Lechosław Olszewski"Hands Up"? : Art and Politics in the Activities of the Workshop of the Film Form.

"One day some influential members of the Association [i.e.Association of Polish Art Photographers – author’s note]convinced the Party that it was photography, and notpainting, that was the appropriate technique for makingportraits of the Socialist leaders. [...] The authorities[...] commissioned the Association to make a photographicportrait of comrade Władysław Gomułka [in the years 1956-1970 First Secretary of the Central Committee of the PolishUnited Workers' Party – author’s note.]. In the firstinstance they commissioned 750 portraits of the FirstSecretary two metres by two in size [...] Three-memberteams were set up, each given the task of making fifteenportraits. The Photographer and Restorer was included inone of those "trios" [...] The portraits were handed overin the Visual Arts Studios (Pracownie Sztuk Plastycznych - PSP) inFoksal Street, in Warsaw.1 The PSP was more than just anintermediary in this praiseworthy public commission. ThePSP also financed the Foksal Gallery. When they brought thefirst fifteen portraits rolled in a tube to Warsaw, thecorridors (one might say, the economic and architecturalback-office facilities of the Foksal Gallery) were alreadycovered with hundreds of smiling faces of Władysław Gomułka,

1 “Polish Art” PSP was an organisation whose responsibilities includedthe realisation of commissions of works for exhibition, decorations forpolitical occasions, paintings, graphic works, sculpture and interiordesign, but also valuation and assignemtn of commissions to artists.Following privatisation, PSP continues its operations until the presentday – see www.psp.com.pl.

properly mounted on stretcher frames and retouched.”2

I would like to make this story of a well-paid potboilerjob, recounted by Wojciech Bruszewski, co-founder and oneof the mainstays of the Workshop of the Film Form (WarsztatFormy Filmowej - WFF), to be a starting-point for this briefpaper presenting some observations about the relationshipbetween artistic practice and the authorities in Poland inthe 1970s3. I will attempt to present this relationship withreference to the activities of relatively young artists (aspersonified by the Photographer and Restorer4), making us ofthe new media (photography, but also film and video), andbeing members of the WFF5.

Although the entire heritage of the Polish People's Republic(PRL) sparks off historical and political debate to thisday, it is the period of the 1970s and the rule of EdwardGierek that is subject to a particular kind of

2 W. Bruszewski, Photographer, Kraków 2007, pp.92-95.3 This problem is investigated at a greater depth in L. Olszewski, “TheActivity of the Workshop of the Film Form as an example of the strategyof art towards the authorities in Poland in the 1970s”, in ArtiumQuaestiones IX (1998), s. 111-155. 4 “The Photographer, the title figure, a character endowed with aphotographic memory, is occasionally reminiscent of the author of thebook […] The Restorer, an avant-garde artist, overuses the words ‘ifonly’, in life if not in this book.” ; see Bruszewski, op.cit., pp. 6-7.5 Members of the WFF were not artists at the beginning of their careers, since they had earlier been active members of Toruń photographic groups “Zero-61”, “Rytm” and “Zero-69”, as well as the filmclub called “Pętla” and the an interdisciplinary art group called “Krąg”; see M. Bacciarelli, “Zero-61and others”, in Gazeta Pomorska, 1969, no.147; the same author, “In the old forge”, Fotografia, 1969, no.9, andM. Kokot, “The photographic group ‘Zero-61’ (1961-1971)”, in Art Photography in the Western and Northern Territories 1945-1968, Szczecin 1986, pp.115-131.

mythologisation as the biographies of many prominentdisputants are tied to this particular period. It is forthis reason that reference to the history of thePhotographer and Restorer may be seen as a kind ofdenunciation, and yet more evidence of the fact that - asWiesław Borowski, director of the Foksal Gallery, the mostinfluential center of contemporary art in Poland at thetime, both conceptually and institutionally, once stated –the artists creating art which made use of the new mediawere in the actual fact only a "pseudoavant-garde"6, and assuch, in the opinion of Borowski's present-day followers,played into the hands of the authorities7. It should beborn in mind, however, that the Foksal Gallery did not existin an institutional and ideological void, but - like allother entities officially operating in the PRL - was underthe ideological pressure of - to use Louis Althusser'sphrase, the cultural Ideological Instrument of the State(Ideologiczny Aparat Państwa, IAP)8. 6 The term “pseudoavant-garde” is generally used with reference to twoarticles by Borowski, “The Pseudoavant-garde” and “In Reply to Replies”,in Kultura, 1975, nos.12 & 25, in which he launched an attack on part ofthe artistic millieu, but it also is part of the practice of discourseof the gallery from the moment of its opening. For a discussion of thetheoretical and critical discourse as an instrument for reproducing theprestige of the Foksal Gallery, see M. Krajewski, “Strategies of ArtPropagation in the PRL. On the subject of the Crooked Wheel Gallery,the Foksal Gallery and Gruppa, Poznań 1998 (an unpublished doctoralthesis, available in the library of the UAM), pp.174-239 ; excerpts fromthe thesis have been published in the form of an interview in S. Sierra,A History of the Foksal Gallery, Presented to an Unemployed Ukrainian, catalogue of anexhibition of the Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw 2002, pp. 23-30.7 A discussion on this theme was revived by the article of PiotrPiotrowski, A Decade: On the Syndrome of the 1970s, Art Culture, Criticism and Art –Selectively and Subjectively, Poznań 1991. 8 Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”, inAlthusser, Lenin and Philosophy, and Other Essays, tr. B. Brewster, London 1971,pp.127-188 (the text first appeared in 1969).

In the opinion of Piotr Piotrowski, the IAP in Poland was ofschizophrenic nature. On the one hand, it demanded thatcreative artists made Socialist art, and on the other, itprovided them with the opportunities for legalisedrebellion, within circumscribed limits9. In Piotrowski'sview, Polish artists had the right to the autonomy of art,since the IAP renounced any aspiration to control theoutput, but it retained control over artistic life. Thiswas a consequence of a decision taken in 1956, whenSocialist Realism was eliminated from cultural life, andartists were given the right to work according to their ownpenchants. The development of contemporary art was not onlytolerated, but was even encouraged, within the boundaries ofthe IAP. . Whereas in the 1960s galleries got closed, artists wereunder surveillance and exhibitions were censored, in the1970s examples of repressions were incidental, and had beenof moderate nature. This was the result, according toPiotrowski, of a "silent agreement" between the artists andthe Communist Party, which allowed the former to do anythingthey wanted, apart from engaging in politics. Although manyartists practised art which repudiated modernism and engagedin social and political criticism (conceptual art,happenings, body art, the art of new media, etc.), theiractivities were always justified by the theory of the non-

9 Piotr Piotrowski, “Following Louis Althausser: On the Politics ofAutonomy and Autonomy of Politics in Western European Art”; textaccessible at http://www.obieg.pl/artmix/4157 (dated 23.12.2006).

engagement and autonomy of modernist art10.

The theoretical model constructed by Piotrowski very ablybrings out the difference between the situation of artistsin Poland and those in other countries of the Soviet Bloc11,but at the same time becomes completely inappropriate whenconsidering particular works, actions and events12. Themodel treats an actual entity rather too simplistically,reifying the structure it itself erects, treating it as anautonomous entity, provided with the ability to act in thesame way as do individuals, the real objects of history.It is surely impossible to maintain that, in the reality ofthe PRL a work such as Ewa Partum's My idea is a golden idea (Mojaidea jest złotą ideą), printed in gold letters, had the samemeaning as the action initiated by Andrzej Partum in theAkumlatory 2 Gallery, of sending the largest possiblequantity of office paper-clips to the address of theMinistry of Domestic Trade.

In the opinion of Pierre Bourdieu, knowledge of an

10 See Piotr Piotrowski, The Significance of Modernism: Towards a History of Polish Artafter 1945, Poznań 1999, pp. 148-207. 11 Polish artists from the mid-1950s to the end of the 1980s enjoyed aconsiderably greater degree of freedom than artists living in othercountries of the Soviet bloc ; see Piotr Piotrowski, The Avant-garde in theShadow of Yalta : Art in Central-Eastern Europe in the Years 1945-1989, Poznań 2005. 12 In the case of art of the 1970s, unavailability of analyticalstudies is observed. This shortage was recently filled by the study Ł.Ronduda, Polish Art of the 1970s : the Avant-garde, P. Uklański (in preparation),Warsaw 2009. The same, however, cannot be said about the work by L.Nader, Conceptualism in the PRL, Warsaw 2009, which places previously well-known ideas in a wider intellectual context ; for example, seeConceptual Reflection in the Polish Art : the Experience of Discourse: 1965-1975, P. Polit,P. Woźniakiewicz (catalogue of an exhibition at CSW Zamek Ujazdowski),Warsaw 2000.

unengaged, neutral observer must always be confronted withpractice, since it is handicapped by limitations and leadsto a defective form of knowledge.13 An abstract model isincapable of accounting for integral compositional practice,such concepts as "style", "intuition", and particularly"improvisation". Furthermore, in constructing a model ofpractice, objectivist knowledge cannot describe the "slips"or "strategies" that might undermine the universality of themodel. Bourdieu also stated that an adequate theory ofpractice must take into account both unavoidable pressuresand limitations connected to the existence of a system (inthis instance the IAP), and individual strategies andsubjective conditions which might have influence upon theresults of such activities. Referral to this dimension of practice should not indicatethat I intend to talk about rebellion against authorities,as examples of such an approach in the 1970s were rare -e.g. the happenings Good (Dobrze) and Stańczyk by Elżbieta andEmil Cieślarowie, the sculpture A total portrait of Karl Marx(Portret totalny Karola Marksa) by Krzysztof Bednarski, or the filmFace (Twarz) by Paweł Kwiek and Jacek Łomnicki14 - but ofrebellion against the ways in which it was manifested. Iwill thus attempt to analyse the field in which supervision13 Pierre Bourdieu, A Study for a Theory of Practice, Preceded by Three Studies on theTheme of the Ethnology of the Kabyle, tr. W. Kroker, Kęty 2007. 14 It has been possible to establish, on the basis of the archives ofthe Institute of National Remembrance (Instytut Pamięci Narodowej), thatthe Security Services (Służba Bezpieczeństwa) carried out severaloperations against Polish artists ; these includeed “Letraset” (againstMarian Konieczny and Pawel Kwiek), “Unknown” (“Nieznani”, against theparticipants of the NET project initiated by J. Kozłowski and A.Kostalowskiego), “Plastyk” (against J. Haca) and “Żółtek” (against KojiKamoji, on account of his origins) ; see Ronduda, op.cit., pp.245-264.

by the authorities came into conflict with oppositiontowards the hegemony of the obligatory cultural and socialorder. Activities undertaken during the 1970s were ofcritical nature towards the establishment, but were notrevolutionary. No artist or art critic at the time dared totake a similar stand towards the authorities as did manywriters and intellectuals as a token of solidarity with thegrowing political opposition15.

In this context the activities of the members of the WFFappear particularly interesting, since the context for theseactivities was not only the visual arts, but Polishcinematography and rapidly developing television16.Analysing the activities of the WFF, one should take intoaccount not only the dynamic of changes in the relationshipbetween the authorities and art (visual arts culture) ingeneral, but also the authorities' strict control over thecinema and other mass media. Their status was clearlydefined by the ideology, which directly affected productionand distribution. The authorities decided not only aboutthe screenplay themes, but also about the choice ofappropriate artistic means and cinema repertoires. Proposalsoften took on the form of instructions and sometimes evenadministrative orders. The change in the role of filmstudios also served the purpose of the system. The autonomyand independence of production, which was achieved by the15 e.g. Stanisław Barańczak and Jerzy Andrzejewski were among thefourteen signatories of the Appeal to the Community and the Authorities of the PRL ofSeptember 1976, which announced the founding of the Committee for theDefence of the Workers (Komitet Obrony Robotników, KOR). 16 In 1970, channel two of the Polish Television was started, in 1971colour television broadcast started and by 1972 there were more thanfive million TV sets in the countrywide.

studios after 1956, was restricted. A film-maker was notexpected to be a creative artist, but a reproducer capableof visualising political expectations17.

"Treść" (Content) WFF was formed in October 1970, at thetime of shaping of the new system. It was founded by thestudents and former students as a section of the researchclub at the Łódź Film School (Leon Schiller’s PWSFTViT)18,and as such was allowed to use the technical facilities ofthe Film School, and to realise its own programme, whichstated "The Workshop produces films, recordings andtelevision broadcasts, audio broadcasts, visual artsexhibitions, events and interventions. The Workshop engagesin critical and conceptual activities. It does notundertake any commercial activity, and its participants workon anon-profit basis. The Workshop researches and has the17 The then Deputy Minister of Culture and Art, Czesław Wiśniewski,criticising the current view of contemporary film, stated : “[…] artthat is of artistic value is also positive and affirmative art, it isalso art discovering the human being and its optimism, in spite of thecomplex political situation and moral condition of the world at thepresent time.” Film-makers thus had to present social promotion,civilisation progress in rural areas, social security and the activeengagement of young people. Historical themes were also of greatimportance, particularly the beginnings of the Polish People’s Republicand revelation of the “true face” of pre-1939 Poland ; see Cz.Wiśniewski, “In search of contemporary film”, Ekran 1969, no. 20. 18 Participants in the group, other than Bruszewski, Kwiek and Łomnicki,included Antoni Mikołajczyk, Józef Robakowski, Andrzej Różycki, RyszardWaśko, Tadeusz Junak, Marek Koterski, Kazimierz Bendkowski, ZbigniewRybczyński, Ryszard Gajewski, jak również Jan Freda, Janusz Połom,Ryszard Lenczewski, Zdzisław Sowiński, Andrzej Paruzel, JanuszKołodrubiec, Janusz Szczerek and Tomasz Konart. The last joint ventureof WFF was Documenta 6 in Kassel in 1977 ; see R.W. Kluszczyński,“Mechanical Imagination: the Creativity of Machines : the Workshop ofthe Film Form, 1970-1977”, in The Workshop of the Film Form, catalogueexhibition, R. Kluszczyński (ed.), CSW Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw 2000,pp.9-57.

ambition to broaden the possibilities of audiovisual arts onthe basis of most recent tendencies in contemporary art."19

The most spectacular realisation of the postulates of theWFF's manifesto was a series of happenings which took placein the temporary exhibition galleries of the Art Museum inŁódź from 31 January to 25 February 197320. At the openingof the "Workshop Action" ("Akcja Warsztat”) visitors werephotographed. On the following day a theatre performance ofthe play The Career and Death of Adolf Hitler (Kariera i śmierć AdolfaHitlera) was staged, directed by Edward Kowalski, a retiredsocial activist. On 3 February, a sound performance byBruszewski, The Crossing (Skrzyżowanie), took place, being therealisation of the idea of pure recording. Four microphonesinstalled at the intersection of Więckowskiego Street andGdańska Street were connected by means of amplifiers toloudspeakers appropriately located in the exhibition halls.Throughout the entire day the soundscape of the road-crossing existed also in the gallery. On another day,visitors were offered access to musical instruments, whichthey could play during the opening-hours of the museum.Mikołajczyk’s idea was to build a wooden construction in therooms i.e. Spatial Construction (Konstrukcja przestrzenna). Twoexhibitions were held: a show of "astral photographs" byRobakowski, and Ocean, consisting of photographs by ZbigniewDłubak. In Połom's Electronic Antinomies (Elektroniczne antynomie) atext by Samuel Beckett was subjected to simultaneoustransformation into various systems of notation, from

19 The text of the manifesto, which first appeared as a leaflet, wasreprinted several times, e.g. in Powiększenie 1988, no.3 (31), pp.104-105.20 U. Czartoryska, “Action Workshop”, in Projekt 1973, no.4.

teletype to perforated cards and from recording tapes tooscillography. Różycki presented Virtual Identification(Identyfikacja pozorna), a performance involving the author ofthe film and photographs. The show of a video presenting theauthor and projected onto the rectangle with a blowuppicture of his face, was interrupted by the artist himself.Kwiek and Łomnicki gave two improvised performances,Kwiekolom and Łomokwiek. Robakowski's Audiovisual Message (Komunikataudiowizualny) was a variation on the shadow-theatre. Onanother occasion, a competition for Artistic Signature (Podpisartystyczny), was organised for the viewers. An Objective TelevisionBroadcast (Obiektywna transmisja telewizyjna) was a collective work,using three cameras in three locations in the city, threemonitors and three microphones, continuously broadcastingimage and sound and forming a prototype of an installation.

Even so laconic a description indicates that a fundamentalaspect of the WFF’s activity was its engagement in manyfields, often completely unrelated to each other. Thisdiversity of activity did not result just from the fact thatfilm-makers, photographers, poets, musicians, sculptors andperformers were associated with the WFF, but clearlyreflected the climate of Poland in 1970s, when avant-gardethinking about art in the categories of form, style andvalues was in conflict with the new approaches to artisticcreativity involving dematerialisation, deformalisation andself-analysis. It is thus not surprising that theanalytical and conceptual film output of the WFF, based asit was on the constructivist tradition, naturally coexistedwith anarcho-Fluxus interventions inspired by Dada.

Furthermore, the WFF members’ continual attempts atbalancing between the official institutions such as the ArtMuseum in Łódź, and semi-official institutions, such as forexample Kinolaboratorium in Elbląg must be borne in mind,whose purpose was to escape the all-pervading system (i.e.the IAP), and ensure "independence".

"Independence" was one of the basic values to whichreference was made in various theoretical and criticalcontexts. This term operated in a variety of phraseologicalcombinations. Thus in Poland, in the 1970s, there were"independent galleries", "independent communities andartists", and even "independent art". Independence wasutilised as a substitute for "freedom", which was simplynon-existent in the PRL, under the conditions created by theauthorities. As a result, the meaning of "independence" wasmerely instrumental. In the discussions and debatesconducted in artistic circles, "independence" became nothingmore than an ultimate rhetorical argument, of greatpersuasive power, but reflecting no real relation toauthority. This does not mean that these relations werealways fixed. The relations between authority and theactions of individuals are of course not subject to anystraightforward interpretation - they are constantly beingnegotiated by society. Rather, they have the character ofnumberless points of confrontation, or, as Michel Foucaultstates, "camp-fires of instability", which potentially mightresult in conflict, which could lead to overturning ofpower-relations, albeit temporarily. In my opinion, some ofthe activities of WFF had exactly such an impact. The most

important in this context was the critical and theoreticalactivity, the result of which was a new concept of film, ofthe interventionist activity and engagement of members ofmembers of WFF in non-professional art.

A fundamental field of conflict was the critical andtheoretical activity of WFF. Theoretical considerations andcommentaries on works created within the group most oftenappeared in their own publications, whereas critical textsfrequently appeared in official publications21. The mainobject of criticism was the state of the Polish cinema,which Józef Robakowski attempted to define in his article "ALampoon on the Polish Cinematography"22. The author arguedthat its weakness had been caused by "[...] a lack of anylong-term concept of renewal on the part of the Department.To date, the people responsible for the state of our filmculture have been unaware that any development of an ill-conceived administrative structure will result only in agrowing sense of artistic regression [...] For the sake ofappearance and decency, once again film studios have beenturned upside down, for no other reason than to reorganisethem 'anew' in yet more select company". Robakowski pointedto a mass of film directors having no say in anything,constantly awaiting a "remarkable screenplay" or "self-satisfaction as a result of fruitful work [...]", which"[...] is confirmed each year in reviews, competitions andfestivals, of which there are now so many, that it is21 see J. Robakowski, Interventionary Texts 1970-1995, Koszalin 1995. 22 The text first appeared in Student 1973, no.3; I quote from Powiększenie1988, nr 3 (31), pp.120-122. Certain fragments of the article werecensored several years after its original publication – see Excerpts fromArt, Arcus Gallery, Lublin 1978, pp. 39-40.

impossible to count them all. Everywhere fetes, galas,delegations, the best hotels, and many, many awards for justanything."

The WFF's criticism concerned not just the overall state ofthe Polish cinema, but also thoughts on the theme of filmitself. The members of WFF repudiated the notion of film asillusion, as a recreation of the world using a particularanecdote as a vehicle. Robakowski argued that "the long-time marriage of literature to film has led us to an evidentdead-end, the result of which is a spectacle tooillustrative and deprived of any potential of abstractimpact on the imagination of the viewer"23. And the viewerwas the key figure here. It was for his mind that thebattle in the field of culture was being waged. Theauthorities did not want a culture leading to an increasedindependence of thought, but, in the words of StanisławBarańczak, a culture incapacitating the receiver24. Thusmass culture was the preferred form of expression. WFF, onthe other hand, treated the viewer subjectively, andexpected an intellectual engagement: "A social function issought in these studies solely in the motive of suggestion,in which another person always has the chance, throughbecoming interested, of being an observer and participant inthe discovery of reality. Hence thoughtless audience iscompletely irrelevant here."25

23 J. Robakowski, “Once Again on the Subject of ‘Pure Film’”, in Robotnik Sztuki 1972, no.4. 24 see Stanislaw Barańczak, The Incapacitated Individual : Persuasion in the MassLiterary Culture of the PRL, Paris 1983. 25 J. Robakowski, “On the Art Matter”, in Nurt 1976, no.11; quoted from Powiększenie 1988, no. 3 (31), p.127.

In order to avoid becoming part of both bureaucratisedcinematography and popular culture, the members of WFFapplied strategies of action based on the control ofdistribution and methods of presentation of their films.That was the purpose of the organised events, such as the"Kinolaboratorium" in 1973 (as part of the "Biennale ofSpatial Forms" in Elbląg). These operated on entirelydifferent principles to official events - there were noawards, no judges, no classification, remuneration orratings26. The work of WFF, understood as a sign of aprotest within the film milieu, the idea of which was toexercise the right to unrestricted experiments against thedictatorship of bureaucracy, found expression above all inthe works created within the framework of WFF. They wereintended not only for individuals interpreting them inaccordance with their own experience and possibilities ofperception, but also conscious of the methods ofmanipulation commonly applied in feature films.

The weight of evidence in this brief paper must berestricted to the account of two films by WojciechBruszewski27. Apnoea (Bezdech), from 1972, consisted of twoparts and was still based on a direct conformation betweenvarious film concepts. In the first part, the image ofstreet traffic is commented on by a reader according to the

26 see the Notebook of the Robotnik Sztuki, a kind of a catalogue, 1973, no.5. 27 For an analysis of the films of WFF, see Ł. Ronduda, “The Workshop ofthe Film Form: Between Art and Cinematography”, in Ronduda, op.cit.,pp.265-299; for the film context, see papers by B. London, Ł. Rondudyand L. Zippay in The Workshop of the Film Form 1970-1977 (DVD and catalogue),Electronic Arts Intermix, New York 2004.

principles of feature film. The second part, however, isstructured in such a way as to reveal these obviousprinciples. The means of building a "story" are used insuch a way that narration is based on a structuredsuccession of the planes and counter-planes of fourspeakers. The photographic material, copied three times isedited in such a way that the dialogue of each speaker withevery other speaker is presented. Repetition of words andgestures in a mechanical manner creates a completelypreposterous reality. Thanks to this, however, the viewercan become aware of the techniques used for his benefit, andultimately understand that he too is the object ofmanipulation.

The film A Box of Matches: an Audiovisual Experiment (Pudełko zapałek :Eksperyment audiowizualny) from 1975 approached this problem inanother manner. It consisted of just one long shot. Thecamera recorded a hand rhythmically striking a box ofmatches against a window-ledge. The first blow coincidedwith the first sound that was heard. Subsequently it isnoticeable that the sound is "delayed" with relation to theimage. This delay increases, reaches a culmination, andthen begins to reduce, until once again the sound coincideswith the image. This is more apparent than real, though,since the heard sound was actually generated by the earlierblow. Bruszewski refers to a real phenomenon, thedifference in the speed of light and sound, masked by afeature film. Narrative dramaturgy has been replaced by thedramaturgy of matter itself, and the viewer, stripped of anyemotional reception, has to rely solely on his own

intellect.

The members of WFF did not present their opinions andbeliefs solely in the discursive and artistic fields, butalso embodied them taking part in social performances bymeans of various kinds of intervention28. These were not,however, actions undertaken on an ad hoc basis, but therealisations of a well-thought-out strategy. In 1972,following the Fifth Review of Films on Art in Zakopane, theyissued a statement, in which they warned, "At last - weannounce our presence. We warn all incompetent peopleagainst engaging in any kind of lectures, discussions andpot-boiler presentations at festivals, symposia or reviews.We will ruthlessly condemn all and any discussions run alongthe lines of 'it is possible, but nevertheless, ultimatelycannot be denied' which are excellent and perfidious meansof obliterating, losing and diluting the truth. We willcondemn them irrespective of whether they are a result ofill will, or of thoughtlessness and ignorance."29 And manymembers of the milieu learned that these promises were notvain.

The members of WFF organised their most spectacular actionduring the Review of Polish Films in Łagów in 1971, where,during the show of their own films (including Market /Rynek/Inventoriy Taking /Inwentaryzacja/ and Test) they provoked viewersinto expressing their own opinions by means of commentaries

28 A further discussion of the theme of interventions can be found inL. Olszewski, “Where is the Human Being? actions of the Workshop of theFilm Form”, in Zeszyty Artystyczne VII (1994), pp.18-33.29 “Statement”, in Student 1972, no.9.

and questions, such as "Where is the human being?"30 Theundertone was obviously ironic, since this was the mostfrequent accusation levelled at their work. This was aneffective strategy, as a number of renowned film critics andwell-known directors were induced to give a response, whicha journalist summarised by means of the question, "Perhapsthese young people intended to flood the audience withcommunist clichés, show a parade of mental schematics totrigger the Pavlovian reaction in a typical disputant i.e. aperson not very smart but dead serious?"31 Theinterventions by WFF thus recognised the abnormality of suchsituations, reduced them to absurdity and revealed theseemingly stable system. As a result, the self-satisfactionof the community was not that obvious anymore andparticipation in subsequent festivals and acceptance ofawards, not that safe.32

An attempt at opposing the falsity of the society, thesuperficial values and successes involved cooperation withthe representatives of the urban folklore. Folklore wasregarded as a synonym of naivety, simplicity and freedom -an activity unsullied by ideology. Such was the nature ofcooperation with Edward Kowalski, who directed theperformance The Career and Death of Adolf Hitler. Members of WFF30 O. Sobański, “What Was Discussed in Łagów and How”, in Magazyn Filmowy1971, no.32.31 K. Eberhardt, “Half a Joke, Half Serious”, in Ekran 1971 no.29. 32 During the Festival of Films on Art in Zakopane in 1972, at themoment when the main award was being presented to Andrzej Papuziński forhis film Praise to the Bull, about the work of Franciszek Starowieyski, whichthe members of WFF regarded as a naïve “plinth for an artist-superman”,Bruszewski and Koterski stepped onto the stage and began shooting at thebewildered prize-winner and at a frightened Grzegorz Dubowski, who waspresenting the awards.

supported the amateur theatre since 1972, assisting theproductions with costumes borrowed from the film school.The director himself played the title role, while youngpeople played the parts of German soldiers, dressed inrailway-workers' uniforms. Based on lively improvisations,the performance aroused mixed reactions among the audienceand was coldly received by the local press33. This isunsurprising, since the undertaking of a "German Theme"constituted a kind of political self-definition, andgenerally - as in the case of Jan Batory's film The LastWitness (Ostatni świadek) - was associated with following apattern in which war criminals exchanged their uniforms forcivilian clothes. The position of "military" themes inPolish culture at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the1970s was unquestionable. Soldiers' songs triumphed atfestivals in Opole and Kołobrzeg, and war themes wereexploited in a specific way not only in the cinema34, butalso in the theatre35.

The most extensive cooperation undertaken by members of WFFwas with Wacław Antczak, an eccentric resident of the Cityof Łódź, a poet, writer and actor36, who activelyparticipated in many activities of WFF. Antczak himselfand his home even became the subject of a project named ACommunication of the Personality of Wacław Antczak (Przekaz Osobowości

33 W. Roszewski (writing as “Prześmiewca”), “Laughter Through Tears”, in Nowości 1972, nr 298 (20 December). 34 See, e.g. General W. Czapla, “Opinions about the surfeit of filmson war themes are not justified …”, noted by M.M., in Ekran 1970no.19. 35 M. Fik, Polish Culture After Yalta : a Chronicle of the Years 1944-1981, vol. II, p.494.36 Hommage a Wacław Antczak, Łódź 1985.

Wacława Antczaka) at the XII Sao Paulo Art Biennale in 197337.Various forms of communication were used in theimplementation of this project - verbal, musical,photographic, cinematic and audio-recordings. Cooperationwith Antczak, similar to that with Kowalski, had nothing todo with folk used to legitimise Western models, as in thecase of the Polish music bands wearing traditional folkclothes while playing rock & roll on electric guitars38.

The above presented, regrettably few examples of theactivities of WFF (including the critical and theoreticalwork, the concept of film, social interventions, andengagement in the sphere of non-professional art) clearlyindicate that they created a space in which the arrangementof power under the system (i.e. the IAP), while notreversed, was at least interrupted. Undoubtedly, in orderto obtain a full picture of the interpretation of therelationship between artistic practice and the authoritiesin the PRL, it is necessary to take into account theindividual strategies and the subjective realities ofartists. The relationship between the authorities and theactivities of individuals never depended on the principle of"all or nothing". The arrangement of powers could bealtered by the actions of individuals, but also the system(i.e. the IAP) was not itself unchangeable. It cannot betreated as an abstract construct with a stable influence.It too reacted in response to specific practices, which weresusceptible to transformation. While assessing the system,

37 7th Workshop of the Film Form, Łódź 1975 (unpaginated).38 Stanislaw Barańczak, “The Red Banner over the Discoteque”, in Barańczak, op.cit., pp.9-23.

its impact should always be taken into account. Otherwise,opinions such as the ones about a clear distinction betweenthe heroic 1960s and the 1970s, will remain only hypotheses.On the other hand, a statement that the authorities neverradically changed their perception of culture would appearequally justified. The state did not actually limitcreative freedom, and in the 1960s it permitted "formalexperiments", reserving for itself the right to certainrestrictions and "inspirations", for example by means of theprocurement policy. The same happened in the 1970s, butsuch an approach was not an implementation of a definedprogramme. The composition of museum collections depended onthe preferences of their directors and the recipients ofawards presented by the Ministry of Culture and Art werenever "formal experimenters", but painters who, like LeonMichalski, continued the colourist tradition39. In the1970s certain new elements appeared, such as acceptance ofart polarity (realism - the avant-garde)40, but this wasmore a minor improvement of the policy than revolution. So,the differences were not that distinct. The directing ofculture depended largely upon personal contacts, and only toa lesser extent was dictated by the adopted attitudes.

The phrase "Hands up" which appears in the title of this39 In 1975, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the PRL, EdwardGierek sent him a congratulation letter, emphasising that “[…] weparticularly value this trend in the artistic creativity, which combinesthe mastery of form with profound contents, carries humanist values andfacilitates the shaping of society in the spirit of the ideals ofpatriotism and socialism”; see The Bulletin of the Artistic Advisory Committee of ZPAP,1975, no.1 (118), p.40. 40 This was expressed in the introductory article “Realism and theAvant-garde” by Krzysztof Kostyrka, Chief Editor in Sztuka 1974, no.1.

article with a question-mark, is not just a question aboutwhether Polish artists in the 1970s surrendered to thepressures of the system, but is also the title of a filmmade in 1967 by Jerzy Skolimowski, which was banned by thecensors and reached the screens of Polish cinemas only in1985. It is a story of a group of friends, graduates of acollege who meet after many years at a school reunion event,and decide to undertake a journey together in railroadboxcar to visit a friend who did not make it to the meeting.The journey together becomes an opportunity for reviewingtheir personal and professional failures. As students theywere members of the Union of Polish Youth (Związek MłodzieżyPolskiej, ZMP), and, like the Photographer and Restorer inBruszewski's anecdote, were given the task of fittingtogether parts of a gigantic portrait of the party leader,in this case of Stalin. By mistake, they fitted in a secondpair of eyes. As a result they were denounced as politicalprovocateurs. In an atmosphere of pretence and deception,they were tried by a panel of fellow students, but only oneof them had the guts to reveal the falsity of the Socialistspectacle in which they were all taking part, for which hewas expelled from the college, the dormitory and the Union.

The Photographer and Restorer probably could not afford sucha gesture, although the situation made it possible. Inorder to make a portrait of Gomułka, they received from thePSP canvas imported from East Germany, in rolls one metrewide and ten metres long. The authors of the standard forthe representation of the First Secretary of the CentralCommittee apportioned a one metre wide, vertical strip for

the forehead, eyes, nose, mouth and cheeks, and two half-metre wide strips for the protruding ears of the leader. Onthe negative, the ears were furthermore slightly pushed tothe sides, as this would facilitate the subsequent puttingtogether of the canvas on the stretcher frames. Theartists, however, treated the job as a pot boiler andcompleted the work on time. They did not take the risk,but, paradoxically, it is their story that was worthrecounting at this point. The juvenile recklessness of thecharacters appearing in Skolimowski's film had actually noimpact on the configuration of power and the quality oftheir future lives symbolised by the cars they were driving(Alfa Romeo, Opel Record, Wartburg, Zastawa), wasrepresentative of the society at the time.

The activities of the WFF took a different course.Following its end, the members of the WFF became leadingactivists of the Movement for the Renewal of the School(Ruch Odnowy Uczelni, ROU) at the Łódź Film School, which,thanks to the determination of Ryszard Waśko, organisedamong other events the most important internationalexhibition of contemporary art in the PRL Construction in Process(Konstrukcja w procesie). The co-organiser of the exhibition wasthe Film School, together with the Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity" of the Łódź Region. Suchevents, however, marked not only a momentary truce in thebalance of power - they brought about permanent change. Itwould not have been possible, however, if not for small,local episodes, such as the activities of the WFF, whichbecame part of history not just by virtue of their artistic

aspect, but because of the effect they had on the entirecomplex and ambiguous network of relationships with theauthority.