Cineclub #5
Marwencol

Cineclub is a new program to accompany the exhibitions "Why We Have Wars", "Bread and Roses", and "Making Use".

Marwencol 
2010
Directed by Jeff Malmberg
83’

Rafał Jęczmyk will provide an introduction and lead a discussion.

On April 8, 2000, Mark Hogancamp was attacked by five men and left for dead outside of a bar. After nine days in a coma and forty days in a hospital, he was released with a diagnosis of brain damage and almost no memory of his previous adult life. When his insurance ran out and he couldn't afford further medical help, Mark took his recovery into his own hands - he created a scale model of a World War II Belgian town he populated with doll alter egos of himself, his friends and family, and even his attackers.

Making buildings, objects and dolls and performing various scenes helps him regain visual and motor coordination, but above all allows him to cope with the psychological wounds left in his mind by the attack. He calls the city Marwencol - a portmanteau of the names Mark, Wendy and Colleen. When Mark starts documenting his city model with a camera, his photographs get discovered, published and exhibited in a prestigious gallery in New York. But the “art” label assigned to the incredibly personal works forces Mark to choose between the safety of his fictional life in Marwencol and the real world, which he has been doing his best to avoid since the attack.

Rafał Jęczmyk - cultural manager, journalist, music, film and art curator, works with festivals such as Avant Art, Wrocław Industrial Festival, T-Mobile Nowe Horyzonty, Rytuał, Energia Dźwięku, Podwodny Wrocław, Art of Improvisation, among others. Founder and curator of Kino CRK and Kino w Brzuchu. He is fascinated with areas of art and culture that are considered dilettante and are not officially included. He has been working with Poznań's Galeria tak since 2012. He also runs a Facebook profile devoted to Outsider Art.