching these places during the tour required a joint and intense experiencing of space. This close relation was particularly felt between the artist and the guide leading her to “his/her” landmark. Konik‘s presence was always discreet so that the guides were at ease when expressing their thoughts and defining their ties with the given place.

The participants of the workshops were diverse, as were their reactions to being filmed and their attitudes to the city. Their words served as the basis for creating an alternative map of Białystok, where the centre and peripheries do not necessarily overlap with the actual city map. Konik’s project has revealed a number of personal narratives creating a multi-layer structure of a city organism. During the tour, the space of Białystok became a mental space saturated with memories and emotional reactions to the city’s tissue.

Izabela Kopania

* In the Middle of the Way / Gra w miasto (Białystok) is the outcome of workshops the artist conducted at Galeria Arsenał in Białystok in 2008.