Syndicate: history of (multi)media art in Central and Eastern European countries

["Ryszard W. Kluszczynski" <rwk@krysia.uni.lodz.pl>]

This text has been already published in Rhizom (as well as printed in
V2-East Reader), but I was asked to send it also to Syndicate. There is a
work in progress. I will be grateful for any information concerning this
subject.
RWK

Ryszard W. Kluszczynski

The Past and Present of (Multi)Media Art in Central and Eastern European
Countries - An Outline

The history of avant-garde media art using moving pictures as the means of
expression in Central and Eastern European countries is over 70 years old.
Obviously, such experiment in the media artistic creation were dominated by
film people, who often referred in their work to their experiences in the
field of photography. In the first half of the 1970's video art began to
develop parallel to film experiments. With time, this parallelism was
imbalanced, and, gradually, video art assumed a dominant position (to a
different extent, however, in different countries). In recent years another
transformation has been observed, resulting in the increasing interest of
both artists and their audiences in interactive media art, placing its
subjects in virtual reality and employing the communication potential of
Internet.
The historical analysis presented here arises from a conviction that  the
present standing of (multi)media artistic culture in Central and Eastern
Europe cannot be fully understood if it is referred to only  in its
technological context and political environment. The diversity  of its
forms and manifestations as well as the dominance of certain  tendencies is
also a result of historical inspiration. To some extent  earlier
achievements determine the shape of the present even in those  fields of
artistic creation which are commonly regarded as the embodiment of
modernity and, somewhat naively, linked solely to the future. Even in the
era of global communications we have our roots, not only aerials. As a
matter of fact it is also possible that the "historisation" of the present,
understood in different ways, is a feature characteristic of the
(multi)media culture of Central and  Eastern European countries.
1
The history of experimental cinema in Central Europe began in the 1920's.
In that period the interest of avant-garde artists in cinematography was
mainly manifested in writing (theoretical and  critical texts, film
projects, screenplays, etc.): it was not until the late 1920's and early
1930's that actual film-making activities in that part of Europe were
initiated. In Russia, experimental  tendencies began to develop earlier,
from the second decade of our century. Initially, they focused mainly on
the area of documentaries films, which was mainly due to Dzhiga Vertov.
Working only with real, documentary material, Vertov made it subordinate to
the properties of the film media, in particular the movement and editing
which organised it. In the 1920's the trend of avant-garde narrative cinema
emerged (Sergei Eisenstein, Lev Kuleshov, Vsevolod Pudovkyn, Aleksander
Dovzhenko), arising from the foundation of constructivist ideas, and
experimenting with editing in the first place, as well as the trend of film
'eccentricism', related to Russian futurism (Grigori Kozintsev, Leonid
Taruberg, Sergei Yutkevych). In Czechoslovakia, the avant-garde aesthetics
of film can be traced mainly to the artists of the "Devetsil" group, with
Karel Teige publishing numerous critical and theoretical texts on the
cinema. Fundamental to that aesthetics was the conviction that the two
basic features of the cinema which built the poetical dimension of film
works were light and movement. In reflections by Czech artists,
inspirations taken form constructivism (supplemented with the tendency to
use real material) intermingled with those of surrealism, which in that
country assumed the form of poeticism. Despite the presence of other
elements in discussions on film (for instance, the cinema as visual music),
it was poeticism which was acclaimed as the main principle of the cinema,
with so-called visual dramatism as the form of its expression. The expected
result of that combination of preferences for real material with poetical
tendencies, accomplished by transforming documentary records into visual
poems was  "intensified equivalent to the poetry of the flow of life"
(Teige). It was from that mode of thinking that the avant-garde Czech
cinema of the 1930's emerged, with films by Alexander Hackenschmied, Cenek
Zahradnicek, Jirzi Lechovec, Otakar Vavra, and others. In Poland, after a
period of lively although purely theoretical interest in film (closest to
practice were two authors of film projects, Mieczyseaw Szczuka and Jan
Brz+kowski), a period began when theoretical  discussions met with
practical realisation. Responsible for the creation of avant-garde Polish
cinema, along with auteurs of single films, such as Jalu Kurek, Janusz
Maria Brzeski and Kazimierz Podsadecki, were in the first place Franciszka
and Stefan Themerson. Between 1930 and 1945 they made 7 films (the last two
in Britain during the Second World War). The Themersons' film strategy was
marked with particular interest in the substance of the picture. They  used
to define filmmaking as "creating visions". In their film works they used
results of previous photographic experiments. They also devoted much
attention to the issue of equivalency between the visual and the musical
layers, which together made up the structure of the  film. An artistic
outcome of this interest was The Eye and the Ear (1944-5), among other
films. The Themersons inspired and accomplished various initiatives aimed
at supporting the film avant-garde in Poland, such as the
first-in-the-world association/co-operative of independent filmmakers, the
"f.a." periodical, and presentations of experimental French and British
films. The reflection on the nature  of connections between film and music
gave birth to an idea of abstract film by Onufry Broniseaw KopczySigmaski.
As he saw it, movie film should be treated as a score, and the film itself
performed, instead of just being shown. With this theoretical assumption,
the area of creative film work was extended, as not only the process of
filmmaking as it was traditionally understood but also its presentation was
recognised as a phase of artistic creation. The showing of the film became
its interpretation, and the projectionist turned into an artist. That
vision of a film as a score interpreted by its author by means of a tool
such as a projector was a presage of later experiments by artists
associated with the expanded cinema circles.
In Hungary, the interest of the avant-garde in the cinema also began with
theoretical publications by such artists and theoreticians as Bela Balazs,
Erno Kallai, Alfred Kemeny, Kornel Melleky and Georgy Gero (regarded as the
first independent filmmaker in Hungary). Particularly important in the
presentation of the idea of film experiment was the role performed by the
"MA" ("Today") magazine published in Vienna. Its editor-in-chief was Lajos
Kassak. It was there that the first articles by Hungarian authors on
avant-garde cinema were published, including the full version (with
illustrations) of the script by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, entitled Sketch for a
Film: Dynamics of a Big City. Moholy-Nagy was the most prominent personage
of the Hungarian avant-garde. He employed numerous media in his work,
including photographs taken with and without a camera. For him, light was
crucial in visual creation. From his perspective, the cinema was primarily
the art of light projections. As A result, Moholy-Nagy became one of the
precursors of  the 'extended cinema'. He built a device known as
Lichtrequisit (or Licht-Raum-Modulator, 1922-1930), which was used in
numerous live shows and was employed in the making of a film entitled
"Lichtspiel: schwarz-weiss-grau" (1930). Moholy-Nagy was also the auteur of
other films, where he investigated the issues of movement perception and
articulation. The most important period in his artistic career was the time
of his association with the Bauhaus. Among other artists who made their
film projects and experiments in the field of light kinetics in the Bauhaus
circle were Sandor Laszlo (the designer of a device for light projections,
Vilmos Huszar and Gyorgy Pal. In Hungary, creative film work was carried on
by Erno Metzner and Janos Manninger, as well as other artists.
2
During the first years after the Second World War, the nationalisation of
both film production, and, even more importantly, filmmaking as an artistic
activity (by its submission to ideological control, which at the same time
imposed a particular artistic programme, that of socialist realism)
distorted the development of experimental tendencies in the countries
subject to direct domination by the Soviet Union. Only some films made in
the first post-war decade proved that the avant-garde attitudes did not
vanish without trace, but remained hidden, waiting for a change in fortune.
Better times began in the 1950's, with the political thaw after Stalin's
death. Among those who were the first to take advantage of the more
favourable climate were artists in Hungary, Yugoslavia and Poland.
 An event crucial to the development of the avant-garde cinema was the
establishment of Bela Balazs' Studio (BBS) in 1959, at which a lot of
attention was devoted to film experiments. The artists who in the 1960's
made their experimental films there were Janos Toth and Zoltan  Huszarik.
At the same time, although outside an institutional framework, Miklos
Ederly made his first films. The most important of all BBS' initiatives in
the field of experimental film was the Film  Language Series, initiated at
the beginning of the 1970's. It was connected with the activities of the
"K/3 Section", a group of artists who consciously referred to the film
facet of Bauhaus in their work. Among those who made their films within the
FL Series were Gabor Body, Dora Maurer, Zoltan Jeney and Andreas Szirtes,
as well as the above-mentioned Ederly and Toth. An important feature of the
Film Language Series Productions was their intermedial character, arising
from the fact that they were a result of contacts between artists
representing different areas of art. That interdisciplinary contact was
also helpful in the film reflection on the properties of the cinema as
such, and on audio-visual communication, constituting another relevant
characteristics of films by the K/3 group. In Poland, worth mentioning are
Kineforms created by Andrzej Paweowski in the second half of the 1950's,
experiments in the domain of light kinetics, as well as the inception of
the experimental trend of animated films, the works of Jan Lenica and
Walerian Borowczyk being  the most interesting here. In 1970, a Workshop of
Film Form was established in yenod.5, the most significant of all artistic
formations in the Polish cinema of the post-war period. The main
representatives of WFF were Jozef Robakowski, Ryszard Wayko, Wojciech
Bruszewski and  Pawee Kwiek. The members of the Workshop proclaimed the
need to investigate the properties of the film media. In their works they
analysed the character of film perception and inner connections  between
various levels of the film structure; studied the issues of the relation
between reality and its audio-visual representation, as well as between the
spectator and reality, and its representation.
 Differently understood issues concerning the connection existing between
the picture and sound, as well as between the mechanical character of the
media and psycho-physiological nature of its user, were particularly
frequent in the films by Workshop-based artists. It is worth mentioning
here that the WFF artists manifested specific fluxus-like attitudes, which
to a large extent determined the shape of their artistic activity, often
directed against lack of authenticity in various forms, shallowness or
masquerade in the world of art by means of provocations, unmasking or
discreditations. From the foundation of WFF experiences developed the art
of Zbigniew  Rybczynski. He created his genuine, distinctive style using
mainly an optic photocopier and colour filters; experimented with picture
formats and combined traditional animation with processed live action. In
1983, RybczySigmaski won an Oscar for his Tango (1980) in the category of
animated films. Other RybczySigmaski's films made after he had left Poland,
such as Steps (1985), The Fourth Dimension (1988), L'Orchestre (1990) and
Kafka (1992) confirmed his position of one of the most prominent artists in
the field of experimental cinema and video art in the world. 
In Yugoslavia, the first important avant-garde films appeared at the
beginning of the 1960's. In that period, as well as in the following
decade, a number of centres were created, including MM in Zagreb or SKUC in
Belgrade, whose scope of interest included, among other genres, the
experimental film. Among the most innovative artists in that field were
Ladislav Galeta and Tomislav Gotovac. Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia were
the only countries of the Eastern block ('Eastern' being a political term),
where in the 1970's the avant-garde cinema evolved and developed, reaching
international standards and gaining world-wide recognition; as far as other
states are concerned, we can speak only of individual artists. In
Czechoslovakia for instance, after 1964 Jan Svankmajer began making
experimental animated films related in their form and content to the
surrealist ideology of the pre-war period. In the 1980's experimental
filmmaking gradually declined, forced out by video art. In Hungary this
process was far less intensive (if we can speak of it all), as video there
accompanied film art, which was still continued. In the mid-1980's in
Russia, where video still remained a thing of the future, a group of
artists led by Igor and Gleb Aleinikov initiated film experiments (parallel
cinema) using the experiences of FEKS' expressionism and eccentricism,
having labelled their style "necrorealism". Video art in Russia emerged
later than elsewhere in Central Europe, and was parallel to the trend of
alternative cinema. 
3
Video art in Central European countries began to develop in the 1970's. In
Poland, it emerged from the experiences of WFF artists (Bruszewski, Kwiek,
Robakowski), who became the first independent users of the tools of
electronic creation. Because of this context, Polish video art of that
period (just like the film) assumed an analytical character. The works
created the 1980's were more personal in character, more expressive and
symbolic, and often had the form of video performances (to the camera). Of
particular importance at that time were works by Zbigniew Libera and Jerzy
Truszkowski. The present decade, due to artists such as Barbara Konopka,
Maciej Walczak, Jacek Szleszynski or Piotr Wyrzykowski, appears as the era
of multitude and diversity of individual choices, attitudes and poetics.
The beginnings of video art in Hungary are connected primarily with Gabor
Body, the first one in that country who in the early 1970's started to use
video for artistic purposes. In the early 1980's he was a co-founder of
"Infermental" - an international avant-garde magazine, a Polish-Hungarian
joint venture. The further development of video art in Hungary was limited
because of a slowly improving access to video equipment, and the sluggish
development of education in the field of video techniques, which began as
late as the mid-1980's. Because of such unfavourable conditions in their
own country, the most eminent Hungarian artists worked abroad, and their
works were presented mainly during festivals, both domestic and foreign.
This phenomenon constitutes one of the most important differences between
Polish and Hungarian (probably also Yugoslavian) video art. In Poland,
artists came to terms with the limited technical capabilities they had at
their disposal, and managed to establish an independent network of
locations (mainly private, although some galleries were also included
there) where video art was presented in the difficult period of the 1980's
(see the "Silent Movie" Festival). In Hungary, artists sought institutional
support: if not able to secure it, the most prominent of them decided to
work abroad. Extremely significant were Yugoslavian achievements in the
field of video art, where this discipline developed from the early 1970's.
The most prominent of them, which gained international recognition, were
created by Sanja Ivekovic, Dalibor Martinis, Breda Beban, Hrvoje Hrovatic,
Marina Grzinic and Anna Smid. Considerable interest in video art was
displayed by television stations in Ljubljana, Skopje, Zagreb and Belgrade
(where in the years 1982-1990 Dunja Blazevic had her TV Gallery). A
continuation of this Yugoslavian tradition is the  interesting video art of
Slovenia and Croatia. From the early 1980's, the emergence and fast
development of video art in the Baltic Republics and Ukraine can also be
observed. The process began with Latvia, mainly due to the Video Centre
established in Riga, and the international Arsenal Festival, whose first
(and the most interesting) presentation took place in 1988.
4
Since the beginning of the present decade in Central European countries
freed of the corset of dependence on the falling Russian Empire various
initiatives have been undertaken with the aim to support the development of
the culture and art of the new media. Needless to say, the situation is
different in different countries, just as different are their traditions in
that sphere. Even on the basis of the above analysis, by no means a
detailed one, an observation can easily be made that the most noteworthy
achievements in various periods appeared in that countries where in the
previous  decades valuable phenomena in the domain of media art occurred,
and where that artistic activity resulted in the emergence and grounding of
permanent tendencies. Strong experimental film in Poland, Yugoslavia and
Hungary created the environment from which different video trends have
surfaced. Because of the lack of such formative factors in Czechoslovakia
and Bulgaria, the development of video art in those countries was
considerably delayed. The question whether a  similar pattern in the
relation of video and multimedia will occur, remains unsettled for the time
being. At present in nearly all countries of the former Eastern Bloc a
significant enlivening in the  sphere of (multi)media culture can be
observed, with a number of varied initiatives undertaken. In Poland in 1991
the author of this outline organised a retrospective of avant-garde cinema
and video  from Central European countries, held in the Centre for
Contemporary Art, "The Middle of Europe", where the most valuable projects
in that field were presented. Consistently, in subsequent annual
exhibitions of media art, the productions by artists from Middle and East
European countries were confronted with those from elsewhere in the world,
including Michael Bielicki, Gabor Body, Marina Grzinic and Aina Smid,
Gustav Hamos, Sanja Ivekovic and Dalibor Martinis. These confrontations
provided material for the author's opinion that historical experiences in
the sphere of media art in various countries to a large extent determine
the artistic choices of today's. An excellent example here are the
multimedia realisations and projects of a Polish artist, Piotr Wyrzykowski,
who in his attitude combines in a most interesting way the conceptual
inspirations originating in the 1970's with those of performance art of the
1980's. Such a combination, rooted in a historical context, seems a
characteristic feature of the most distinguished manifestations of the new
media art in Poland, irrespective of their diversification. Subsequent
presentations of the WRO Festival in Wroceaw seem to prompt similar
conclusions. Still, the growing interest in (multi) media art in Poland and
the increasing activity of artists (especially of the younger generation)
find no institutional support. There are places when such productions can
be presented, but education in this area is underdeveloped, and there are
hardly any critics who specialise in (multi)media art, or who are experts
in that field.: the same small group of people organises exhibitions and
carries out educational activities. Institutions are generally not willing
to support (multi)media productions, which are more and more expensive, and
demand technological aid. Independence, which often takes the shape of
private production and presentation, and which used to be an advantage and
strength of Polish video art of the 1980's, has become, in a sense, its
weakness and a hindrance in the era of interactive computer installations
and virtual reality. In a sense, because I am not fully convinced that
dependence on various institutions can solve all problems and create a
perfect environment for the artists. There is no doubt, however, that the
present situation calls for solutions aimed at guaranteeing artists the
possibility to carry on their work without interfering with their
preferences and choices. In the author's opinion the situation in  this
respect is better in Hungary, where the tradition of institutionalising
artistic activity does exist, as well as the possibility to use for
didactic purposes the experience of artists who have worked abroad (e.g.
Gustav Hamos and George Legrady). The scale of the latest artistic venture
undertaken there, The Butterfly Effect, as well as some other events (such
as international seminars  on art in cyberculture), deserves attention and
praise. Of extreme importance to the present and future of multimedia
culture in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc is the network of
Soros' centres. It was due to SCCA that the already mentioned undertakings
could occur, just like exhibitions and seminars held in capital cities of
Central and Eastern Europe (e.g. Ex Oriente Lux, Bucharest 1993; New Media
Topia, Moscow 1994; Orbis Fictus, Prague 1995-6). Financial support here is
extremely important; however, of equal (if not primary) relevance is SCCA's
help in establishing and setting in motion a network of contacts,
international exchange and co-operation. Without them, the bringing into
existence of any venture not limited to the mere presentation of finished
works, even if of limited durability, would be extremely hard to
accomplish. The activity of Soros' centres can prove to be a factor having
a positive influence on the development of new multimedia culture in the
countries of Central and Eastern Europe, for instance speeding up the
process wherever no well-established traditions of media art exist, or
where the underdeveloped system of institutional support is incapable of
satisfying artistic needs. Obviously, a preliminary condition in this case
is the emergence of groups interested in the  development of media art.
Their existence has already been confirmed by the intensity of response
elicited by the undertakings mentioned above, as well as by the multimedia
projects and achievements of artists from countries without any particular
past accomplishments in the field of electronic artistic creation (such as
Tatyana Detkyna from Russia and Alexandru Patatics from Romania). Still,
the most interesting ideas by artists from countries of the former Eastern
Bloc remain in the sphere of projects rather than their actual realisation,
which is mainly due to technological difficulties.. Such a situation,
however, will not last long: as the growth of an electronic industry in
these countries is very dynamic, results, favouring artistic creation, are
likely to be seen soon. Last but not least, the time when the use of the
labels "the art of Central and Eastern European countries" or "the art of
the former Eastern Bloc" was justified and appropriate, is coming to an
end. The years following the victory of the Solidarity Union in Poland, and
the demolition of the Berlin wall were a period of differentiation, when
the situation in each of these countries acquired an individual character.
Although similarities are still many, we should not be deceived by them, as
the differences are far more important. The status of multimedia art varies
in each country, and future developments will depend on local artistic
traditions in the first place, the tempo of technological progress, support
granted by state agencies and institutions, a favourable political
environment, and, most of all, on the activity of artistic formations,
groups and communities.

Bibliography (English):

I. Arns, E. Tharandt [ed.], Ostranenie. 1 International Video Festivalat
the Bauhaus Desau,1993 
D. Basia [ed.], Open Tradition. CAD Forum 1994 Catalogue, Zagreb 1994
C. Dan [ed.], Ex Oriente Lux Catalogue, SCCA, Bucuresti 1994
D. Daniels [ed.], MinimaMedia. Documentation of the MedienbiennaleLeipzig
1994, Plitt Verlag und Mencke Presse, Leipzig 1995
N. Danino M. Maziere [ed.], East European and Soviet Avant-garde Film&
Video, "Undercut" Number 18 Autumn 1989
R.W. Kluszczynski, Highlights from the history of the Polish avant-garde
film, European Media Art Festival Catalogue, red. H. Tepe, R.Sausmikat,
Osnabrueck 1994, p. 138-151
R.W. Kluszczynski. Video within the Space of Polish Art, "Exit. New Art in
Poland", Quarterly No. 4 (20), 1994, p. 858-861
R.W. Kluszczynski [ed.] The Middle of  Europe. Festival of the avant-garde
film and video art in Austria, Tscheko-Slovakia, Hungary and Poland
catalogue, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw 1991
R.W. Kluszczynski [ed.], LAB 5. International Film, Video and Computer Art
Exhibition Catalogue, Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle,
Warsaw 1995
T.Mogilevskaya, A history of Audiovisual Art in Russia, [in:] WRO 95 Media
Art Festival Catalogue, ed. P. Krajewski, O. Celejowska, Wroceaw 1995, p.
98-104
New MediaLogia/New MediaTopia Catalogue of International Simposium and
Exhibition, Moscow 1994
M. Susowski [ed.] The New Art Practice in Yugoslavia, Gallery of
Contemparary Art, Zagreb 1978