wideo, 5'
1990
A for-camera performance where the author subjected himself to masochistic procedures. Manipulating various tools (heater, pliers, hammer, chain, knife, fork) next to his face, he simulated torturing himself. Convinced that ‘art shouldn’t hurt’, he dedicated his Video-Masochisms to the ‘butchers of art’, i.e. performers maiming their bodies. This facetious piece is one of the artist’s most memorable works. Tightly framed, his grimaces were a reference to the photographic ‘faces’ of Witkacy (an eccentric and one of the greatest personalities in Polish art),* the subject of Robakowski’s documentary film from a decade earlier. The first version of the video, titled Masochistic Pictures, was produced in 1989.
* Witkacy (Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, 1885–1939) was an outstanding painter, draughtsman, photographer, novelist, playwright, poet, philosopher, art theoretician and critic.
