A series of photographs taken during a for camera performance where the artist underwent simulated masochistic procedures. Manipulating various implements (an immersion heater, a pair of pliers, a hammer, a chain, a knife, a fork, an assortment of nails), he feigned staged acts of self-torture. Those tongue-in-cheek performances were dedicated to the “butchers of art” – performers who actually mutilated their bodies. The tight framing of the photographs and footage of the author’s grimacing face hearkened back to the Faces of Witkacy, whom Robakowski had made a film about ten years earlier. Dialoguing with the tradition of Witkacy’s photographic experiments and polemicizing with the “art of inflicting pain”, Photo-Video Masochisms are among Robakowski’s best-recognized works.
