The screenings will start at 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.

The starting point for the film was the recording of Oskar Dawicki’s performance that took place this summer at the Zachęta’s Narutowicz Hall. Marked by political violence, this place brings together the themes of patriotism and nationalism, democracy and brutal assault against it that have been recurrent not only in the history of interwar Poland. The ritual dance with the white and red flag performed by the artist-shaman and his dog refers to the conflict that uses national symbolism. The dance’s specific and sometimes disturbing choreography in reverse is the result of Dawicki’s editing trick of reversing time.

The dance – a game involving a fight between a man and a dog and their symbolic reconciliation – directly refers to Joseph Beuys’s famous performance with a coyote I Like America and America Likes Me staged in 1974. 

Oskar Dawicki, No title
soundtrack: Paweł Mykietyn
photography: Mikołaj Łebkowski
editing: Lunapark
production: Zachęta – National Gallery of Art
special thanks: Magdalena Czerwińska
©Oskar Dawicki 2020