Józef Robakowski

Józef Robakowski was born in Poznan in 1939. He studied art history at the Copernicus University in Torun and later attended the State Film School in Lodz ́. In the 1960s he began as a photographer and filmmaker (35mm and 16mm format) and belonged to the first generation of Polish artists to work with video. From 1974 onwards, he made his own video productions, again mainly short films. Robakowski was a co-founder of well-known avant-garde artist groups such as Zero-61 and Film Form Workshop.
From the very beginning, his cinematic works were characterised by an engagement with the constructivism of the Polish pre-war avant-garde of the 1920s and 1930s, for which rationalism, material experimentation and economy of expression were central.

These art-historical approaches, which formed the basis of Robakowski's artistic production, were joined by conceptual tendencies in the 1970s, which focused on the structure of the medium of film (but also photography and others) and its analysis.

With the demanded liberation from illusionism, the proclamation of independence of artistic form, detached from aesthetic conventions and without concessions to public taste, an artistic concept of autonomy was represented that was strongly tied to a social mission of avant-garde art. Robakowski's formally autonomous works, however, have also earned their author the reproach of being apolitical; today, however, it is precisely in those emphatically aestheticised works such as From My Window that one recognises a reflection on the relationship between the individual and society that contributes to a better understanding of the political.

Program

Józef Robakowski 1
Manifest energetyczny! / The Energy Manifesto! (PL 2003, DVD, F, 2 Min.)
Test I (PL 1971, 35mm, s/w, 2 Min.) Próba (Test II) / An Attempt (Test II) (PL 1971, 35mm, F, 2 Min.)
Videocaluski / Video Kisses (PL 1992, DVD, F, 3 Min.)
Impulsatory / Impulsators (PL 1998, DVD, s/w, 3 Min.)
Uwaga: Światlo! / Attention: LIGHT! (gem. mit Wieslaw Michalak, PL 2004, DVD, F, 5 MIn.)
Taniec z drzewami / Dance With Trees (PL 1985, DVD, F, 3 MIn.)
Sztuka to potega! / Art Is Power (PL 1985, DVD, s/w, 9 Min.)
Z mojego okna / From My Window (PL 1978-2000, DVD, s/w, 19 Min.)

Józef Robakowski 2
Manifest energetyczny! / The Energy Manifesto! (PL 2003, DVD, F, 2 MIn.)
Party z Lutoslawskim – III Symfonia / Party with Lutoslawski (PL 1989/92, DVD, s/w, 27 Min.)
Idę ... / I am Going ... (PL 1973, 35mm, s/w, 3 Min.)
Bliżej – dalej / Nearer – Further (PL 1985, DVD; F, 4 Min.)
La - Lu (PL 1985, DVD, F, 2 Min.)
O Palcach / About My Fingers (PL 1981, 16mm, s/w, 6 Min.)
Akustyczne jabłko / Acoustic Apple (PL 1994, DVD, F, 4 Min.)
Moje videomasochizmy II / My Videomasochisms (PL 1989, DVD, F, 4 Min.)
Byłem chłopcem w Nowym Jorku / I was a Boy in New York (PL 1989, DVD, F, 4 Min.)
Rynek / The Market (PL 1970, 35mm, s/w, 5 Min.)

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