Screening of the film “Włosy” (2012) by Agnieszka Polska 15-23.03.2024
In the artist’s catalogue, Martha Kirszenbaum wrote the following about the film: “Włosy [Hair] (2012) is Polska’s first medium-length film. Based on an imaginary script depicting the utopian everyday life and trip to India of a young group of Polish hippies, in this work, the filmmaker, mostly recognized for her animated films, skillfully shifts to using the language of cinema. Although she includes elements of her typical techniques such as cutups of archival material, Włosy is her first narrative piece, using methods and systems of narration proper to cinema. At the first glance, Włosy immediately recalls the 1979 Milos Forman’s musical film, also called Hair, which joyfully vulgarized the hippie movement into popular culture. Polska seems to openly refer to this while filming a Krakow hippie crew dancing at a party to the Polish version of the 1970s hit song from the soundtrack to Forman’s film, Aquarius – performed here by local band Pro Contra.”
The return to Agnieszka’s film is not coincidental, I wanted to show it in the gallery as a gift for my 40th birthday. It features my colleagues and friends, and myself. It’s a reminiscence of a humid summer when we were the artistic youth. In the film, I play the owner of a hippie house on Czarodziejska Street in the Krakow district of Dębniki, a performance that has got me listed on Filmweb.