Józef Robakowski

Born	February 20, 1939(1939-02-20) Poznań, Poland
Lives in	Łódź, Poland
Web	Culture.pl, Wikipedia-PL
Collections	MoMA Warsaw 13, Pompidou 5, ZKM 3

Józef Robakowski (1939) is a Polish artist and filmmaker associated with the avant-garde film movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Robakowski is the author of films, photographic series, installations, drawings, objects, conceptual projects, theoretician and academy professor. He studied art history in the Department of Fine Arts of the Mikołaj Kopernik University in Torun, and cinematography at the National Higher School of Film, Television and Theatre (PWSFTviT) in Łódź. In Toruń, he co-founded the artistic collectives Oko (1960), Zero-61 (1961-69), and Krąg (1965-67), and was a member of the 'Pętla' Student Cine Club (1960-66). In Łódź, he co-organised the Workshop of Film Form (from 1970), and the 'Stacja Ł' Television Creative Group (1991-92), which undertook experimental work in connecting film picture and sound, permanently entering the Polish arena of conceptual and postconceptual art of the 70s. He teaches at the National Higher School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź.

An integral part of Robakowski's work are his statements and self-commentaries, as well as numerous programming texts and manifestoes, e.g. "Calling Once Again for 'Pure Film' " (1971), "Video Art - a Chance to Approach Reality" (1976), or "Manipulating!" (1988). Since the 1960s, Robakowski has remained an active animator of cultural life, as the author of a number of important initiatives (e.g. the Exchange Gallery), organiser and curator of exhibitions, and originator and editor of publications ("Nieme Kino", "Pst!"). Galeria Wymiany (Exchange Gallery) has been running since 1978 as a private gallery of present art, the aim of which is exchanging artistic thoughts, provoking creative initiatives. The gallery collects films, videotapes, documentation, it also produces video films and is a contact office for the international artistic movement Infermental.

Works

• eksperymentalne filmy krótkometrażowe i zapisy video, min: 6 000 000 (1962),Po człowieku (1969-1970), Rynek (1970), Idę (1973) , Z mojego okna (1978-1999), Pamięci L.Breżniewa (1982), Sztuka to potęga! (1984), Party z Lutosławskim (1997);
• cykle fotograficzne, min: Foto-malarstwo (1958-1967), Fotografia astralna (1972-2002), Czeluście (1978), Kąty energetyczne (1975-2004), Termogramy (1998-2000);
• instalacje i obiekty, min: Autoportret przestrzenny (1969), Krzesło (1970), Rolki (1970), Równoważnia dźwiękowa (obiekt interaktywny) (1972), Pan Jeleń (auto videoepitafium) (1990-1994), Kiner I i Kiner II (1992-2004);
• filmy dokumentalne o sztuce, min: Portret Tymona Niesiołowskiego (1970), Żywa Galeria (1974/1975), Witkacy” (1980), Konstrukcja w Procesie (1981-1982) oraz z cyklu Uderzenie Sztuki: portrety telewizyjne - Wacław Szpakowski, Katarzyna Kobro, Władysław Strzemiński;

Writings

• "Calling Once Again for 'Pure Film'", 1971.
• "Video Art - a Chance to Approach Reality", 1976.
• "Manipulating!", 1988.
• "The Live Gallery. Lodz progressive art movement 1969-1992", c1997.

Interviews

• "Interview with Józef Robakowski"

Catalogues

• with Paul Sharits, Attention: Light!, Buffalo, NY: Hallwalls, 2004.

Literature

• Łukasz Ronduda, "Subversive Strategies in the Media Arts. Józef Robakowski's Found Footage and Video Scratch", c2005.
• Łukasz Ronduda, "Subversive Strategies in the Media Arts: Józef Robakowski’s Found Footage and Video Scratch", in From Monument to Market: Video Art and Public Space, eds. Piotr Krajewski and Violetta Krajewska, Wroclaw: WRO Art Center, 2005. (English)/(Polish)
• Marielle Nitoslawska, "Monument. Market. Manhattan", in From Monument to Market: Video Art and Public Space, eds. Piotr Krajewski and Violetta Krajewska, Wroclaw: WRO Art Center, 2005. (English)/(Polish)

See also

Poland#Video_art

Links

• Home page
• Robakowski interviewed by Hans Ulrich Obrist, 2010