visual art – simple life

At the invitation of the Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art, Polish art historian Maria Anna Potocka is curating the exhibition on current video and media art from Poland. Her compilation of different positions emphasizes the reciprocal relationships between the multimedia and the everyday. Under the concept of "life-like" art, as she introduces it for the exhibition visual art – simple life, the convergence of art and life that has been propagated in art since the 20th century is thematized in a new perspective. The new media have completely redefined the functions and production forms of art. The classical relationship between object and image is fundamentally called into question by the new media technologies. Realities are no longer reproduced, but generated. Furthermore, working in and with technically generated realities enables an anonymity that makes the creative act appear invisible. Unambiguous artistic authorship loses its significance.

Maria Anna Potocka

THE NEW MEDIA AND LIFE

Until now, art has always maintained a distance between itself and life. It tried to be a separate area that was clearly distinct from other human activities. This principle still applies. But alongside the art that declares itself autonomous, another art is emerging that does not seek a clear separation from life and occasionally even tries to penetrate it without leaving any traces. An autonomous work says straight out: "I am art". A work that has merged with life must first be "detached", it requires the recipient's attention or a context that prompts: "Look at me like art". Why do some artists renounce the autonomy of art and risk it becoming anonymous? What advantage does it have when the trace of uniqueness becomes the same as the ordinary and everyday? Works of art are created that are very similar to "life". But similarity is not their intention, they do not intend to imitate life. The resemblance here is merely a method, a ruse, sometimes an attack. The similarity is necessary because it is about creating or provoking small differences. In life-like works, the differences emerge through the presence of a "small inconsistency". It is usually just a touch whose subtle absurdity spreads to everything around it and forces us to see a "normal" phenomenon from its absurd side. The everyday, infected by the absurd, can be an active source of reflection. Life-like art uses many forms, drawing on different materials and quotations. visual art – simple life, an exhibition of five Polish artists, does not present all the possibilities of life-like art, but nevertheless attempts to show its range and versatility. Works relating to advertising, politics, surveillance, transcendence and painting can be seen here.

Jaroslaw Kozlowski

Gallery of Contemporary Art - New Acquisitions 1997 - 2000 (Video installation)

This work is constructed of more than a dozen "television terminals", presenting compilations of advertisements from around the world. Firework-saturated images, colors, allusions, and prompting occur.
A kaleidoscope of stifled sex, inappropriate enthusiasm, shameless tricks, false optimism, and joy in possession arises, along with a stupid feeling of superiority.

These moving images are usually technically flawless and backed up by perceptive psychological analysis. In any case, they have an accurate feeling for the place where people are vulnerable to manipulation.
An interesting and fascinating part of advertising is its deliberate mendacity, which everyone accepts. This is simply regarded as a tool. The lies in advertising are intriguing in a world where everyone pretends to be telling the truth.
It is a joke that more credibility is lent to advertising than to politics, which makes a great effort at achieving a pretense of credibility.

20 video tapes. Each contains television commercials recorded in a random order from all over the world. They are shown on monitors placed on stands of various heights. The installation is separated from the beholder by a typical museum barrier with a thick velvet rope.

Aleksander Janicki

NON STOP (Semi-interactive Installation)

This looks like closed-circuit TV monitoring of a building. Several monitors make it possible to observe the exhibition hall. The exhibits can be seen, along with the people who go up to them.
From time to time, this peaceful simultaneous image is shattered by an alarm from one of the monitors. It turns out that a theft is underway in the cloakroom, or a guest has passed out, or someone has broken one of the works, or someone else is engaged in a shoving match with the security guards.

At first, the situations seem shockingly credible. Then they are quickly revealed for what they are, and we stop believing in them. That moment undercuts our credulity in regard to the other images.
We begin to classify the images into those that are probably genuine and those that are probably fake. The situation increases our wariness about things that previously seemed self-evident.

A room containing closed-circuit monitoring of the building. Sixteen cameras observe the exhibition. The beholder uses a remote control to choose a view. Some of the images are authentic and live from the exhibition.
Several fictitious scenes were earlier recorded on video. They show emergencies: theft, an attack on a work of art, a fainting episode, the arrival of the police, a power cut. These scenes appear at random, simulating an alarm.

Przemyslaw Jasielski

To see the voice of angels' wings - television version (Video Object)

The arrangement of this work mirrors a typical bourgeois "television terminal". There is a table with a TV set on it and a comfortable armchair in front of it.
The apparent figure of an angel can be seen on screen. The image is fuzzy with the nebulousness of a spiritual apparition. The angel beats its wings as if it wants to convey that its technical imperfection, its media "distance", is so great that the signal is fading.
We can sense the effort at contact, but there is no hope of comprehension.

The sense of mystery deepens when we look into the back of the set - the cabinet is empty. Angels have no physical existence and may not exist at all, yet they seem present in some way.
When it seems that everything can be visualized, it would be hard to resist trying to show a "non-existent" angel. And indeed, we have a visually "plausible" angel in this technically hopeless projection. The angel seems to have been captured. It even seems that we can hear the rustle of its wings.

A specially modified television. In the cabinet is only a picture tube. Movements by the beholder cause an image to appear.
This is a fuzzy image of an angel beating its wings. The television set is on a shabby stand, with an old armchair in front of it.

Wilhem Sasnal

Pictures from computer (Paintings)

This is a series of oil paintings of computer-game screenshots or internet pictures. The pictures are painted in the simplest way possible. They consist exclusively of essential shortcuts.

Behind each effect stands one easy, predictable, effortless movement. The method of depiction is an affront to the existing canons of painting.
There is no struggle with form here. The paintings have been made half-heartedly, with what seems to be an automatic indolence.

The image is therefore reduced to a simple commentary. It is realistic and maintains its neutrality in the face of its own reality. This reality consists of the landscapes and situations that appear on screen.
10 medium-sized pictures. The compositions are painted on the basis of computer games or the internet

Wiktoria Cukt

President of 2001 (Interactive Installation)

POLITICS ARE REDUNDANT

This work can be shown in the form of an electoral rally or headquarters. "Politicians are redundant" - is the slogan of artistic politics here. Despite the slogan, the work promotes a politician. Wiktoria is a virtual politician, visually designed to satisfy the elementary expectations of the electorate. Wiktoria is a good-looking woman. You can feel her decisiveness. Her calm eyes conceal an awareness of what she wants. Her makeup and hairstyle attest to her feeling of self-esteem.

Her rich jewelry asserts the wealth that ensures the impartiality of her administration. She combines everything that is great in men and beautiful in women. She has bright electoral prospects. The only problem is that she does not exist. The design of this political campaign has all the attributes of authenticity. There are flyers, posters, banners, election questionnaires, and the candidate appears on television. Nevertheless, no one makes any bones about the fact that she is fictitious. No matter, the voters believe in Wiktoria. She is real enough to play the game of politics.
The electoral headquarters of Wiktoria Cukt, virtual candidate for President of Poland: the projection of her face, campaign literature, posters, billboards, and an internet connection.