Wojtek Zamiara exhibition at „Galeria Kantorek“, 5th Mozg Festival, International Contemporary Music & Visual Arts Festival, Bydgoszcz, Poland

[ ]

In the eyes
In the eyes evasiveness
The blink

No, your glasses will not save you
No, your glasses will not spare you though they may protect you a little
Un très petit peu
Especially, see, when the whites do not show

THE WHITES BETRAY ALL

(Hold your fire
Hold your fire until you see the whites of their eyes
Hold your fire
Hold your fire)

Ok, the blink, you can evade as you wish;
The eyelids, the sudden fall and snap of the eyelids occlude nothing
They do not create anything
They do not inaugurate a break
There is no true closure
They do not make the face blank
They do not offer protection;
The blink is the most anonymous gesture, it tells us nothing

The involuntary is not a land of meaning

[ ]

It is the mouth that shows purpose
It is the mouth that opens and shuts
It is the mouth that purses itself in readiness
It is the mouth that says ‘Hold your horses’
It is the mouth that is the site of defiance and refusal

There is no kiss and make better

It too could blink, open and fall

The mouths of the men are shadowed
They are shaded with a slight shading

No matter, no matter

The women have lipstick
Two of the women have lipstick
None of the men have lipstick

No matter, no matter

The axis of the mouth must be played against the axis of the eyes and the droop of the eyelids;
The eyes are a blue I cannot describe

The flat axis of the mouth heightens the sadness of the down-turning eyes

Sadness, sadness
A sadness beyond melancholy
Nothing defeated but a sadness that is ingrained
Imprinted
Customary

As if to say, ‘This is our custom’

[ ]

We have spoken about defiance already

One boy is defiant
One girl is defiant

They issue a challenge even if there is no one to issue a challenge to

To life, says someone

There is no point issuing a challenge to life for life will always win
This the others understand, somehow
Not well

The defiance is a different defiance
It says ‘Chin up’
It says ‘Keep your chin up’

When she dips her chin she does something
As if the whole face is an eyelid
As if the whole face can issue a blink
As if nodding to herself
As if nodding to herself then looking back at the camera
Forced to look up because she has blinked
She has nodded
She has lowered her chin in a gesture of being present
But now she must look up
The camera is above her

To assert herself she has had to nod, as if in an act of entire self-acquiescence
To herself
Not to anyone else
Not to her situation
Just her
Her

She acquiesces to no one and to nobody
She acquiesces to no one but herself

In acquiescing to no one but herself she acquiesces to no one

[ ]

The old women are best
In saying this there can be no surprises
They know things
They have lived the gaze and now they live somewhere else

Men, too, live the gaze but they don’t know what to do with it;
They never fully enter it
So therefore they can never completely escape;
They are wary as young girls and less knowing

Those who know the gaze best simply gaze towards it
Softly
As if nothing is at stake
Except this: to retain the constancy of the self against the gaze
In the face of the gaze, as we might say

The gaze is an old camel that knows nothing
The gaze is an old camel that froths at the mouth and knows nothing

There is nothing in the gaze

The gaze fools itself for it thinks ‘All will be revealed’

Nothing is revealed
The face is a great deceit
Nothing is revealed

These four short texts are a partial response to an exhibition patre, a set of videos prepared by Wojciech Zamiara and shown at the Galeria Kantorek, Bydgosczc, as part of the 5th MOZG FESTIVAL. They form part of a longer text devoted to my own participation in this festival.

28.11.2009 Bydgoszcz  (Poland)

John von Surmer was invited to the festival as a visual artist. He spent the whole festival ‚visualising‘ Biziel Hospital in the gastroenterology and surgery wards.