Tate Modern's Polish New Wave retrospective reconstructs a cinematic movement that never existed
From April 3 to 5, 2009, the Kinoteka Film Festival 2009 presented a retrospective on the 'Polish New Wave' at Tate Modern in London, organized by Łukasz Ronduda and Barbara Piwowarska. The selection was inspired by Piotr Uklański's 2006 film 'Summer Love' and included notable works such as 'Through and Through' (1972) by Grzegorz Królikiewicz, 'Identification Marks: None' (1964) by Jerzy Skolimowski, and 'On the Silver Globe' (1988) by Andrzej Żuławski, which faced a production halt in 1976. Additional films featured were Krzysztof Zanussi's 'Illumination' (1973) and Andrzej Kondratiuk's 'The Hydro-Riddle' (1970). A bilingual publication titled 'Polish New Wave/Polska Nowa Fala' (2008) accompanied the event, highlighting the movement's fragmented characteristics due to censorship.
Key facts
- The Polish New Wave retrospective took place at Tate Modern in London from 3-5 April 2009 as part of the Kinoteka Film Festival
- Curators Łukasz Ronduda and Barbara Piwowarska constructed the concept as an ahistorical phenomenon that 'never existed'
- The program was inspired by contemporary artist Piotr Uklański's 2006 film 'Summer Love'
- Andrzej Żuławski's 'On the Silver Globe' (1988) was the centerpiece, a sci-fi epic mostly shot in 1976 before being halted by authorities
- Jerzy Skolimowski's 'Identification Marks: None' (1964) was recognized by French critics including Jean-Luc Godard as New Wave cinema
- Grzegorz Królikiewicz's 'Through and Through' (1972) employed perceptual disorientation techniques developed with avant-garde collaborators
- The retrospective was accompanied by the bilingual publication 'Polish New Wave/Polska Nowa Fala' published in Warsaw in 2008
- Filmmakers faced censorship and repression that prevented a continuous New Wave movement from developing in Poland
Entities
Artists
- Michael Goddard
- Piotr Uklański
- Łukasz Ronduda
- Barbara Piwowarska
- Grzegorz Królikiewicz
- Józef Robakowski
- Zbigniew Rybczyński
- Jerzy Skolimowski
- Jean-Luc Godard
- Andrzej Żuławski
- Jerzy Żuławski
- Krzysztof Zanussi
- Andrzej Wajda
- Krzysztof Kieślowski
- Agnieszka Holland
- Andrzej Kondratiuk
- Iga Cembrzyńska
- Władysław Tatarkiewicz
- Roman Polański
- Wojciech Has
- Piotr Szulkin
- Tadeusz Lubelski
- Jerzy Grotowski
- Antonin Artaud
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Andy Warhol
- Federico Fellini
- Delmer Daves
- George Lucas
- Franz Klammer
- Wanda Gołcimińska
Institutions
- Tate Modern
- Kinoteka Film Festival
- Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowskie Castle
- Adam Mickiewicz Institute
- National Film School in Łódź
- Workshop of Film Form
- ARTMargins Online
- University of Salford
- Hollywood
- Solidarity movement
- Mariacki Church
- Starr Theater
- Columbus-deluxe-777.com
Locations
- London
- United Kingdom
- Warsaw
- Poland
- Łódź
- Wrocław
- Kraków
- France
- Czechoslovakia
- Austria
- Middle East
- Hollywood
- United States
- Saragossa
- Spain