TAPE
video Object
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exhibited:
• Mir @ Arsenał gallery Białystok PL

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The action going on in the tiny viewfinder of the VHS camera lying on the floor easily escapes the audience's attention: a bearded man walks clumsily on all fours towards something or somebody. Smolenski mocks the habits related to our 'normal' functioning within a certain space; thus by bringing his audience to their knees, he cajoles them into assuming the perspective of these participants of social life who are in same way far from prototypical, e.g. children, the elderly or alcoholics. "Tape" is also a vehicle through which memory speaks: played from an archaic camera, the film seems to be a part of a video archive; pervaded with nostalgia, it brings back childhood memories. / Zuzanna Hadryś, Michał Lasota

photo: Mateusz Sadowski