Wojciech Bąkowski

Polish artist Wojciech Bakowski abandons his refined pencil drawings for a mixture of lo-fi video and computer animation. Images of phones, loafers, and surveillance devices hover and float, yet despite the means of circulation and communication, the artist's body remains near-immobile.

A raw, personal, confessional narration undercuts the abstract images in Polish artist, musician and poet Wojciech Bakowski's interlaced video collage Suchy Pion. Condensing home videos into blocks of abstraction, Bakowski creates a startling account of depression, numbness and paradoxical lucidity.

A look at an art exhibit.

Different times with corresponding imagery.

Short Animation.

A man recounts his day.

Polish artist Wojciech Bakowski abandons his refined pencil drawings for a mixture of lo-fi video and computer animation. Images of phones, loafers, and surveillance devices hover and float, yet despite the means of circulation and communication, the artist's body remains near-immobile.

Polish artist Wojciech Bakowski abandons his refined pencil drawings for a mixture of lo-fi video and computer animation. Images of phones, loafers, and surveillance devices hover and float, yet despite the means of circulation and communication, the artist's body remains near-immobile.

A raw, personal, confessional narration undercuts the abstract images in Polish artist, musician and poet Wojciech Bakowski's interlaced video collage Suchy Pion. Condensing home videos into blocks of abstraction, Bakowski creates a startling account of depression, numbness and paradoxical lucidity.

A raw, personal, confessional narration undercuts the abstract images in Polish artist, musician and poet Wojciech Bakowski's interlaced video collage Suchy Pion. Condensing home videos into blocks of abstraction, Bakowski creates a startling account of depression, numbness and paradoxical lucidity.

A look at an art exhibit.

Different times with corresponding imagery.

Short Animation.

Short Animation.

A man recounts his day.

Once again, Polish poet, musician and artist Wojciech Bąkowski translates the various stages of his ever-fluctuating moods into a series of sober, yet ingenious pencil drawings. The animated translucent frames show a state of lightness. Memories turn inside the head, like projections from the exterior world. (IFFR)

Once again, Polish poet, musician and artist Wojciech Bąkowski translates the various stages of his ever-fluctuating moods into a series of sober, yet ingenious pencil drawings. The animated translucent frames show a state of lightness. Memories turn inside the head, like projections from the exterior world. (IFFR)

A look at a piece of artwork.

Bakowski’s strangely personal, nostalgia-laced video combines the Polish animator’s love of everyday domestic objects and geometric aesthetics with a flickering synth score out of an eighties urban crime film.

A look at a piece of artwork.

“This movie is a representation of my spirit’s volatile state. I used animation with poetic comment to analyze my emotions and vexations. I used pencil drawings in translucent frames to show a state of lightness. On the drawings you can see the elements taken from imagination and from real external sights. I did so because our mental states are built from what we can see and what we remember or imagine in abstraction.”—Wojciech Bakowski

A collage combining elements of photoanimation with a primitive computer-generated image. In terms of visuals, Bąkowski primarily uses slightly different textures, forcing the viewer to pay close attention. He uses the aesthetics of historical video art, late analog and early digital solutions, deliberately abandoning technically perfect images and referring to VHS quality.

A collage combining elements of photoanimation with a primitive computer-generated image. In terms of visuals, Bąkowski primarily uses slightly different textures, forcing the viewer to pay close attention. He uses the aesthetics of historical video art, late analog and early digital solutions, deliberately abandoning technically perfect images and referring to VHS quality.

Spoken Film 6 is the latest part of the series, and the first one where the artist uses a puppet animation technique combined with photo animation. Also, it is the first time when the artist’s face is featured in the film, in the foreground, as if confirming the fact that all the films in the series actually contribute to a specific self-portrait. This black and white film is a story of a journey of the character, whose monologue describes the inability to contact his own mental states, fears and desires.

Spoken Film 6 is the latest part of the series, and the first one where the artist uses a puppet animation technique combined with photo animation. Also, it is the first time when the artist’s face is featured in the film, in the foreground, as if confirming the fact that all the films in the series actually contribute to a specific self-portrait. This black and white film is a story of a journey of the character, whose monologue describes the inability to contact his own mental states, fears and desires.

Narrated animation.

A look at two pieces of artwork.

Narrated animation.

Experimental animation short from Poland.

Experimental animation short from Poland.

At the level of text, Bąkowski's Spoken Film 5 relies on strikingly personal and direct lyricism targeted directly at the viewer. The film is a minimalist, monochrome, hand-drawn animation. Contrary to the previous Spoken Films, it does not lend itself to easy division into parts, which are all merged here by repetitive elements of image and text (such as the vertical lines in the first scene, which later start rotating like the hands of a clock, referred to in the text of the second scene, which finally unfolds into the image of a digital clock). The music for Spoken Film was written by Dawid Szczęsny, experimental musician and turntabler, who works with Bąkowski in a duo called Niwea.

At the level of text, Bąkowski's Spoken Film 5 relies on strikingly personal and direct lyricism targeted directly at the viewer. The film is a minimalist, monochrome, hand-drawn animation. Contrary to the previous Spoken Films, it does not lend itself to easy division into parts, which are all merged here by repetitive elements of image and text (such as the vertical lines in the first scene, which later start rotating like the hands of a clock, referred to in the text of the second scene, which finally unfolds into the image of a digital clock). The music for Spoken Film was written by Dawid Szczęsny, experimental musician and turntabler, who works with Bąkowski in a duo called Niwea.

Animation short by Wojciech Bakowski

Animation short by Wojciech Bakowski

Poetic film. The author's commentary on reality.

Poetic film. The author's commentary on reality.

A look at a piece of artwork.

No synopsis available yet.