wideo, 13'
1996–2005
The video documents a performance (which was broadcast live), staged by Robakowski in a TV studio as part of the WRO Monitor Polski ‘96 festival in Wrocław. The artist was connected to electricity, with willing audience members encouraged to gradually increase the voltage from 0 to 220 V. In the course of the risky performance, the artist provided tongue-in-cheek live commentary, describing his feelings, which wavered between satisfaction and anxiety. His concept of freeing energy through art assumed an extreme form here, with his own body becoming part of an electric circuit. In the related text, Art to the Point of Pain, he called his body an ‘energy screen’. Robakowski re-enacted the piece several times in subsequent years.
