Thursday evenings are spent under the sign of films. At 9:00 pm we'll be treated to a screening organized by, among others, SARP Poznań, "An Unusual Proposal," and earlier at 7:00 pm MSN has prepared a screening of two short films - by Wojciech Bąkowski and Artur Żmijewski. Both works are unbearably topical.
On May 14, 2020, at 7:00 pm, the MSN's YouTube channel will present two new films from among the works of Polish artists made recently and recently included in the Museum's Filmotheque. This time they will be films by Wojciech Bąkowski and Artur Żmijewski. In subsequent installments of the series we will also present films by Jana Shostak and Jakub Jasiukiewicz, as well as Oskar Dawicki.
Wojciech Bąkowski,
"Analysis of emotions and irritations. Part 2"
The narrator of Bąkowski's film finds refuge in private spaces: his own room and his own mind. He isolates himself in them, spinning an internal monologue about the emotions and fears that haggle with him, but also the passions, raptures and departures he experiences. He descends deeper and deeper into himself.
By portraying this existential state, the artist touches strings that evoke vague feelings in us - hard to define, yet familiar. The individual and extremely subjective story thus conveys a certain more universal condition. The stream of consciousness is illustrated by animated sequences maintained in Bąkowski's characteristic style - despite their enigmatic nature, they are extremely accurate, providing a glimpse into whole, separate worlds.
Artur Zmijewski, "Plan B"
Hidden under a sink, a passage leads a group of people with their belongings in suitcases to a room with multi-story bunks, scratched walls and devastated sanitary infrastructure. There they find shelter. In the lethargic atmosphere of waiting, they try to cultivate the rituals of daily life. This kind of hiding place brings to mind events of the past: World War II, the nuclear arms race, the persecution of ethnic and religious groups in the 20th century. More contemporarily, it may be associated with shelters prepared by representatives of preppers' culture, booming in the face of the increasingly serious threat of cataclysmic events caused by global warming.
We do not know the reason why the characters in Zmijewski's film are seeking shelter. It's also difficult to situate them in time. They look contemporary, but recorded on 16mm, black-and-white film may also resemble archival documentary footage from the distant past. This understatement opens the film to new contexts, giving it a disturbing topicality in an age of pandemics and social isolation.
