Description by Filmoteka Muzeum
Footage from the last concert performed by the music group KOT on 6th December 2010 in Poznań at the Theatre of the Eighth Day to celebrate the opening of the exhibition 'The Archive of Group KOT' at the Stereo Gallery.
The group was set up in 2004 at the audio workshop run by Leszek Knaflewski at Poznań’s Academy of Fine Arts. Apart from its leader and founder Wojciech Bąkowski, throughout the years the group embraced such artists as Konrad Smoleński, Leszek Knaflewski and Tomasz Mróz, to crystallise eventually with: Wojciech Bąkowski, Piotr Bosacki and Przemek Sanecki.
The activity of KOT is inextricably linked with the Poznań-based informal artistic group Penerstwo, and for Wojciech Bąkowski – according to Michał Lasota – 'it is the backbone of his practice, and not – as it may seem – merely its performative margin. KOT is Bąkowski, and vice versa'.
The activity of KOT revolves around poetry, performance and music. Stylistically, there are three sources of influence to be distinguished: rap, New Wave and minimal music. Rap beats and the manner of recitation are essential here, but the cool and melancholic appeal of the music stems from the group's fascination with the beginning of the 1980s and the New Wave aesthetics. Minimalism makes itself manifest in the repetitive musical background, its austerity, as well as in the instrumental technology – the use of cassettes.
The entire performance is cemented by mathematical precision, manifestly opposed to improvisation: everything is perfectly planned, but perversely dirty, noisy and broken at the same time.
References: Archiwum Grupy KOT, exhibition catalogue, Galeria Stereo, 2010; Wojciech Bąkowski, Piękno, exhibition catalogue, Galeria Stereo, 2009.
(ZK)