Filmoteka Muzeum

KwieKulik presented these two series of images numerous times in various contexts and configurations. Alternations of Red was composed from a collection of dozens of slides that contained a red element, like a piece of fabric, an inscription, etc. KwieKulik had gathered the footage when documenting their own and other artists’ works. The Path of Edward Gierek consisted of compiling front pages of newspapers from 1971, the year after Gierek was chosen as First Secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR). He is primarily seen meeting representatives of various milieus, often delegations of workers all over Poland. By stressing the repetitive gestures of Gierek, KwieKulik made an ironic comment on his new mode of leadership, one which pretended to be open to dialogue. The overt political implications of the work are obvious. Analysing real and symbolic politics via merging or juxtaposition of their imaginaries became constitutive in later KwieKulik’s works.
During Proagit I the two slide projections were shown consecutively on a single screen, while during Proagit II they were shown simultaneously. In Brussels in 1981, the slides with Gierek were projected on red screen while the slides with red colour were against a white screen.