Paweł Wojtasik Videoworks: Volume 1

Filmed primarily in Alaska, The Aquarium contrasts the openness of the primeval Arctic landscape with the entrapment of captured sea mammals in aquariums. It speaks of the progressive destruction of these animals’ habitat, seeing beyond the alluring spectacle.

“This is not a “message movie” transposed to a gallery setting; its formal strategies set it firmly in the realm of art, and ultimately the message, if there is one, is tantalizingly ambivalent. The final image is that of a startlingly bright orange octopus being lifted out of a tank of water by a latex-gloved hand. The octopus immediately wraps its tentacles around the hand, and each time the human tries to remove it, the creature attaches its suckers ever more tightly, refusing to let go or to give up.”

— Claire Barliant, Artforum

Note: This title is intended by the artist to be viewed in High Definition. While DVD format is available to enable accessibility, VDB recommends presentation on Blu-ray or HD digital file.

A close-range look at pigs living on a farm in Las Vegas, Nevada. The pigs, individually and as a group, become a metaphor for humanity as they go from leisurely wallowing in the mud to the wildness of a feeding frenzy. In a key shot, a pig confronts the viewer with a prolonged, enigmatic stare, as if questioning the very nature of human/animal relationship.

“Marvelously abstract and perfectly concrete.”

-- The Jury of the 2011 Hong Kong International Film Festival

“Even more unnerving (…) is a painterly video by Pawel Wojtasik. With its Anselm Kiefer textures and Orwellian overtones, the film features a surging mass of exuberant pigs, knee-deep in mud and garbage bags (they’re fed rubbish from Las Vegas casinos).”

-- Anne Doran, Time Out New York

Naked is a "living" environmental installation created for and commissioned by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where EIko & Koma were "on view" all the hours the museum was open for the month of November 2010. Eiko & Koma performed the total of 144 hours.

Naked is inspired by Breath, Eiko & Koma's 1998 living installation at the Whitney Museum. Naked continues their Whitney experiment 12 years later, exploring themes of nakedness, desire, and the elasticity of time. Unlike the single body that was present in Breath, both Eiko & Koma are always on view during Naked, in much closer proximity to viewers than they have ever allowed themselves.

Dark Sun Squeeze is a darkly meditative exploration of a sewage treatment plant, revealing the hidden rhythms and bizarre journey of raw human waste. The images of flowing waste speak of decay, destruction, of madness inherent in excessive consumption. At the same time they reveal the redemptive side of detritus, its regenerative potential, the sublime that exists in the abject.

“Paweł Wojtasik delivers the final word on the absolute value of news, money, politics and just about everything else.”

-- Holland Cotter, The New York Times, Oct 1, 2004