APRIL SESSION 2013 - SLAWOMIR MILEWSKI

SLAWOMIR MILEWSKI

Statement
Being a visual artist I am interesting how meaning is produced in particular pictures or set of them whithin time. And how this meaning might be broken.
CV
b.1979, Poland;
Education:
University of Fine Arts in Poznan, Poland
Scholarship Universite Rennes 2, Rennes, France
TV screenings:
Poor People Must Die, 01.02.13 Télé Bocal, France
Ecstasy of St. Agnes, 08.03.13 Télé Bocal, France
Participation in festivals and exhibitions:
2013
NY Biennale 2013, New York, USA
Black Maria Film and Video Festival, New Jersey, USA
      Director’s citation/ honourable mention
United States Super 8 and Video Festival, New Jersey, USA
X Monographic Show of Media Art, Manizales, Colombia
Videoformes 2013, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Cinesonica, Londonderry/Derry, UK
2012
Festival of Different and Experimental Cinemas, Paris, France
NewFilmmakers, New York City, New York, USA
Video Bardo Festival, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Fotofever, Brussels, Belgium
Bideodromo Experimental Film & Video Festival, Bilbao, Spain
Santorini Biennale of Arts, Greece
South Texas Underground Film Festival, Texas, USA
International Multimedia Art Festival, Yangon, Burma.
3rd Off the Strip New Genre Festival, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Minneapolis Underground Film Festival, Minnesota, USA
Traps, Space 1026, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Festival Images Contre Nature, Marseille, France
3rd Paradoxes in Video, San Diego, California, USA
Portland Experimental Film Festival, Oregon, USA
Videoex Experimental Film Festival, Zurich, Switzerland
7th Montreal Underground Film Festival, Canada
Arte Accessibile IV Edizione, Milan, Italy
III Monographic Show of Media Art, Manizales, Colombia
Videoformes 2012, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Videoart Events Villa Pomini, Varese, Italy
Project 30 exhibition, The Sex Issue 7, USA
International Motion Festival, Cyprus 2011
6th Streaming Festival, Haque, The Netherlands
2nd Peloponnesian International Film Festival, Corinth, Greece
24th Instants Vidéo 2011, Paris, France
24th Instants Vidéo 2011, Marseille, France
6th Cyprus International Film Festival, Nicosia, Cyprus
Flashforward, Milan, Italy
Videoholica 2011, Varna, Bulgaria
14th Biennale Art Media Festiwal Wro, Wroclaw, Poland
Solo screenings:
BWA Galeria Miejska ‘Arsenal’, Poznan, 2010, Poland
BWA Galeria Miejska ‘Arsenal’, Poznan, 2006, Poland
website:
www.slawomirmilewski.net
contact:
suavek@live.co.uk
PROJECT

Ecstasy of St. Agnes - review

Two women, appearing to be identical twins slowly enter a blank white space. One of them speaks: Everything is repeated. Everything is repetitive. This sets the scene for the poetic journey that is The Ecstasy of St Agnes.

Referencing the virgin martyr, Agnes of Rome, Polish film-maker Slawomir Milewski gives a contemporary twist to the concept of ecstasy. Through the repetition of simple acts and phrases, Milewski explores the complexities of human emotions – love, desire, loneliness. Attuned to nuances and quirky juxtapositions that others might overlook, he observes festival revelers gyrating to an unheard rhythm and follows a sartorially elegant figure cavorting in a field.

So much more complex than a cut and paste of Milewski’s surrealist images, the film develops into a conflation of footage displaying a myriad of contemporary cultural ecstasies. Predominantly black and white, it captures the feel of vintage classic films, but is then spliced with a flash of color. Vertical figures are tipped on their sides. A cube of thrusting limbs emerges from a cloudy sky. Milewski breaks all the rules with the ease of a seasoned storyteller adept
at keeping his audience guessing.
Deftly weaving in the dreamlike audio, Milewski’s subtle humor permeates through to the final scene.
JK Russ
Off the Strip New Genres Festival Co-ordinator
Las Vegas, Nevada