Filmoteka Muzeum

Getting dangerously near to exhibitionistic kitsch, Love song is also a highly expressive self-portrait of the artist. The vision of naked Rumiancew doing the dishes, with Anna Babiak’s voice in the background, is a genuinely personal voice in the debate on gender stereotypes.

In classic family relations, the division of responsibilities between men and women frees the former from dealing with housework. Here, Rumiancew breaks that scheme – and what makes his act powerful is the merry and Dionisian character of the confession that he actually makes.

The emotional and honest attitude of the artist is even more discernible amid the austere reality of the visual form. The scene is lit only by the unattractive yellow light of the kitchen lamp, which however, with the slightly preposterous atmosphere it introduces, opens the space for the highly personal act of the author, his incarnation of the message – the artist becomes here the essence of love confession.

References: J. Zielińska, Daniel Rumiancew, in: New Phenomena in Polish Art after 2000, CSW Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw 2007; J. Baudrillard, The Conspiracy of Art, MIT Press, 2005; M. Nieludcew, Tańcząc ze łzami w oczach. Daniel Rumiancew w Goldex Poldex, http://cojestgrane.pl.
 

(AH)