Wojciech Gilewicz
Painter's Painting
Statement
Single channel video, 22mins, 2010-2021
Painter’s Painting video (2010-2021) is a global journey through cultural stereotypes, clichés and “local” motifs that appear in today's fast way of living formed by a rapid pace of us changing locations.
In his work Wojciech Gilewicz examines the resistance of reality to art and also the capacity of art to actually depict this reality. Equipped with traditional painter's utensils such as easel, brush, palette, canvas, Gilewicz films himself. He chooses a variety of social, political and cultural situations as background to question whether art is able to keep up with what is going on, and whether it should... In his film G20 summit is featured next to a Buddhist temple, a fire in a meadow next to snowy-capped mountains. During those video shootings Gilewicz is always dressed the same. He always performs the same gestures. And he never allow the viewer to see what is being painted on the canvas. The camera focuses solely on the situation, the surrounding scenery, and not on its reproduction on canvas. What might seem at first as only a backstage for the painterly action performed by the artist becomes the main stage for the viewer of Gilewicz' video work.
~Wojciech Gilewicz’s video Painter’s Painting, 2015, shows the artist working on plein-air paintings in unlikely locations: at a weight-lifting gym, proximate to a food stall, inside a phone booth. Viewers only see the canvas from the back, so there is no confirmation that the artist is actually re-creating these scenes, but no matter––what’s important is the sense of trying to capture a fleeting vista. It’s a gag, but at its core is the legitimate issue of how to see and record the world as we move through it, and as it moves through us.
“The Travellers, Bean Gilsdorf, Artforum 23.06.2016”~
Painter’s Painting video (2010-2021) is a global journey through cultural stereotypes, clichés and “local” motifs that appear in today's fast way of living formed by a rapid pace of us changing locations.
In his work Wojciech Gilewicz examines the resistance of reality to art and also the capacity of art to actually depict this reality. Equipped with traditional painter's utensils such as easel, brush, palette, canvas, Gilewicz films himself. He chooses a variety of social, political and cultural situations as background to question whether art is able to keep up with what is going on, and whether it should... In his film G20 summit is featured next to a Buddhist temple, a fire in a meadow next to snowy-capped mountains. During those video shootings Gilewicz is always dressed the same. He always performs the same gestures. And he never allow the viewer to see what is being painted on the canvas. The camera focuses solely on the situation, the surrounding scenery, and not on its reproduction on canvas. What might seem at first as only a backstage for the painterly action performed by the artist becomes the main stage for the viewer of Gilewicz' video work.
~Wojciech Gilewicz’s video Painter’s Painting, 2015, shows the artist working on plein-air paintings in unlikely locations: at a weight-lifting gym, proximate to a food stall, inside a phone booth. Viewers only see the canvas from the back, so there is no confirmation that the artist is actually re-creating these scenes, but no matter––what’s important is the sense of trying to capture a fleeting vista. It’s a gag, but at its core is the legitimate issue of how to see and record the world as we move through it, and as it moves through us.
“The Travellers, Bean Gilsdorf, Artforum 23.06.2016”~
Statement
Single channel video, 22mins, 2010-2021
Painter’s Painting video (2010-2021) is a global journey through cultural stereotypes, clichés and “local” motifs that appear in today's fast way of living formed by a rapid pace of us changing locations.
In his work Wojciech Gilewicz examines the resistance of reality to art and also the capacity of art to actually depict this reality. Equipped with traditional painter's utensils such as easel, brush, palette, canvas, Gilewicz films himself. He chooses a variety of social, political and cultural situations as background to question whether art is able to keep up with what is going on, and whether it should... In his film G20 summit is featured next to a Buddhist temple, a fire in a meadow next to snowy-capped mountains. During those video shootings Gilewicz is always dressed the same. He always performs the same gestures. And he never allow the viewer to see what is being painted on the canvas. The camera focuses solely on the situation, the surrounding scenery, and not on its reproduction on canvas. What might seem at first as only a backstage for the painterly action performed by the artist becomes the main stage for the viewer of Gilewicz' video work.
~Wojciech Gilewicz’s video Painter’s Painting, 2015, shows the artist working on plein-air paintings in unlikely locations: at a weight-lifting gym, proximate to a food stall, inside a phone booth. Viewers only see the canvas from the back, so there is no confirmation that the artist is actually re-creating these scenes, but no matter––what’s important is the sense of trying to capture a fleeting vista. It’s a gag, but at its core is the legitimate issue of how to see and record the world as we move through it, and as it moves through us.
“The Travellers, Bean Gilsdorf, Artforum 23.06.2016”~
Painter’s Painting video (2010-2021) is a global journey through cultural stereotypes, clichés and “local” motifs that appear in today's fast way of living formed by a rapid pace of us changing locations.
In his work Wojciech Gilewicz examines the resistance of reality to art and also the capacity of art to actually depict this reality. Equipped with traditional painter's utensils such as easel, brush, palette, canvas, Gilewicz films himself. He chooses a variety of social, political and cultural situations as background to question whether art is able to keep up with what is going on, and whether it should... In his film G20 summit is featured next to a Buddhist temple, a fire in a meadow next to snowy-capped mountains. During those video shootings Gilewicz is always dressed the same. He always performs the same gestures. And he never allow the viewer to see what is being painted on the canvas. The camera focuses solely on the situation, the surrounding scenery, and not on its reproduction on canvas. What might seem at first as only a backstage for the painterly action performed by the artist becomes the main stage for the viewer of Gilewicz' video work.
~Wojciech Gilewicz’s video Painter’s Painting, 2015, shows the artist working on plein-air paintings in unlikely locations: at a weight-lifting gym, proximate to a food stall, inside a phone booth. Viewers only see the canvas from the back, so there is no confirmation that the artist is actually re-creating these scenes, but no matter––what’s important is the sense of trying to capture a fleeting vista. It’s a gag, but at its core is the legitimate issue of how to see and record the world as we move through it, and as it moves through us.
“The Travellers, Bean Gilsdorf, Artforum 23.06.2016”~
