Weak Moods’ Control

Wojciech Bąkowski is the author of the outstanding Spoken movies series (2006-2011), in which his poetic narration is accompanied by a pulsating stream of images drawn directly onto the film. The visual intensity of those films is so great that the clear formal concept behind each of them may have been obscured – with each, Bąkowski experimented with the various ways of combining words and images. Having finished that cycle, the artist began to work with video, using simple editing programs. As a result, the aesthetics of his films resemble early computer games, while the literary layer becomes confessional. According to one critic, Bąkowski’s movies are “an arte povera for the digital age”. Sound of My Soul, one of his latest video works, won this year’s main prize at the prestigious film festival in Oberhausen.

The main element of Wojciech Bąkowski’s third solo exhibition in the Stereo is his latest animated film Analysis of emotions and vexations. It consists of several sequences in classic stop-motion style. The subtle pencil drawings are not, however, set in motion; they remain static. Only some point or a small area of ​​each scene is animated. As the narrator says in the prologue of the film: Not enough time to draw them neatly. I must do it quickly, on serviettes that fly away. Thus, Bąkowski returns to drawing and we discover the forgotten drawer in him. The successive paragraphs of nostalgic poetry are illustrated with urban images and interiors, objects on the table, trams and blocks of flats, making for a unique film and self-portrait. Bąkowski consistently puts the viewer in the role of the listener, showing himself and starting a conversation in the search for familiar words, images and feelings.