So genannte Wellen und andere Phänomene des Geistes

Pawel Althamer is both a traditional sculptor and a radical performance artist. He combines these divergent disciplines in an intriguing whole in his politically-slanted artistic practice. In his earliest works, Althamer already links the notion of the artist as eternal outsider to the isolated position (until recently) of Poland in relation to the West. The theme running through all his activities is the far-reaching isolation of the modern individual in our Western society, resulting in existential alienation and spiritual poverty.

Mind expansion and the search for true solidarity are the underlying themes of the eight-part video portrait shown here. Under the influence of various hallucinogens (drugs, a truth drug and hypnosis), Althamer allows himself to be interviewed and filmed by friend and artist Artur Zmijewski. The long-term project began at the academy, after the two artists noticed that their ways of thinking no longer coincided. ‘Asking each other questions’ was used as an antidote to alienation.