35 mm, 4'
1971
One of the non-camera works from the early 1970s in which Robakowski analysed the basic elements of pure film form. The asynchrony of image and sound is raised to an extreme here. A luminous white (empty) screen is accompanied by the sounds of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Fugue in G minor, and when the organ music stops, the screen turn red. Because the intervals at which this happens are irregular, the artist radically tests viewers’ expectations by introducing disparity between sound and image along with the unpredictable pace of their alternation.
In his theoretical texts at the time the artist postulated ‘freeing film from the redundant ballast of literature, plot, anecdote’,* emphasising instead the possibility of stimulating the viewer’s imagination with the simplest visual signals. In practice, he tested the aesthetic experiences and perceptual habits inherent in the reception of motion pictures.
* Józef Robakowski, ‘Jeszcze raz o ‘czysty film’’, Polska, no. 10, 1971; reprinted in Józef Robakowski, Teksty interwencyjne 1970–1995, Koszalin: Moje Archiwum, 1995.
