INFLUX – a discussion between Chantal Grech /Jacek Przybyszewski
‌Perhaps it would be interesting, to begin with your starting point. You said that you arrived in Kyiv without knowing what you would do in the gallery. But it could be said that you had already begun in Paris by directing a performance in which a man dressed in a black suit is seen walking up to a number of metro posters and removing a letter from each of the titles by tearing it away. Leaving a space underneath, each letter revealing a previous poster which in turn disrupts the given narrative of the present advertisement. Each letter removed is shown in a sequence of video until at the end the fragments form the word 'POEME'. Would you think of this as a kind of creative vandalism in response to the social disruption caused by the excessive pressure that advertising produces in our lives. Or is this more a piece of concrete poetry concerned with the internal strategies of language making. I'm interested here in not only the positive act of putting letters together but the active role the negative spaces left behind play.
Paris M°, video https://youtu.be/bcX1BIXBah8
– displayed as evidence of a previous action
My starting point, I don't know where or when it began. Indeed, for the first few days of being in the exhibition space, I couldn't tell what my work would look like. The curator of the exhibition titled our presentation: 'Made in France'. The title remained in my head. Before my trip to Kyiv, I had recorded a few minutes of sound video to bring with me – a 'taste'/mise en scène of Paris. I filmed Yan, a performer in a black suit, collecting letters by tearing them from various posters in the Paris underground. When filmed in sequence they write out the word 'Poème'. Of course, I'm very interested in concrete poetry and the various mediums in which it can be shown. Removing letters from posters reminds me of anonymous street art, but I wouldn't say it's vandalism because 'vandalism' involves destruction without the addition of anything positive, any meaning. I'm thinking more of the anonymity of the medieval guilds in which a group of craftsmen worked together, each in their way, without requiring an individual ego to be recognized, a kind of collective art. For a long time I have been collecting photographs from torn offstreet inscriptions, because for me these fragments are so visually present and yet ephemeral at the same time. Here, the active role of filming a composite gesture became obvious. My only uncertainty was the possibility or way of transferring this idea to an unknown place, the Contemporary Art Center M17 in Kyiv. Finally what remained from the Parisian posters turned into a poetic sign from banal advertising slogans.
When you arrived in Kyiv might one say you came with a 'suitcase' which you proceeded to unpack. The clothing that Yan (the performer) wore together with the stolen fragments of letters are laid out as if on a bed or displayed as evidence of a previous action, a little like one might see in crime films. Reinforced by the video. You said that you had intended to repeat the action in the Kyiv underground but that unlike in Paris where this act did not attract undue attention in the Ukraine it became a dangerous and unattainable task. How did this erasing of the second part of your intended performance affect or change your thinking/process for the final installation?
– is this more a piece of concrete poetry
My "suitcase" was not permanently unpacked. A few years ago, I made a sculpture titled 'folding, unfolding', which did not have a fixed form and therefore no final position. In a conversation about my work in Kyiv a colleague of mine used the term 'influx' (from one meaning to another) to describe my thinking/production process. It seemed to me that it contained something important. Hence the title of this document. In the Ukrainian underground, I used the word 'poem' in Ukrainian. It turned out to be forbidden to tear letters from posters in the Kyiv subway stations. The video work required a different solution. So, the same performer in the same black suit acted differently; rather than removing the letters he isolated them by framing them with his fingers. Each sequence was photographed with a Polaroid camera producing a series of instant unique recordings each dependent on the particular developing light and air conditions.
I'm interested in your use of tape which followed the floor corners and walls of the surrounding space in the characteristic French colours-blue, white as represented by the walls and red. This had the effect of drawing a rectangular space that contained thework. Can you say more about this? For example about choosing those colours.
– a little like one might see in crime films
I framed the white wall in the back (size 5 x 8m) with two colours of tape. Dark blue and red, as in the French flag. This articulated a space within which the work could exist. The three coloured tapes left on the floor, represented the French flag. The tapes are related both to the title and the space 'made' to contain the work.
Installation involves a relationship with an 'other'– ( social, architectural or environmental elements etc). In this case, you were in a different country/culture and the exhibiting space itself was unfamiliar. There is often a surprise when you arrive in a place that you have imagined but not previously visited. This element can cause a rethinking or change in the work. What part did this 'unknown' play in the process of making that began in Paris and ended in Kyiv or perhaps it is not finished?
– this articulated the space within which the work could exist
Yes, the installation requires a response to the surrounding environment. To me, for many years, the transformation of the function of an object, the translation from one language to another, the attempt to transplant one culture into another, have been the goals and conditions of participation. Now, this 'unknown', becomes part of the process, rather than a 'not knowing how to proceed'. Perhaps this is 'influx'‌
– this ‘unknown’ becomes part of the process
– each letter removed is shown in a sequence of video until at the end the fragments form the word ‘poème’
– rather than removing the letters he isolated them by framing them with his fingers
You have said that your work was greeted in part by laughter and that you found this a pleasing response. There are many kinds of laughter. Can you say more about this?
Nataliia Shpytkovska and Andriy Adamovskiy M17 contemporary art center photo Š M17 Kyiev 2019
Kyiv M°, video https://youtu.be/bDsQMZ24760
‘Poème’ has been performed by Jacek Przybyszewski 1-31 of August 2019 in french part of ‘Big Circle’ M17 Contemporary Art Center space 102-104, Antonovycha St., Kyiv, 02000 Ukraine
ISBN 978-2-9562980-1-4
made in France M17 Contemporary Art Centre Kyiv. ua
INFLUX