09.11-10.11.2010
Krzysztof Wodiczko’s War Veteran Projection is an audiovisual project carried out in various places around Warsaw using a demilitarised Honker Skorpion 3 army vehicle. The weapons platform at the back of the vehicle has been replaced with a specially designed ‘projection platform’ fitted with audiovisual equipment that fires voice sounds and textual images. Projected on the walls of Warsaw buildings, the texts speak about the issues faced by Polish war veterans and their families. The projection was preceded by a workshop during which interviews with the veterans were recorded. Selected fragments, approved by the participants, have been turned into an audiovisual projection using special dedicated computer software.
In the projection, carried out on 9 and 10 November 2010, the artist worked with Polish veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan using a decommissioned Honker Skorpion 3 military vehicle of the type used by Polish troops in Iraq. The weapons platform at the back of the vehicle was replaced with a “projection platform” with audiovisual equipment through which sounds and images were “fi red.” Projected on the front walls of Warsaw’s buildings, the texts spoke of issues faced by Polish war veterans and their families, their traumatic war experiences and difficulties in adapting back to civilian life. The projection had been preceded by a workshop with the veterans and their family members, during which sound recordings were made. Selected material endorsed by the participants was then turned into an audiovisual projection using special computer software. The veterans participated in the “shelling” of the city with their testimonies in several places in Warsaw: on the first day, on the side wall of a building very close to the elegant Krakowskie Przedmieście high street and the façade of the Grand Theatre — Polish National Opera, and on the second day, on the façade of the Warsaw University of Technology building and the tympanum of the baroque Krasiński Palace.
Krzysztof Wodiczko is an author of over 80 projections in various places around the world, on building walls and public monuments in urban space, which he animated with the images and voices of homeless people, immigrants, victims of family violence or marginalised minorities. He is also an author of vehicles and instruments allowing those who, deprived of their rights, remain mute and invisible, to speak out and gain a presence in public space.
Multimedia artist, theoretician, university professor, former director of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, MIT (Cambridge, Massachusetts), currently running a programme called Art, Design, and the Public domain at Harvard University and teaching at the Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities (SWSP).
Organized by Profile Foundation, Warsaw, with the support of the City of Warsaw and the United States Embassy in Warsaw, and in collaboration with the Association of Poles Wounded or Harmed on Foreign Missions
curator: Bożena Czubak
software designer: Robert Ochshorn
The organisers wish to thank Polish war veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan and their families for their participation in the project. We also thank the Association of Poles Wounded or Harmed on Foreign Missions.
Profile foundation wish to thank the following institutions for giving a consent to use their buildings in realisation of the projection: Teatr Wielki – National Opera, National Library, Politechnika Warszawska (Warsaw University of Technology), Zakład Gospodarowania Nieruchomościami w Dzielnicy Śródmieście Miasta Stołecznego Warszawa.
