Lech Majewski: Blood of a Poet

On May 3 this year, the Museum of Modern Art in New York will begin a retrospective review of Lech Majewski's work entitled Conjuring the Moving Image. During this review, the world premiere of the artist's latest work will take place - Blood of the Poet. The work was created, in co-production with Atlas Sztuki, especially for screening at MoMA and Atlas Sztuki.

W Blood of the Poet Lech Majewski recorded the scenes and images he carried for years using the video technique. As he himself says: "he created a visual equivalent of a collection of poetry in which individual scenes are "read" like poems".

The artist's invitation by such a renowned institution as MoMA is a sign of appreciation for his work. Extremely rich and diverse creativity, in which the artist - who, depending on the type of work, is a film or theater director, poet, prose writer, painter, composer, set designer or producer - is constantly looking for new forms of expression.

The list of the artist's projects so far is long. Knight, Flight of the Spruce Goose, Gospel according to Harry, Basquiat, Room of Saren, Accident, Warrior, Angelus Or Garden of earthly pleasures They were presented at many festivals and film reviews in New York, Cannes, Montreal, Venice, São Paulo, London, Cambridge, Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, Mar del Plata, Jerusalem, winning the recognition of the judges and the public, which is reflected in the numerous collection of awards. The places of previous presentations of video art are, among others, excellent: Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, Palagraziussi in Venice (shows in cooperation with the Venice Biennale), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires or Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris.

Undoubtedly, Lech Majewski's work is of greater interest outside Poland than in his own country. Why is that? Isn't that weird? The artist himself, in an interesting conversation with Krzysztof Cichon, which we publish in the catalogue, says: "the balance of power in my homeland is very specific". The answer to the question about the number of exhibitions in the country is surprising: "aside from one exhibition Accident At BWA in Katowice, nothing". The questions themselves arise: what arrangement? What is the reason for this state of affairs? What does the numerous group of art curators come to? Maybe it's worth changing.

In prepared especially on the occasion of the presentation Blood of the Poet In the Atlas Sztuki catalogue, I highly recommend reading the essay by Maria Kornatowska and the text by Magdalena Lebecka, fascinated by Majewski's work. Both texts, although different in form and emotional colour, are very interesting.

I cordially invite you to the Polish premiere Blood of the Poet, which will take place in Atlas Sztuki on May 19 this year. The work will be presented in a uniquely arranged space - it will be shown in a loop on 8 walls and 24 monitors at the same time. The free direction of travel combined with the different duration of individual video arts and 32 places of presentation of the work will create an infinite, unpredictable number of stories arranged by each viewer.