DOROTA WALENTYNOWICZ



i, Oskar

people die of exposure

dobrze I
dobrze II

mira

remotely

plato machine I

ouchromic reducer

subversive brilliance of matter

black after black

vanishing point

in fear of dead enigmas



bio




texts




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Dorota Walentynowicz’s art could be briefly described as conceptual – she is interested in issues related with the definition of photography and its basic category – the light. Another important concern is the process of translation – of transferring the private space into objective experience. For Dorota Walentynowicz, art takes place in the space of interpersonal relations, and not in the hermetic, private, inner sphere. In her works, a special place is intended for the viewer. The process of interpreting and reading the meanings is constituted through the artist’s play with the viewer. The rules are imposed by the artist, who directs the situation herself. The participation of the viewer is the basic condition of the existence of the work, both in formal and substantial sphere – it completes the theoretical reflection. The central point of the installation Black Box is, obviously, a black box, the mysterious object, the mediator, inside which invisible processes will take place, similarly as in Flusserian “apparatus”: the meaning seems to penetrate the apparatus from one side (input), just to go out from the other (output), while the very act of going through, the occurrence inside the box remains hidden;
the mediator being the black box. The entirely automatic apparatus in Vilém Flusser’s philosophy do not need human intervention, yet for many of them participants are indispensable as players and servants.

Curator: Agnieszka Kulazińska






  




Things have separated
by Maarten Steenhagen

It is sometimes suggested that we today no longer know what distance is. One click of a mouse is enough to make anything available to the rest of the community. Via e-mail or website we bridge these immense daily gaps, distances in both space and time. Or in fact, we have the technique, which does that for us, because of course all intervening spaces still exist - we only no longer see them in such manner as we were formerly used to.
How are these distance techniques withdrawn from our eye and our perception, how far can we cross out without engaging in what becomes of it? Always more easily, and also always more anonymous, we are no longer obliged to see ourselves as a component of the over-bridging, but we can stay outside of it. But while making one distance invisible, we create another: the distance of the witness himself with respect to what is happening. This way we are frequently also becoming witnesses to parts of our own lives. An idea we are able to give to that distance is something fundamental. It does not disappear, but only moves, so that it manifests itself on other areas.

Dorota Walentynowicz and Michela Pelusio cooperated on “REMOTELY”, a technically complex video installation consisting of two parts, inspired entirely by questions concerning the contemporary economy of information transfer.
Its structure is reduced to a rigid sheath, in which information can be added, modified and removed in a dynamic manner, everything what is read is also examined: exactly such a sheath has been set up by means of video projectors, loudspeakers, cameras and microphones between the crumbly walls of Kunsthuis SYB. It functions entirely as a large digital memory. It produces nothing in itself; what we eventually see, has been exclusively based on our own input. A memory cannot exist on its own, but is always a process of reminding about ‘this or that”. While being present inside the installation, the witness is captured by means of slowed down projections and constant recurrences of himself, that are again re-introduced in the space. In the seventies an American artist, Graham, has already experimented with showing such slowed down video recordings of the viewers - but while Graham in a time of Minimal Art went for the role of the viewer in the space himself, the work of Pelusio and Walentynowicz in a contemporary context brings to attention especially the distant processing and manipulation of the information itself.
One of projections throws a violent framework on an old flag wall of monumental pawn. However, the moment you approach it, the characteristic ceramic tiles of the wall, appear to fall apart. Thus the structure of the space itself seems to change into a chaos of wall fragments.

in REMOTELY every new movement leaves its own track behind, and this track then leads its own life. A fraction of a second after you enter to see the installation, your own character is projected on the wall, but the picture - and with that your movements - repeat themselves. Slowly you blur, as a screen, but already a new recording has mixed itself with the old ones. The moment you are fixed, your representation is no longer something of yourself, but is taken over by the system. All of a sudden your own movements become unimportant, and take up exactly the electronic track they have left behind. Also Raaijmakers reflect on the self-employed track of person’s existence. In “the method” he writes: `When someone lets himself be lead by such/an available real track/ that track literally goes with him / and guides him though the world. /This way after repeated times a drawn parcours arises /that third parties can incite to imitate.
The `third' about which Raaijmakers speaks, are we ourselves. We are the witnesses, or the observers. It is the new distance, which we have to the world, which is indeed in continuous movement, but where we ourselves are no longer the movers. The flow rages, and we stand astonished at its banks.

  




“New hieroglyphics and secrets of the Black Box”

REVIEW by Lukasz Rudzinski 25 Jan. 2009
(translated from Polish by Dorota Walentynowicz)

Installation “Black Box” by Dorota Walentynowicz is a very impressive spatial work, which refers to writings of Czech philosopher Vilem Flusser, not so well known in Poland. In these writings Flusser describes fully automated apparatus that operate without human intervention: the role of humans is limited to that of a player-participant, or a functionary. A “Black Box: mentioned in the work's title, constitutes a transmitter of thoughts, a sign of our time, hiding secrets inside and conceiving the truth. It is those transmitter-apparatus that, according to Flusser, we are all dependent on.
Dorota Walentynowicz materializes this very black box, showing its overgrown figure, as well as its glossy-white interiors, gutted out in front of the audience on the floor of darkened room. Walentynowicz on purpose gives the box a pretence of a human nervous system. After starting up the apparatus, “thoughts” start flowing through a complex system of artificially produced neurons, presenting bits and pieces of Flusser's philosophical thoughts, which, in a form of dispersed sentences, are projected simultaneously in various directions. Emitted words make an impression of a liquid, which, like blood in human body, spreads freely in the apparatus.

Dorota Walentynowicz does not hide anything from the audience. Apart from the “guts” of the black box, one can also see its exterior side of it, less attractive then the interior of the apparatus. Placed aside of the great mother-box, its multiplied miniatures – small black boxes cover one of the pillars of the room, spreading in the way cancerous metastases or fungus would.

The main quality of the work of Dorota Walentynowciz, is the fact that it does not force an explicitly stated thesis. It is more of a multidimensional rhetorical question. The only thing we are faced with is the coexistence of three equally valuable components; apparatus – black box – a game. Each of these can be easily filled with merit and meaning. Thanks to that everyone becomes an unintentional participant of a game convention imposed by the artist. Its worth to take a close look at the “Black Box” in search for one's own answers to the questions formulated in the statements left for us by the artist.

  






“Conducted by Dorota” – a broadcast in Gdansk Public Radio 18.09.2006
interview by Malgorzata Zerwe with Dorota Walentynowicz and the dancing girls Karolina, Wanda, Emzeta

The line dance – interactive video installation for one or several players, from the series “Dobrze/ well done: etudes for three girls and a video camera”, a happening shown within the festival Gdansk Dance Corporation in Zak Gallery , 25 August 2006. 7.30 pm.

 - Jesus, too much to the front,
- I won't fall then.
- But it is hard to fall in the diagonal, like Karolina did, cause she has space there and where am I supposed to fall?
- In any direction then.
- Ok, and three and four.
- That was hopeless.
- And again.
- Who's falling first?
- Emzeta.

Wanda: In the first part, when we were only dancing, then we still had a lot of freedom, but in the next parts you could really notice her acting as a manipulator armed with a switch, who tells us to do things, and we also had to enter that play, decide to undergo this sort of external control.
Karolina: Especially since she would never tell us what the next part will be about. She would only tell us that we were going to learn something, and would never say what it would be.
Wanda: There are three etudes. There is the one when we're dancing and then there is another one where we had to learn a poem for one hour. That was really freestyle.
Emzeta: I did the worst there.
Wanda: “It was brilling and the slithy toves, did gyre and gimble in the wabe”..,. And there were constantly verses like that one.
Emzeta: Very well, with the poem, went very well, the interludes turned out a bit worse though
Malgorzata Zerwe (Radio Gdansk ): So to say, inappropriate vocabulary?

- “it was brilling and the slithy toves, did gyre and gimble in the wabe…
- I might just as well be learning this in English, I think it would be easier.
- “And mome wrathe outrabe, no raths outgrabe ….ok, outgrabe”
- Ok, once again…
- Fucking shit. (Learning Jabberwocky)

Dorota Walentynowicz: The whole project is a study of mistakes and the mechanisms of making them. For example in the line dance the girls fall down when you don't play in rhythm, or they miss a step. When they are learning this poem: the poem itself is a series of non-existing words, and still on a certain level they are making mistakes, which are also interesting to translate, how your mind makes these mistakes. And how much they are trying – they are absolutely fantastic in trying to do well without seeing any purpose for what they're asked to do. But they trust me enough to undergo this action.

- “Head and shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes, knees and toes, eyes and ears and mouth and nose, nose , mouth, ears, eyes, toes, knees, toes, knees, shoulders, head, head and shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes, knees and toes, eyes and ears and mouth and nose”

DW: We are all involved in some sort of schemes. A line dance is a scheme, the agreement between us; me on one side and them on the other, is a scheme too. They are dressed in this particular way and by this become enclosed in an image, actually become the image itself. They are told not to leave the frame. It's all about plays and games. On a certain level the girls and I are playing a certain game and the audience can play with us: and the audience can make mistakes too.

  




Poruszę bryłę Zieleniaka
rozmawiała Dorota Karaś

Jeden z najbardziej charakterystycznych gdańskich budynków - Zieleniak - na kilka dni przemieni się w świetlną rzeźbę.

Rozmowa z Dorotą Walentynowicz, gdańską artystką, której projekt "72 x 56: subwersywny blask materii" na budynku Zieleniaka, wieżowca w centrum miasta, zobaczymy na otwarciu festiwalu "Narracje".

Dorota Karaś: Do czego odnoszą się liczby w tytule twojego projektu?

Dorota Walentynowicz: To są dokładne wymiary Zieleniaka, jednego z najwyższych budynków w Gdańsku. Wcale nie było je tak łatwo ustalić.

Dlaczego?

- Praca nad tym projektem trwała długo, około roku. Początkowo myślałam, żeby oświetlić budynek od środka, nie od zewnątrz, chciałam umieścić zsynchronizowane ze sobą lampy w pomieszczeniach. Musiałam przekopać się przez plany techniczne budynku, poznać rozmieszczenie skrzynek elektrycznych. Dowiedziałam się przy okazji niesamowitych rzeczy o tym wieżowcu.

Na przykład?

- Że budowano go od góry. Najpierw ustawiono dwa słupy i rozpoczęto budowę najwyższych pięter, potem robotnicy schodzili stopniowo w dół. Na końcu słupy zostały wymienione na windy. Zieleniak jest fenomenem konstrukcyjnym, w tym roku mija 30 lat od jego budowy. To budynek o charakterystycznej strukturze. Zbudowany jest z różnych materiałów, betonu, stali, szkła, na każdej z tych powierzchni inaczej załamuje się światło. Zielony kolor budynku wywołuje też charakterystyczne skojarzenia, odwołuje się np. do światła noktowizora, nocnej sytuacji.

Skąd wzięło się to zainteresowanie Zieleniakiem? Pierwszą próbą artystycznej ingerencji w ten budynek było wyświetlenie w jego oknach gigantycznego znaku zapytania.

- To efekt pracy Oli Szymańskiej z biura Europejska Stolica Kultury, ona zwróciła uwagę na potencjał tego budynku, na kontrowersje, które wywołuje. Dla jednych jest synonimem architektonicznej potworności, dla drugich - fenomenem, przedziwną konstrukcją. Tak wiele osób codziennie koło niego przejeżdża, że przestajemy go praktycznie zauważać.

Na czym będzie polegał twój projekt?

- Stworzyłam świetlną rzeźbę. Nie traktuję Zieleniaka jako ekranu, powierzchni, na której odbędzie się projekcja. Obraz, który wniknie w strukturę budynku, składa się z siatki architektonicznej dopasowanej do bryły wieżowca. Będzie puszczony z dwóch projektorów, największych, jakie są na rynku. Staram się poruszyć bryłę Zieleniaka przez działania świetlne. Ruch zsynchronizowany będzie z dźwiękiem specjalną kompozycją, utworzoną z sampli miejskich.

Czy taki festiwal jak „Narracje” ma szansę faktycznie zmienić nastawienie mieszkańców do przestrzeni publicznej? Czy ludzie nie potraktują twojego projektu na Zieleniaku jako kolejnej reklamy?

Jesteśmy zalani przez reklamy, ale trzeba się z tego jakąś otrząsnąć. Miasto jest dla ludzi, a nie dla reklam. Mam nadzieję, że na "Narracjach" pojawi się coś niezwykłego, tajemniczego, dzięki czemu miasto zacznie mówić. To też kwestia nas samych, jeśli człowiek chce pogłębić swoją wrażliwość, to się na to zdobędzie. Jak chce być zblokowany, to taki zostanie i już.

Źródło: Gazeta Wyborcza Trójmiasto
  




Dialog9/„Stream of Consciousness”
at the Municipal Gallery in Gdansk

Dialog9/„Stream of Consciousness” is a joint exhibition by Gdańsk artist Dorota Walentynowicz and Austrian artist Herwig Weiser, presenting their new works. At the Gdańsk City Gallery we can see works that are close to their origins, about photographic and filmic techniques.The works of Walentynowicz and Weiser are related to the performative process of alteration related to the form and its internal and external relations. Through the fragmented, often distorted narration, they explore the stratification of movement and also the multi-layered aspect of time and space.

Dorota Walentynowicz’s black and white photographs, undoubtedly elegant in their geometry and poetic subject matter, come from the series that she has been developing since 2009. In order to fracture the arrangements of time and space, as well as the linearity of photographic representation, the artist allows various disruptions to the handmade analogue cameras/apparatus. The simultaneous exposure of several images and the overlapping of many perspectives result in an architectural illusion – images full of reversals, cracks, folds and shifts. Thus the overlapped fragments of the warped space lose their continuity and flex in an endless spiral. Besides the photographs, there is also a series of objects where Walentynowicz again recalls the solid and its diagonal section. She situates a negative inside a cube, with a small cavity on the opposite side, and she lets the light inside. Along the section, she locates the pieces of broken mirror that reflect the image from different sites and focus it on the negative. By doing so, the artist wants to activate the blind spot. She allows narration to creep into the static form and creates a scenario in which the space attains the temporal dimension. The mirror itself is full of ambiguity and metaphor. Following Foucault, the mirror is a link between utopia and heterotopy. It is a place with no space though it exists in a different reality to the one reflected. Here the point of reference for the artist is the structure/construction of the camera, where a mirror is fragmented and put together only on the negative.

Herwig Weiser presents a selection of films, including his latest, which is partly located in Gdańsk and presented in a version created specifically for this show. Weiser experiments with film since the beginning of the 90s.First and foremost, Weiser's films depict and evoke sensations of cinematic-neurotic movement. Precisely researched locations– monumental constructions such as bridges, dykes, barriers, highways and post-industrial ruins – are the structures that determine the dynamic of the starring characters. The intimacy established between the human and the device ritualizes the concept of the frame partitions and the continuity of their rhythm. Repetitious stop-motion photo-sequences do not recreate the narrative continuity. On contrary, in this particular case, they intentionally, methodically and rhythmically create its abstract, fragmented and temporal components - the subjectively arranged pieces of dramatic splits, intervals and cuts. Weiser' compresses the notion of time and space by registering movement and interaction. Finally, he creates the sense of totality of particular fragments, moments and sequences.