1, 2, 3... Avant-Gardes

Tate Modern, London 21-27 April 2008

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 Łukasz Ronduda, Florian Zeyfang

Krzysztof Zarebski Untitled, 1973, (photo: Leszek Fidusiewicz)

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, Jozef Robakowski
2. Centre, Centrum, 1973, Kazimierz Bendkowski
3. 30 sound situations, 30 sytuacji dzwiekowych, 1975, Ryszard Wasko
4. 1, 2, 3.. operator's exercise, 1, 2, 3 cwiczenie operatorskie, 1972, Pawel Kwiek
5. A Square, Kwadrat, 1972, Zbigniew Rybczynski
6. 22x, 1971, Jozef 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 Glowna St., Podroz Waclawa Antczaka do kiosku przy ulicy Glownej, 1973, Ryszard Wasko
10 Films 2007-2008, Wilhelm Sasnal

Wednesday 23 April 2008, 18.30
1, 2, 3... Avant-Gardes: Consumption
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 tytulu, 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

Sunday 27 April 2008, 17.00
1, 2, 3... Avant-Gardes: Games and Participation
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, KwieKulik, Jan S. Wojciechowski, Oskar Hansen, Grzegorz Kowalski, Waldemar Raniszewski, Wiktor Gutt and others.
5. Them, Oni, 2007, Artur Zmijewski
6. Actions, Działania, 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