wideo, 9'
1984–1985
Re-montaged footage recorded from the TV screen at the artist’s home, the film shows scenes from a Soviet army parade on Red Square in Moscow. Special editing and an aggressive soundtrack featuring the music of Slovenian band Laibach serve to expose the methods of visual persuasion, the ritualisation and ideologisation of TV propaganda. Scenes emphasising Soviet military might are accompanied by references to totalitarianism and fascism implicit in the then-dissident band’s German-language song. In his critical deconstruction of media rhetorics, the artist drew on his earlier analytical experiences concerning both the medium of television and the possibility of manipulating viewers’ perception through the use of video. He noted the subversive potential of the latter in a 1976 manifesto where he contrasted the mass appeal of state-controlled television with the art of video and its ability to ‘expose the mechanisms of social engineering and control’.* In 2012, as part of the exhibition Eastern Front,** Robakowski presented, as a kind of follow-up to Art Is Power!, a video compiled of footage recorded from Moscow TV. Played in slow motion, without sound, it showed hours-long military parades on Red Square – a contemporary display of imperial power.
* ‘Video Art – szansa podejścia rzeczywistości’, in Video Art, Lublin: Galeria Labirynt, 1976.
** The Eastern Front, Atlas Sztuki, Łódź, 2012, curated by Józef Robakowski.
