JANEK SIMON – Fuga

FUGA relates to condition of the 21st century man which is constantly put through more and more effective procedures. They are supposed to influence his systems of values, views and decisions. In addition to this, he is also exposed to manipulations, which bring about confusion, feeling of being lost, or even change in the previous attitude. However, it is all caused by the media, considered the fourth power in the world. The media that are consistently used by both corporations that arouse our internal, artificial, consumer needs and politics, who aim at transmitting the specific image of the world (revealed in Adam Curtis’s movies – a British documentary film-maker).

The artist turns the gallery space into a deconstructed, minimalist, psychedelic office. Some of the elements that constitute its décor, including – tinged mineral water, a pyramid made of matches – are in a form of vague quotations from Alejandro Jodorowsky’s films “La montana sagrada” (“The Holy Mountain”) and “El topo” (“The Mole”). The office is a seat of a company that employs army of intelligent, well-paid, creative and resourceful army of people. They are constantly working on the most efficient ways of manipulating and convincing consumers to purchase particular products, consequently on creating our needs and language to communicate.

The title FUGA (from Latin: ‘escape’) indicates, as artist states, the consequence of a meta-reflection that was engendered in his mind while he was working on the exhibition. The reflection relates to the intellectual escape, from rationality to inexplicable psychedelic areas.

JANEK SIMON was born in 1977, Krakow. He is a graduate in psychology and sociology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. In 2001, as VJ Jansi, he started cooperation with COMMBO group (making visualization to experimental electronic music) and 36,6 Foundation. Furthermore, in 2002 Janek Simon debuted as an artist at The Festival of Young Art called NOVART.PL in Krakow, organized by Bunkier Sztuki.

Janek Simon’s artistic actions are often described as a game – both as a way he offers a reflection, and a kind of fun, constantly inviting a viewer to join. Janek Simon is involved in making videos and interactive installations. What is more, he draws inspirations from pop culture, the Internet, the media or childhood memories and first boyish experiences with computer games. His consecutive fascinations turn into new projects and complex narratives. From critical works dealing with political or institutional criticism, anarchistic or anti-globalist statements, Simon moves towards more personal works, strongly rooted in his artistic sensitivity.

At previously mentioned festival called NOVART.PL, in 2002, Simon presented CARPET INVADERS – an interactive installation in form of a simple computer game, where a board was an image of an Eastern-style carpet projected on the floor. The carpet ornaments that resembled graphics of the original version of a game (“Space Invaders”) became enemy ships, which were to be destroyed by a player using a game pad. In 2003 Simon presented another installation entitled BAŁWAN (SNOWMAN). It was a film projected on the wall that presented children building a snowman. The power of a voice of a person in the projection room influenced the projection speed of a film. The installation encouraged the viewer to join its structure and actively participate in a game – every time the silence reigned, screening of a film stopped.

GRY I ZABAWY (GAMES AND PLAYS) was Janek Simon’s first solo exhibition that took place in 2003 in the Arsenal Gallery, Białystok. The exhibition included: CARPET INVADERS, BAŁWAN (SNOWMAN) and JA…TY (I…YOU) – a computer animation based on an original program, where each word from a dictionary appeared between the entries “I” and “you”.

In the Simon’s work, characteristic features such as catastrophe, an approaching end of civilization or virtual battles “good and evil” can be observed. The artist does not point to the source of this threat, but he suggests an approaching cataclysm or gathers hints and constructs tools with the help of which a human being can free himself/herself from civilization, and will survive in the face of the catastrophe.

This vision was presented in the video entitled ODLOT (TAKE OFF/DEPARTURE) from 2003 and was completely inspired by catastrophic computer games. The work was based on a simple manipulation of the previously registered footage, presenting the Krakow panorama with distinctly predominating various church towers. The towers became rockets that went off into space one after another, leaving behind a completely different city. Not only was the city devoid of the building typical of this place, but also deprived of the symbols of its rank and history.

However, the catastrophe is marked explicitly by slight shakes of reality, for example a shaking glass of water on the windowsill LEKKIE TRZĘSIENIE ZIEMI (SLIGHT EARTHQUAKE, 2004) or paintings swaying on the wall, SZTORM (STORM). A vision of catastrophe was also found at work POŻAR KWATERY GŁÓWNEJ STRAŻY POŻARNEJ (FIRE AT FIRE DEPARTMENT HEADQUARTERS, 2005) – an architectonic model of an existing building with a smoke generator placed inside. Fire spreads in the headquarters of an institution responsible for extinguishing fires – a vision of irreversible disaster.

The Internet was another fascination consequently providing the indispensable instructions to construct his own objects. The following works: ZEGAREK ELEKTRONICZNY DOMOWEJ PRODUKCJI (HOME-MADE DIGITAL WRISTWATCH) (2005) resembling a bomb, CHIŃSKI KALKULATOR (CHINESE CALCULATOR, 2006) giving wrong results, CHLEB KRAKOWSKI (KRAKOW BREAD) (2006) that looked like a terrifying insect (the object in form of bread with black mechanical legs), were aimed at proving the fact that most of the goods produced by corporations can be hand-made, making one independent from social or economic system.

In Simon’s works one sometimes finds longing for well-established rules, especially where they had been replaced by chaos and total anarchy. In his computer game SZACHY TOTALNE (TOTAL CHESS, 2004) sophisticated chess rules have replaced the primitive rules of the arcade game. Particular movements of the opponent cease to work, the player is deprived of applying to any rules, his pawns are eliminated with the use of a series of impressive explosions.

Whereas, in a film SPACER PO POLIGONIE (A WALK IN ARMY TRAINING GROUNDS, 2004), army training ground is seen through the camcorder’s eye, which is consistently moved by the brutal kicks. The image is accompanied by the artificially generated, blood-curdling sounds, making the situation even more pitiless. A viewer’s perspective is represented by the perspective of a human who in the military field experiences sadistic tortures.

In his other realizations, Simon applies the formula of aesthetic recycling. A staircase, which was settled by a man overwhelmingly obsessed with collecting and was discovered in Kazimierz of Krakow by the artist, was the direct inspiration for the project entitled KRAKOWIACY LUBIĄ CZYSTOŚĆ (KRAKOVIANS LIKE IT CLEAN, 2005). The work was entirely constructed of alcohol cans, plastic bottles, plastic bags etc. Set together, they reminded of futuristic buildings or the Krakow Christmas Crèche. There was also a sentimental touch to this exhibition – it alluded to the period of early capitalism in Poland, and to the fascination with the cheap glare of packages of the products from the West.

Janek Simon is also interested in a self-reflexive side of artistic production – in the notions of artist, art and institutional relations. For the exhibition entitled “Piękno, czyli efekty malarskie” (“Beauty or the painterly effects”, Galeria Bielska BWA, 2004) he created a video installation MALARZ-SAMOBÓJCA (PAINTER-SUICIDER, 2004). In a small cube imitating an exhibition room, the artist presented a detonation of a puppet filled with paint. The effect reminded a work of action painting.

Moreover, the next project worth mentioning is ROK POLSKI NA MADAGASKARZE (POLISH YEAR ON MADAGASKAR), where Simon took up the issue of cultural colonialism. In Spring 2006 he went to Madagascar, in order to organize in its capital city Antananarivo a Polish exhibition. It consisted of several works by artists from Central and Eastern Europe, but not from Poland – although it touched upon situation and problems present in Poland: the growth of nationalism after the transformation of 1989, social stratification and war in Iraq. In addition, the exhibition reflected the contemporary notion of national identity as well as the evolution of social meaning. The cultural expansion organized by Simon, provided an ironic commentary to the contemporary aspirations of Polish society to place itself within the world elite.

Simon’s works are more and more often tinged with emotions and existential anxieties. One of his largest solo exhibitions GRADIENT (Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, 2007) was concerned with the idea of unsuccessful work and with the disaster of utopian projects. Though based on correct intellectual concepts, they were impossible to realize in practice. Gradient related also to the issue of the process of creation: when analyzed very closely, the exhibition revealed reflection upon creating works of art and exhibitions. Simon built suspense by grading artistic means, from the most easily comprehensible and clear works, he moved towards more ambiguous, which referred to imagination and escape easy explanations. Therefore, the exhibition started with the works about failure and frustration: unfinished buildings or unrealized social projects. However, in a certain moment, the exhibition reached more personal dimension. It got more and more isolated from surrounding reality. The role of intuition increased. Finally, the objects affecting our senses and emotions constituted the last stage of the gradation of different strategies and meanings.

In 2007 Janek Simon was awarded the prize of the 3rd Edition of Views, Competition for the Most interesting Young Artists on the Polish Art Scene.

translated by Sylwia Narewska