Screenings 2018

This year’s edition of Contexts festival is dedicated to a legendary artist Józef Robakowski, who will present an original set of films. The festival guests will also get a chance to participate in a multimedia exhibition “Facebook blood” opening the festival, through which Robakowski exposes the Poles’ amazing creative potential. That is not the end of film theme during Contexts. In Sokołowsko’s own Zdrowie cinema theater we will be able to see films by William Kentridge – an artist called “the last living genius”, whose animations were shown during the Edinburgh or Cannes festivals. This year’s edition of Contexts festival is also an opportunity to get familiar with the work of Marek Serafiński’s studio.

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Marek Serafiński (Poland)

Marek Serafiński was the author of scripts, artistic design and animations of his own films. He was one of the not many artists from this field, who referred to social theme giving it a surrealistic and grotesque form, where absurd situational comedy merges with tragedy and fright.

The atmosphere of these works was on the border of reality and conventionality characteristic for animated films and created thanks to a specific realisation technique. The starting point are real photographs of actors that are then graphically transformed and arranged in a new movement score.

Produced films:

MÓWCA – 1981,
DWORZEC – 1984,
KONCERT 1986 – Huesca festival award,
BETON 1987 – award for animation during Kraków festival,
WYŚCIG 1989 – Grand Prix of the festival in Leipzig, special award in Annecy, EGZAMIN – 1992,
NARODZINY – 1995,
GARBY – 1997,
ZAWODOWIEC – 2004,
SYN GWIAZD – 2006 – TVP S.A. International Festival of Young Audiences Films ALE KINO Poznań 2006,
IDEA – distinction OFAFA 2007,
SAFARI- 2009. distinction OFAFA 2010
INDYWIDUUM – 2013
IDOL – unfinished film.

Studio Marka Serafińskiego – presentation by Małgorzata Bosek

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Studio Marka Serafińskiego (Polska)

film screenings: authors: Piotr Dumała, Marcin Giżycki, Adela Kaczmarek, Grzegorz Koncewicz, Quay Brothers, Ewa Ziobrowska

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Tanja Brüggemann (Austria)

film screenings: 

I  AOA I Skizze A

für Sylvie Lacroix

AOA I is based on the recordings of the PALAOA underwater observatory of the antarctic ocean built by AWI Alfred Wegener Institute Bremerhaven/Germany. PALAOA means Perannual Acoustic Observatory of the Antarctic Ocean and in Hawaiian language „Whale“. AOA derives from PALAOA. Some interpretations came to my mind, during the process of composing and working with the Spectrograms of the Recordings and papers:

1. Alpha-Omega-Alpha: Starting – Ending- Restarting, the cycle of Life and Death.
2. „Angle of Arrival“, a Terminus used for locating targets
3. reglos/ Experimental Film
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II REGLOS – IMMOTO

für Lars Kindermann

r e g l o s – the second movie within the AOA Cycle – focuses on time-lapse videos and underwater recordings from the Antarctic, taken by the PALAOA research station. A metamorphoses of images and sounds, both over and under the ice’s surface.

Conny Zenk is a visual composer, video and media artist working across topics dissecting social media, migration, gender and feminism as well as urban, architectural and spatial concepts.

www.tanjabrueggemann.com

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VestAndPage (Germany/Italy)

film screening: sin∞fin – Performances at the Core of the Looking-Glass

2012, Trilogy episode short, duration: 45’42”

Produced in Antarctica, the concluding episode  of the VestAndPage sin∞fin trilogy engages through its narrative with the wider spheres of nature and the universe. The trilogy of art films about collaborative performances in remote epic locations around the world is balanced between the real and the visionary, and the effect is amplified by its unfamiliar environments. The performances reflect on universal human experiences such as altruism, partnership and the transient nature of existence.

A VestAndPage production in co-production with: DNA Dirección Nacional del Antártico, Buenos Aires and Thetis Spa, Venice.
Presented by Zonadeartenacción, Residencias del Sur and SpinConectora.
Argentina / Italy / Germany, 2012
English with subtitles in Spanish
Concept, Performances, Camera: Verena Stenke, Andrea Pagnes
Post-production and editing: Verena Stenke
Text: Andrea Pagnes, Laura Bucciarelli, Aisha Ryannon Pagnes
Text Assistance: Gaston Lacombe
Spanish Translation: Roberto Ruiz
Soundscape and music: Zai Kuning, Angie Seah, Black Sea Hotel and recordings of Weddell seal callings under the ice courtesy of Douglas Quin.

Questions and Answers: “Antarctic Dream – Ice as Architecture of the Human Spirit, VestAndPage performative works in Antarctica” (Performing in extreme weather conditions and in places where humans do not belong to)

www.vest-and-page.de

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William Kentridge (South Africa)

film screenings: documentary How We Make Sense of the World (Louisiana Museum, Denmark), 30’
animations: Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City After Paris, 8’02’’
Felix in Exile, 8’43’’
Tide Table, 8’50’’

How We Make Sense of the World spells out William Kentridge’s underpinning philosophy and approach to his work. He states that… there is a desperation in all certainty. The category of political uncertainty, philosophical uncertainty, uncertainty of images is much closer to how the world is. Talking with candor and modesty Kentridge speaks of the self-aggrandisement of certainty. How work may be beautiful to you the maker but fails to resonate with anybody else. A failure to realize that the work doesn’t work because too much credence is give to the voices coming in. Kentridge also talks of how the world is erroneously presented in an objective fashion and how so much depends on what comes to the reading of a work from ones history, memory and prejudices. He also suggests that autobiographical elements are essential in the making of profound work.All this may well be common accepted knowledge and yet I frequently see mediocre work that is overblown and hyped by the artist way beyond its worth.

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Horacy Muszyński (Poland)

film screening: Robakowski The Remake 

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Małgorzata Potocka (Poland)

film screening:  Modlitwa do bytu – Koji Kamoji (A prayer to Being- Koji Kamoji)

Documentary film – a portrait of an artist Koji Kamoji and his performance “A prayer to Being” was recorded in Labirynt gallery in 2018. A conversation about art and life of a remarkable artist, who is Japanese, however fate choose a different homeland for him, Poland. Koji Kamoji became one of the main representatives of performance art in the 80’s and is associated with Foksal Gallery to this day.
Director: Małgorzata Potocka
Director of photography: Zdzisław Najda
Production: “Aleja Kultury” Sp. z o.o.
Duration: 19 min