Filmoteka Muzeum

Jarosław Fliciński painted the initial works from the Jumps into the Water series in his Gdańsk studio in 1993. He then went on to collaborate with the outsider performance artist Gary Hell to offer a more probing insight into reality by rejecting the myth of “the end of history”, which removes the obligation to think. Guided by artistic intuition, in the winter of 1993 Fliciński and Hell inaugurated Ideological Exercises.

Portrayed here, the innocent gestures of an ordinary nude man dissect the sick Übermensch and leader cult delusions. Gary Hell removes the veil of pseudo-solemnity from totalitarian gestures and disarms propaganda founded on contempt for other people. The Fliciński/Hell duo do not educate or warn anyone, they do not seek to mobilise the society or manifest anything, while a lemon and an eggplant turn out more powerful than “heil Hitler”.

Jarosław Fliciński: We were completely different and I guess this attracted us the most. Each of us had something the other lacked. We were naive enough, which compelled us to create, and the imperative of creation was strengthened by intuition on both sides. We had a completely abstract perception of reality and each of us saw it differently. We had a studio, a borrowed camera and a few tapes, several canvasses, a tape recorder and that was about it. He was like a messenger from a different time, who came to the studio with a ready concept. He didn’t live at my place; he’d leave and I’d stand in front of the paintings. He returned every few days to eat, wash for hours, sleep, stay for some time, pick up a different outfit from my wardrobe for a change, and hit the road. One day, he came over as usual. He ate, took a bath, stood in front of the camera with my paintings behind him and after a while said something I always wanted to say:

Hell: I’d like to have a Porsche. I’d like to go to Zakopane for a day. I’d like to leave Poland... for two... three days.

Fliciński: The only medium we had in common was video. We accepted each other’s positions and as weren’t acting in any way our recording conveys pretty well the atmosphere of that time. Language of words became replaced with language of gestures. I don’t appear in any works with Gary Hell, there are just my paintings in the background. He’s my perfect substitute. That was a dream come true. He plays my role.

Jarosław Fliciński, 2016
 

Year: 1993
Duration: 8'35"
Language: no language
Source:

© Jarosław Fliciński