[artinfo] 1,2,3... Avant-Gardes / Tate Modern

[Florian Zeyfang]

The filmseries 1,2,3... Avant-Gardes explores and 
challenges the 'continuous' history of 
experimentation in film and art and the 
interaction between both fields. It also seeks a 
possible history for Polish avant-garde art and 
film, to be discovered and reconstructed against 
many distortions in Polish history over the last 
80 years. The project points to different ideas 
of modernism by examining parallel practices of 
conceptual film and art production generated from 
the Cold War era through today. Grounded in the 
extensive output of experimental film in Poland 
during the 1970s, 1,2,3... Avant-Gardes offers a 
selection of films produced primarily by Polish 
artists from that period, in addition to 
contemporary work that challenges established 
histories of experimental cinema. The series will 
include three programmes: Analytical Strategies, 
Games and Participation, and Consumption.

Curated by ¸ukasz Ronduda, Florian Zeyfang.

The exhibition 1,2,3... Avant-Gardes was 
presented at CSW Ujazdowski Castle (Warsaw, 
2006/7) Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (2007) and sala 
rekalde (Bilbao, 2007/8).

Monday 21 April 2008, 18.30
1,2,3... Avant-Gardes: Analytical Strategies
This programme examines different experimental 
methods developed during the 1970s by Polish 
artists linked to collective project such as the 
Film Form Workshop, and to productions more 
closely related to educational undertakings, such 
as films by Józef Robakowski made with his 
students from the Lódz Cinema School. This 
material is contrasted with a series of recent 
works by renowned painter and filmmaker Wilhelm 
Sasnal. The films share a common interest in 
deconstructing the film medium and examining 
cinema's potential for transmitting a new 
representation of reality. The contemporary works 
selected, seek to re-evaluate the moving image 
through different analytical, structural and 
systematic interests.

Introduction: Stuart Comer (Tate Modern, London)

1. Test, 1971, Józef Robakowski
2. Centre, Centrum, 1973, Kazimierz Bendkowski
3. 30 sound situations, 30 sytuacji dêwiekowych, 1975, Ryszard Wasko
4. 1,2,3.. operator`s exercise, 1,2,3 çwiczenie operatorskie, 1972, Pawel Kwiek
5. A Square, Kwadrat, 1972, Zbigniew Rybczynski
6. 22x, 1971, Józef Robakowski
7. An Area, Obszar, 1973, Kazimierz Bendkowski
8. Straight-curve, Prosta-Krzywa, 1973, Ryszard Wasko
9. Waclaw Antczak's Trip to the Newsstand on 
Glówna St., Podróz Wac½awa Antczaka do kiosku 
przy ulicy Glównej, 1973, Ryszard Wasko
10 Films 2007-2008, Wilhelm Sasnal

1,2,3... Avant-Gardes: Consumption
Wednesday 23 April 2008, 18.30
Pop Art was a strong tendency in Polish 
experimental film in addition to the country's 
better known structuralist cinema practices. The 
1970s gave rise to a strong current of artists 
who considered their own work an attempt to 
establish a critical or affirmative link with the 
popular / quasi-consumerist culture of socialist 
Poland. The group included Natalia LL, Zdzislaw 
Sosnowski, Janusz Haka, and Zygmunt Rytka

Introduction: David Crowley (Royal College of Art, London)

1. Consumption Art, Sztuka konsumpcyjna, 1973, Natalia LL
2. Untitled, bez tytu½u, 1973, Krzysztof Zarebski, Krystyna Jachniewicz
3. Goalkeeper, 1975, Zdzislaw Sosnowski
4. Satisfaction, 1979, Zdzislaw Sosnowski, Teresa Tyszkiewicz
5. Permanent Position, Stale zajecie, 1978, 
Zdzislaw Sosnowski, Teresa Tyszkiewicz
6. Fiat 126p, 1975, Zygmunt Rytka
7. Skying Scenes with Franz Klammer, Sceny 
narciarskie z Franzem Klammerem, 1980, Bogdan 
Dziworski, Zbigniew Rybczynski

1,2,3... Avant-Gardes: Games and Participation
Sunday 27 April 2008, 17.00
The radical utopian concept of 'Open Form,' 
developed by the influential Polish architect 
Oskar Hansen, was originally developed in the 
international context of late-modernist debates 
on architecture during the 1950s and was later 
applied to experiments in cinema and performance 
by several Polish artists. Hansen employed the 
concept at the Fine Arts Academy of Warsaw during 
the 1970s. These sessions witnessed the emergence 
of the 'artistic game', a mode of practice that 
encouraged communication and cooperation between 
the artist and various participants. The films in 
this programme document some of the artistic 
games carried out in the period, while two 
contemporary works recover the element of 
communication that was typical in Hansen's 
artistic games. Artists include Oskar Hansen, 
Pawel Althamer, Artur Zmijewski, Zofia Kulik, 
Przemyslaw Kwiek.

Introduction: Felicity Scott (Columbia University, New York)

1. Open Form, Forma Otwarta, episodes: Playing on 
the Actress' Face, School Gra na twarzy 
aktorki,Szkola, 35 mm, 1971, Przemyslaw Kwiek, 
Pawel Kwiek, Zofia Kulik, Jan S. Wojciechowski
2. Brodno 2000, video, 2000, Pawel Althamer
3. Feeling One's Way, Po omacku, Piotr Andrejew, 
Camera: Zbigniew Rybczynski, 1975
4. Game on Morel's Hill, Gra na wzgórzu Morela, 
1971, Jan S. Wojciechowski, Oskar Hansen, 
Grzegorz Kowalski, Waldemar Raniszewski, Wiktor 
Gutt and others.
5. Them, Oni, 2007, Artur Zmijewski
6. Actions, Dzia½ania, 1972, Zofia Kulik, 
Przemyslaw Kwiek, Jan S. Wojciechowski, Pawel 
Kwiek, Krzysztof Zarebski
7. Choices.pl, Wybory.pl, 2005-2006 (fragments), Artur Zmijewski/Pawel Althamer

Part of the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival, 
supported by Polish Cultural Institute. 
www.kinoteka.org.uk