The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, together with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, present ‹Art of the Moving Image: Polish Animation and Film Avant-Garde›. The program introduces the history of Polish visual art through 58 works, from early Polish animation to film avant-garde films and recent video art.
The program was curated by Karol Szafraniec, Cultural studies-film expert, film educator and Lukasz Ronduda, director, screenwriter, curator and researcher working simultaneously in the fields of cinema and contemporary art. From December 6 to Saturday, January 11, 2025 (*except December 27-28), screenings and expert commentary on the works will be held every Friday and Saturday.
Art of Moving Images.
Polish Animation and the Cinematic Avant-garde
Łukasz Ronduda, Karol Szafraniec
Because the art of moving images is integrally linked with the 20th century, telling its story also requires conveying the historical, political, and ideological turmoil inherent to that period. Experimental, avant-garde art is usually positioned on the line of intense turmoil, and its authors position their ideas in opposition to practices of oppression, violence, and exclusion, simultaneously evoking the aspirations, ideals, and values of the communities they represent.
Sometimes artist do it directly through valiant, activist, or political actions and practices; other times they rely on the use of symbols, allusions, and understatement. This review, then, tells the story of Poland: a country seemingly worlds apart from Korea, but perhaps similarly impacted by 20th-century turmoil; a country that wound up a victim of the power struggles of greater powers; a country that bravely fought for independence and self-determination, seeking to find its place in the current world order.
Poland entered the 20th century as a non-existent country, with its territories having been divided by the three neighbouring nation-states for a period of 123 years. In 1918, the country regained independence for two decades, only to then be occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, and become, among other things, the site of the execution of several million victims of the Holocaust. The country subsequently became a non-democratic, satellite state of the Soviet Union for nearly half a century. Internal tensions and increasingly strong opposition to the imposed political system coincided, in the late 1980s, with global, geopolitical turmoil, which brought Poland democracy and along with the opportunity to participate in the global capitalist economy. The first dozen years of democracy not only were a triumph of hopes and fulfilled dreams, but also brought a flurry of problems of a different kind.
The sweeping expansion of capitalism led to new societal and ideological divisions, revealing internal ruptures that, in various shapes and forms, still exist today.
The artists we introduce below have been paying scrutiny to the state of affairs throughout this time: challenging, analysing, contending, warning, laughing, prodding, and poking. They continue these efforts today, disagreeing with the present-day circumstances, striving for real change. They object and draw attention to issues that others are unable to recognize.
This review is a comprehensive effort to sum up certain trends in Polish audiovisual culture, which has never been showcased in such form and scale in South Korea.
Across three sections, we will present artworks, artists, and trends that in the most interesting way illustrate the emergence of various experimental and avant-garde elements in film-adjacent activities – both linked to the world of cinema and the world of art. The interplay and tensions between these fields are fascinating and challenging in themselves, and what is more, they are embedded in the political, cultural, and social contexts specific to post-war Poland.
In order to shed light on these nuances, the screenings will be woven together with a narrative that will include the background information and profiles of the artists. We will attempt to demonstrate how certain elements of Polish artistic practices coincided with – and even influenced or preceded – international trends, while also paying attention to how they were shaped by the local context.
We begin with the so-called Polish school of animation, which, looking back at other European avant-garde currents, produced its own distinctive language and style, becoming a worldwide phenomenon. From there – if only by referring to the work of Zbigniew Rybczyński – it is not far to the formal and conceptual experiments that drew some Polish filmmakers away from the world of film towards the visual arts. However, before this division solidified over the next two decades, there were a few cinematic works that made considerable use of art world resources (for example: “Through and Through” by Grzegorz Królikiewicz, the work of Wojciech Wiszniewski or Bogdan Dziworski).
In the 1970s, cinematic experiments became an excellent vehicle for emancipatory and feminist activities. Some of the most emblematic works of that period were created by influential female artists exploring the language of the moving image: its aesthetic possibilities and relationship to corporeality. These tendencies continued on in various ways over the following decades, only to return with a renewed force in the 21st century. This is exemplified by contemporary Polish art of animation, largely associated with successive waves of outstanding Polish female artists. They seek new paths, dispute the history of the medium, but also continue to draw on tradition, while maintaining an open approach to innovative visual languages and techniques.
The third part of the review will be devoted to contemporary, well-established (domestically and internationally) artists and filmmakers who actively engage with the complexities of surrounding reality by partaking in experiments with moving images. Agnieszka Polska introduces compelling references to various cinematic traditions, bringing them into the realm of current artistic strategies and the pressing problems of today. Wojciech Bąkowski’s infects more and more new media with his total image, while returning – from time to time – to music and carrying on the tradition of playing with animated images. The field of art also continues to be a place of freedom, emancipation, and reflection on queer perspectives, as Alex Baczyński-Jenkins will show in “This Feeling”. Finally, Joanna Rajkowska, also making creative use of animated language, will prepare us for an encounter with non-human entities.
Between these instalments, we will screen two recent feature-length films that combine cinema and art in a variety of ways. “Photon” is a unique adaptation of Norman Leto’s artistic practices into the conventions of feature cinema. “Heart of Love,” whose protagonist is Wojciech Bąkowski (or his avatar, played by Jacek Poniedziałek) is somewhat similar, an attempt to combine theoretical reflection and curatorial activities with the convention of a feature melodrama, maintained in the style of a sci-fi dystopia.
By reaching back to the 1960s and 1970s-related “golden period” of the post-war Polish (neo)avant-garde and its cinematic adventures, and juxtaposing it with contemporary trends, we attempt to explore the breadth, diversity, but also the (ambiguous, internally conflicted) coherence of Polish moving image art. By presenting the content in this form, we will not only try to make it appealing and relevant, but also demonstrate its persistently inspiring potential. During the events, we may be able to look for elements that link Polish and Korean art. Does the presence of somewhat similar historical problems, social issues, and economic divisions entail a corresponding artistic sensitivity?
※ The project is part of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute’s cultural program implemented on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and Poland.
※ Program events
○ 2024. 12. 11. (Wed) 19:00~20:30
- Lecture: ‘Invisible hand’ - a meeting with Hanna Margolis on how artistic animation is produced in Poland and the contribution of women to its creation
- Lecturer: Hanna Margolis (animated film director, art historian, curator)
- Moderator: Karol Szafraniec (cultural studies-film expert, film educator)
○ 2024. 12. 14. (Sat) 19:00~20:30
- Artist Talk 1: Izabela Plucinska
- Moderator: Karol Szafraniec
○ 2025. 1. 11. (Sat) 19:00~20:30
- Screening: Night Herons (2021, 38min)
- Artist Talk 2: Joanna Rajkowska
- Moderator: Adriana Prodeus