The film presents Sasnal’s wife and son walking among wrecked airplanes on the Mojave desert in the USA. The camera follows the two as they wander from one machine to another, enter empty fuselages, hide in eroded engines.
The video is accompanied by music from Polish 1950s films. By recording his own family with a hand-held camera, Sasnal makes a reference to the “personal cinema” – a trend that developed during the communist rule in Poland, as an artistic reaction to the restrictions in public freedom of speech.
“Personal cinema”, first called so by Józef Robakowski, was close to Sasnal’s life. It showed commonplace, trivial events, and focused on human relations formed during the filmmaking process.
References: Sasnal. Przewodnik Krytyki Politycznej, Warsaw 2008; Wilhelm Sasnal. USA, exhibition catalogue, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw 2006.
(AK)
Year: 2006
Duration: 6'36"
Language: English
Source: 16 mm
© Wilhelm Sasnal, by courtesy of Foksal Gallery Foundation
Acquisition: deposit
Ownership form: deposit
