Filmoteka Muzeum

One of nine sequences of a film realised by a group of students between 8 and 14 February 1971. This scene from Open Form, entitled Game on an Actress’s Face, presents a multilayered reflection on processuality, participation, media and mediatisation. Using the ‘public face’ of an actress as if it was a neutral surface for a collective and collaborative artistic act, this first example of a processual Visual Game instructed participants to perform successive moves on this premise. Given that each move, each ‘utterance’ influenced the next one and modified the original situation, the rule was to react to others’ moves, opening new possibilities for others to express themselves or narrowing their scope. The collective Activity established a form of visual language. The camera shows a close-up of the actress’s face, the ‘players’ remain outside the frame. The actress Ewa Lemańska became very popular in the early 1970s as Maryna, the fiancée of the main hero in the film series Janosik.

Participants and co-authors:
Zofia Kulik, Przemysław Kwiek, Jan S. Wojciechowski, Bartłomiej Zdrojewski (students and graduates of the Faculty of Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw), Paweł Kwiek, Tatiana Dębska, Jacek Zalewski (students of the Film Operator Faculty of the National Film School in Łódź), Ewa Lemańska (Faculty of Acting of the National Film School in Łódź).