wideo, 9’
1982
The video is a montage of 16 mm footage from the TV broadcast of the funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Robakowski wanted to expose the ritualistic aspect of the political spectacles staged by the communists, and the propagandism of state television.
Homage to Brezhnev is one of the best-known films made during martial law, referring directly to the language of visual communication employed by the regime-controlled mass media. Through montage and the use of slow motion, the artist highlighted the mechanisms and persuasive rhetorics used to control viewers’ perception and emotions.
Prior to the film’s screening at the Internationales Künstler Gremium in Mönchengladbach in 1982, Robakowski’s address was read out to the audience: ‘I cannot accept the existence of “military art”, which is a synonym of the authority of ideological bankrupts. Uncritical military kitsch is rampant in our official art galleries, cinemas, theatres, in the press, books, radio and TV. Its existence is guarded by the gun.’ The official Polish delegation promptly left the room.
