Pawel Dziemian – 10 recent works More works at: http://paweldziemian.com http://www.behance.net/dziemian https://vimeo.com/dziemian
Down the Spiral, to the beige / photography / black & white silver prints / 2014
http://paweldziemian.com/Down-the-Spiral-to-the-beige Sculptures created on the riverside of St. Lawrence river in Quebec, Canada. My aim was to recreated animistic/shamanic relation to the nature. Purpose of that was to look back into the lower memes of pre-conventional human sensibility and response to the environment. This work represent my new body of work - fuelled with Integral Theory of Everything. The sculptures were 100% sustainable, build with wood found by the river. They were temporary, as I assumed, that as river brought the material, it will take it back some day. Sculptures were documented with black and white flm photographs - as a physical record of energy (light refected form objects and captured onto the flm). I was using only power of my muscles - no heavy equipment used - to preserve human scale of objects. 2014 / site specifc / drift wood / linen rope. Plantation / plant farming leftovers used to build a 'monument' of human failure to master the nature in men favour. 2014, site specifc, steal, polymer netting, steal net, PCV tubs. Work exists as photography series - Black and White silver prints from Medium Format negative. 70' x 60' each Le intégrante platonisme québécoise / installation / 2014
Documentation of studio based research during residency at Est-Nord-Est résidence d'artistes, Quebec, Canada. Formal experiments are infused with Integral Theory and twisted 'québécoise platonism'. There are many ingredient involved: hammer forged into the wire, hammer hand made out of fusion alloy, wooden mock-up of the earth, DIY taxidermy. No animal was killed in this process. 2014, site specifc, concrete, steal wire, wood, artifcial grass, Hi-vi tape, dead seagulls, sediment rocks, Gorilla tape Camo, hi-vi paint, pine tree, hammer, fusible alloy, salt, artifcial grass, euro-pallets, polyvinyl fabric and tubes, parkway poles, hemp rope .
http://paweldziemian.com/Le-integrante-platonisme-quebecoise Superfat / photography / black & white silver prints / 2014
http://paweldziemian.com/Superfat-working-title Superfat as a working title is paraphrase of Superflat term. I am interested in the waste and garbage, its geo-politics and socio-economy. but not necessarily I subordinate the image to the fact, as it is not a documentary. it is not fction story either. Primarily this project formally is temporary sculpture, inspired and build upon pre-arranged, existing objects/waste, that I modify in order to build narration. Narration of this photography series is to reveal what’s hidden, emphasise what’s rejected; and what is most important: to focus on human factor, people behind the object. This work is not about metaphysics of objects, it is about human kind and its issues. Diferent objects became trash in London (as well diferent garbage are in diferent districts), diferent are in Lisbon, diferent waste is Luanda, and diferent is in Lagos. I would like to trace life and transience of objects, especially transgression from object to waste. Photography is to record, to document created sculptures, build of locally founded waste, on spot founded garbage. I transform found objects, but i treat them with respect, as I want to preserve them speaking their stories. I preserve the unity of time, place and action as well. The night and spot light is to separate, to subtract objects from their environment; would be more to read, than to see or to look at. Formally series is Black and White Silver Prints from Medium Format Film
Lesson of Disobedience
/ colour analog photography / sizes variable / 2013
Azymuth Lesson of Disobedience photography series is poetic notation of everyday rebellions. Record of the smallest manifestations of humanity, freedom, soulfulness, individualism, disagreement with status quo. It is also a story of anger, expression of freedom and freedom of expression. Lesson of Disobedience is visual essay about fnding one's self in modern, made schematic, unspiritual world.
Styx i am learning so hard, so hard to remember, so hard to forget. i disobey, how i was taught. i will have no regrets.
Stone's throw http://paweldziemian.com/Lesson-of-Disobedience-1
LÍTOST Studies. Piano classes with Milan Kundera / 2012 / video / 120'
https://vimeo.com/42991898 [...] For this specific project, Pawel Dzieman was focus on the specific conception of Slavonic word 'litost' to which Milan Kundera dedicated an entire chapter of his book "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting". Indeed, the meaning of this word in Czech, according to Kundera's researches, is not having any equivalent in any other languages. “My aim is to create a video, a short movie based on Kundera's 'litost' explanation. The episode that works as a script for my video and its performance is story of a boy, whose parents love him to attend piano lessons and that leads the untalented child to death, after the piano teacher thrown him through the window,” says Dziemian. During Dziemian piano lessons in Prague, a video documentation footage is shot, drama is building up. “And we get to the point where we can analyse Slavic soul, its complexity, and structure, christian blame and wild emotionalism,” adds Dziemian. A bit of performance, a bit of reality show or rather reality sitcom.
As a devotee of Milan Kundera's literature I had an opportunity to research on, experience of and get inspired by his very special optics, in Prague, in Czech culture, in place where context of many of his books is based on. I found it very tempting to sharpen the razor of post-modern deconstruction on this particular Slavic translocation of senses; in historical perspective - classic, modern though, to renegotiate the meanings by translation to the nearest but stranger. On AIR in Futura I devoted to one main project that claimed to be realized in Czech Republic, because of particular need of working with and on Czech-Polish transition, need of three unities taking from local context. Project under working title 'Litost studies. Piano classes with Milan Kundera' inspired by Kundera's literature literature I tried to combine and confront few aspects of czech-polish (slavic background) language and its post-modern style deconstruction, translated to visual (video) language. To keep things clear and easy – my aim was to create a video work/short movie based on Kundera's litost explanation. The episode that works as a script for video and it's performance is story of a boy, whose parents love him to attend piano lessons, what leads untalented child to death, after the piano teacher thrown him through the window. In highlights: I took piano lessons, footage was recorded, tension was building up. And we got to the point where we can analyse Slavic soul, its complexity, and structure, christian blame and wild emotionalism. A bit of performance, a bit of reality show or rather reality sitcom. Getting back to details; basis for this performative research is The Book Of Laughter & Forgetting and term of litost – 'it is an untranslatable Czech word. Its frst syllable, which is long and stressed, sounds like the wail of an abandoned dog. As for the meaning of this word, I have looked in vain in other languages for an equivalent, though I fnd it difcult to imagine how anyone can understand the human soul without it.' Czech term of litost - specifc and unique for Czech language, in my understanding it's similar on pronouncement level to polish term 'litość' [li'toshich'], but the diference is crucial - Czech litost means to have a mercy for yourself, while exaggerating the pain or own misery, to feel pity to yourself in my simplest interpretation, in polish it means just 'marcy'. in body of this work i attended a piano classes with Czech teacher; regardless lack of the musical skills and ear for music; recorded and documented the process in video medium and built a dramatic structure out of gathered footage.
' What then is litost? Litost is a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery. One of the customary remedies for misery is love. Because someone loved absolutely cannot be miserable. All his faults are redeemed by love’s magical gaze, under which even inept swimming, with the head held high above the surface, can become charming. Love’s absolute is actually a desire for absolute identity: the woman we love ought to swim as slowly as we do, she ought to have no past of her own to look back on happily. But when the illusion of absolute identity vanishes (the girl looks back happily on her past or swims faster), love becomes a permanent source of the great torment we call litost. Anyone with wide experience of the common imperfection of mankind is relatively sheltered from the shocks of litost. For him, the sight of his own misery is ordinary and uninteresting. Litost, therefore, is characteristic of the age of inexperience. It is one of the ornaments of youth. Litost works like a two-stroke engine. Torment is followed by the desire for revenge. The goal of revenge is to make one’s partner look as miserable as oneself. The man cannot swim, but the slapped woman cries. It makes them feel equal and keeps their love going. Since revenge can never equal its true motive, it must put forward false reasons. Litost is, therefore, always accompanied by a pathetic hypocrisy.'
Dogman's Dream / 2012 / video / 9'50”
https://vimeo.com/47688107
Dogman video series consists of works taking from aspects of zoo-morphisms and postcolonial society. The series focuses on notion of urban clashing with natural, emotional with instinctive. Dogman aims to be epic video series about the other, alien, rejected, useless, abandoned and feared. The series that focuses on notion of urban clashing with natural, emotional with instinctive. Dogman aims to be epic video series about the other, alien, rejected, useless, abandoned and feared. Dogman's Dream stands for individualism and protection of entity, is defensive, stands against fn de siecle. Chunk of master shot, 9:50 min. long walk, with peeing itself girafe, on Peckham Rye Lane, London. Map of the World / 2012 / video / 35'30” Main idea of video is to turn Polish quasi-idiom 'to spit image of the map of the world' live. It starts with question of human body, its vital liquids, it's physiological functions and symbolic aspects. It also emphasis the critical approach towards political correctness, status quo of power distribution, and dusted synonyms of world order like peace dove. Formally, video is master-shot, it's real-time drawing performance. 35 minutes 30 second of spitting.
https://vimeo.com/42506382
Turning idiom 'spitting out map of the world' live. Main idea of video Map of the World is to turn Polish quasi-idiom 'to spit image of the map of the world' live. It starts with question of human body, its vital liquids, it's physiological functions and symbolic aspects. Saliva contains in itself particular dichotomy connected evidently with body. Saliva is purifying, life-giving in certain way, it's crucial part of kiss, early disinfectant, food welcoming committee. As long as saliva is within the organism, within mouth. As soon saliva leaves mouth, departs from tongue and lips, becomes dirty, disgusting, flthy. Contrary to the tear – always pure, always clean, always chaste. Saliva out of mouth gets whole new gist. New meaning is so powerful that allows to communicate complex of negativity with one simple gesture of spit. I envisioned to showcase dichotomy as well in the concept of world as a physical environment and world as a human concept; anthropocentric idea of harmony within supremacy.It also
emphasis the critical approach towards political correctness, status quo of power distribution, and dusted synonyms of world order like peace dove. Formally, video is master-shot, it's real-time drawing performance. 35 minutes 30 second of spitting. Coating and Enclosure / 2012 / sculpture / site specifc / size variable
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Coating-Enclosure/4107733
Studio 'Litost' VOL.1 / 2012 / exhibition view
http://www.behance.net/gallery/STUDIO-LITOST-VOL1/3398547 […]From beginning of January until end of March 2012, FUTURA Center for Contemporary Art in Prague is hosting Pawel Dziemian (PL, 1983) in the frame of A.I.R. FUTURA : artists in residency program with the support of the International Visegrad Fund. Pawel Dziemian stands for a critical approach in art, however he is not placing himself above the others as some distant manipulating judge, but rather uses his own skin for the examination of the cultures he approaches. Whether his position is obvious, as when he place himself in front of a camera or when this self-examination is more subtle as when he presents observations or comments, what remains is, even more then this step out of subject-object division, a certain humility and non-judgment towards others.