Filmoteka Muzeum

One of nine sequences of a film realised by a group of students between 8 and 14 February 1971. This sequence, which is a part of Open Form, and the recording of an Activity at a class in Lelewel Grammar School in Warsaw, is exemplary in initiating and presenting social functions of the filmic apparatus. The group used a method they called ‘Provocation with the Camera’. This meant an abrupt entering into given situations and filming people, usually employing close-up views of faces, making use of the fact that the awareness of being filmed considerably influences one’s behaviour – it breaks one’s routine, stimulates various spontaneous Activities, forces one towards self-analysis, etc. The presence of the camera among the pupils quickly yielded unexpected results, to the point that the artists almost lost control of the situation. The pupils made a mini-revolt: they painted the nicknames of a hated teacher on a sheet of paper and burnt the sheet in a bonfire set in the middle of the gym.

Participants and co-authors: Zofia Kulik, Przemysław Kwiek, Jan S. Wojciechowski, Bartłomiej Zdrojewski (students and graduates from the Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts), Paweł Kwiek, Tatiana Dębska, Jacek Zalewski (students of the Faculty for Camera Operators of the Film Academy in Łódź), Ewa Lemańska (Faculty of Acting of the Łódź Film Academy), Ms. Halina (a model).