wideo, 5'
2004
Creators: Józef Robakowski, Paul Sharits
in collaboration with: Wiesław Michalak
A work based on a score by Paul Sharits, the avant-garde filmmaker and Robakowski’s friend. Shortly before his death, Sharits sent Robakowski a design for visualising Chopin’s Mazurka in F minor op. 68 no. 4, believed to be his last composition. Sharits conceived the idea during his 1981 visit to Poland when staying at Robakowski’s and listening to Chopin. The project was made possible by using digital technology to achieve strict synchrony between sound and image. During projection on a monochrome screen the rhythm of eight changing colours corresponds with the melodic line of the Mazurka. The different tones of the musical composition are matched by pure colours, with differences in sound intensity accompanied by the saturation of colour contrasts. The film begins with blue, the colour of the sky, which Sharits filmed from Robakowski’s balcony in his first attempt at illustrating Chopin’s music. With its planes of pulsating, luminous colour, Attention: Light! is a work that combines Robakowski’s and Sharits’ earlier experiences concerning the structure of film, the relationship between sound and image, and the explosive role of light. Dedicated to the memory of Sharits, the work was made in collaboration with Wiesław Michalak, who designed the digital technology of its production.
