Sunday and the Collection – Józef Robakowski, From my window – film screening

Józef Robakowski, From my window, 1978-1999

video, 20 min

Work purchased by Arsenal Gallery.

18 September 2016, Sunday, 10.00 – 18.00

Arsenal Gallery, ul. A. Mickiewicza 2, Białystok

Free entry!

Work description:

Józef Robakowski, a pioneer of video art in Poland, skilfully appropriates and exposes the manipulative power of the media. Throughout his practice, Robakowski explored relations between himself as the artist/subject and film as a tool of expression. Robakowski had a very personal relationship with the film camera and later the video camera; he called film a “projection of the filmmaker’s thoughts.” The artist was interested in the creative power of the media and the new perspectives on reality opened up by it. Social and political issues are present in his works as if on the margins of observations concerning the medium of film and the world around the artist.

The video From My Window is a documentary recording shot over more than two decades, which records the transformation of Polish reality. Robakowski filmed everyday life in the square in front of his apartment block in the so-called “Manhattan” area of Łódź. Scenes in the video show things like a neighbour walking out of the building, people coming home from work, a neighbour at a May 1st parade, and are accompanied by Robakowski’s voice-over commentary. It is hard to distinguish between truth and fiction. Both have a place in his unique video, a perverse “documentary” in which the truth of the image and the fiction of the commentary, referring to genuine affairs which are however unrelated to the scenes shown, come together to create a true picture of reality.
 
The Polish transformation is presented through mundane everyday moments rather than in dramatic breakthrough events. History in the video – the reality of the 1970s, martial law, systemic transition – has a personal touch. It is evoked not only by the content of the commentary but also by the position of the artist, who identifies with his place in the world. His emotional stance is particularly poignant in the last minutes of the video. A hotel was built in front of Robakowski’s apartment block in the late 1990s: it obstructed the view and put an end to the careful documentary. “Soon enough, the beautiful view from my window will only be that of a hotel wall.” This nostalgic conclusion, devoid of both optimism and criticism, best demonstrates the everyday personal view of transition.
 
Izabela Kopania, Open Set. Works from Kolekcja II of Arsenal Gallery in Białystok and Podlaskie Association for the Promotion of Fine Arts, Białystok 2012