Manhunt
Polowanie na człowieka
The work was inspired by the monumental architecture of the Soviet-era subway in Kiev, Ukraine. The subway belongs to the category of “no-places”, such as airports or train stations, that people visit only when they transfer from one place to another. In the night, the desolate platforms and corridors resemble the sets of classic science fiction movies whose plot takes place on a space station, suspended somewhere beyond time and space, in the a utterly “wordless” place. Following the camera through the undergroundʼs mysterious spaces, we can get the impression that what we are seeing are fragments of a virtual world of the computer game such as Doom. This unreal space results in a disturbing suspicion that perhaps the emptiness is but an illusion and in the dark recesses there lurks something strange, some Other, who has been born into this world deserted by everything human. The viewer watches this other world through the round holes in the thick wall, put in bizarre position of a post-apocalyptic ape curiously watching the remnants of some strange civilization. This provokes a disturbing ambiguity which is further emphasized by the fact that the wall is covered with three- dimensional relief forms resembling H.R. Gigerʼs fantastic visions, combining biological forms with advanced technology.
We donʼt know whether the empty spaces are the result of some past catastrophe, as, after all the underground tunnels also play the role of nuclear shelters, or have they been seized by Aliens whose traces can be found on the relief?
And who are those others? Hybrids of uncleaidentity, evoking fear and a sense of threat resulting from the fact that Them are Them, but isnʼt it so that Them are also Us?
We donʼt know whether the empty spaces are the result of some past catastrophe, as, after all the underground tunnels also play the role of nuclear shelters, or have they been seized by Aliens whose traces can be found on the relief?
And who are those others? Hybrids of uncleaidentity, evoking fear and a sense of threat resulting from the fact that Them are Them, but isnʼt it so that Them are also Us?
E. Gorządek
CCA, Warsaw, 2006.
Video documentation
Manhunt, Białystok