"The eye of Dubai" is a project consisting of two films. One made by Jankowski's blind film crew, the other a documentation of this project produced by the BBC, which has been broadcast to 330 million homes and more than 200 countries worldwide.
Trafostacja Sztuki, in
collaboration with the National
Museum in Szczecin, is pleased to
present its very first exhibition
project outside its future permanent
location. Although the TRAFO building
is still under construction, the
collaboration with the National
Museum in Szczecin and the 13 muz
gallery enables the new Szczecin
centre for contemporary art to
officially become part of the new
cultural landscape of the city as
well as establish itself as an
attractive new destination on the
international art map.
For this
occasion TRAFO will present
Berlin-based artist Christian
Jankowski, whose multimedia work has
been exhibited worldwide, and “The
Eye of Dubai” will be presented for
the first time in Europe. Jankowski’s
exhibition will be the first in a
series of individual exhibitions
planned by TRAFO. Its objective is to
show the new cultural context which
Trafostacja Sztuki creates on the
Szczecin art map.
An impressive
building housing the Museum was built
100 years ago thanks to the
commitment of the Szczecin
population. It was the first public
institution in the history of the
city showcasing contemporary art. The
temporary exhibition space, where
“The Eye of Dubai” installation is
presented, is also the venue where
various artifacts and wall
inscriptions may be normally found.
They point to the fact that Szczecin,
which has been distinct on the
cultural map of the Baltic region for
the past 1000 years, also existed in
the minds of Arab merchants. It is
Szczecin among all Polish cities that
is nearest Berlin, Germany’s capital.
The close proximity of the two cities
and the resulting possibility of
cooperation only recently became part
of the awareness shared by some
inhabitants of the two regions, as
they generally remain separated by a
significant mental divide.
The
starting point for the work on “The
Eye of Dubai” was an invitation
Christian Jankowski had received from
the BBC television network to
participate in one of the episodes of
the “Collaboration Culture” series.
In this series creative individuals
from different cultures get paired up
to produce a new work of art.
Following the “Collaboration Culture”
series idea, the BBC connected
Jankowski to a Dubai-based curator
Rami Farook. The BBC did not accept
Jankowski’s initial idea to blindfold
the entire BBC crew during their stay
in Dubai.
Regardless of that,
Jankowski along with his own Berlin
based film crew arrived in Dubai
blindfolded. While acting as a guide
to Jankowski and his team, Rami
Farook became an emblematic figure of
the entire process.
Jankowski
did not want to influence the
selection of locations in Dubai.
Instead, he delegated this task to
Farook, whose personal tour of Dubai
started at Burj Khalifa, the highest
building in the world (829 m). Among
other places, he led the “blind” team
to an artist studio, a gallery, and
an indoor ski resort. After reaching
each location, Farook left the German
film crew without telling them where
they were.
In the key scene in
the desert blindfolded Jankowski
tells a blindfolded falcon the story
of Joseph Beuys and the coyote. At
this point, there is a transition
from black and white film to colour,
and the position of the blind falcon
is replaced by the entire BBC crew.
On the last night of their stay, a
few seconds before the red carpet
premiere of the film, Farook removed
Jankowski’s blindfold so that the
artist - and later his crew - could
finally see the result of their work
and the faces of their collaborators.
During the premiere, the authors of
“The Eye of Dubai” project were able
to compare their “inner” images and
non-visual impressions with the
images in their film.
Now the
project consists of two films. One
made by Jankowski's blind film crew,
the other a documentation of this
project produced by the BBC, which
has been broadcast to 330 million
homes and more than 200 countries
worldwide.
Christian
Jankowski was born in 1968 in
Göttingen, Germany, and lives
and works in Berlin. His videos,
films, and installations have been
exhibited nationally and
internationally in places such as
Sala de Arte Publico Siqueiros,
Mexico City, MX (2012), MACRO, Rome,
IT (2012), Nassauischer Kunstverein
Wiesbaden, DE (2009), Kunstmuseum
Stuttgart, DE (2008), Miami Art
Museum, Miami, FL (2007), and MIT
List Visual Art Center, Massachusetts
(2005). He has participated in
numerous Biennials, including the
Venice Biennial in 1999, the Whitney
Biennial at the Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York in 2002 and
the Taipei and Sydney Biennials in
2010.
Media contact
TRAFO – Trafostacja Sztuki - E-mail: pr@trafo.org
Łukasz Koterba, Tel. + 48 792 805 896
Ewa Adamczewska, tel. 508 342 131
Monika Petryczko, tel. 603 193 529
Opening reception: Saturday, April 13, 2013, 7 PM
Muzeum Narodowego w Szczecinie
ul. Waly Chrobrego 3, Szczecin
Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday
10 AM–6 PM Thursday 10 AM–8 PM, Sunday 10 AM–4 PM Monday and Friday:
closed