In 2005, Polish-born artist Krzysztof Wodiczko, known for his public projections on existing monuments and public architecture in more than a dozen countries, exhibited his first large-scale indoor video projection titled “If You See Something…” at Galerie Lelong in New York City. This series of video projections responded to changes in public policy regarding immigration after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The title, inspired by an ongoing homeland security campaign in New York City subway stations, refers to posters that encouraged suspicion of immigrants by vaguely demanding, “If you see something, say something.” The Lelong exhibition, because of its site-specificity and controlled voyeuristic environment, allowed the artist to manipulate the typical dynamic of communication in the public sphere. He inserts the voices of immigrants, the implicit targets of the security campaign, while silencing those conditioned to fear these “strangers.”
The temporary installation at Galerie Lelong consisted of four life-size video screens in a dark room in which silhouetted figures projected upon the screens appear to be holding conversations behind frosted glass “windows.” The figures, all presumed to be immigrants, act out private dramas of pain through audible conversations that center on themes such as deportation, political harassment, racial humiliation, detainment, and exclusion. The conversations confront the audience with the hopelessness felt by immigrants and racial minorities due to what Wodiczko calls “the assault on civil liberties in the name of war on terror.”
Wodiczko’s work has fascinated me since I first watched season three of Art:21. His childhood and early career behind the Iron Curtain in Poland and subsequent life as an immigrant in America (he now teaches in the Interrogative Design Department at MIT) has inspired his interest in giving a voice to oppressed or struggling individuals (victims of abuse, war veterans, immigrants, etc.). He has projected on over seventy public sites around the world, and his prolific career surprisingly has not received the attention that I believe it deserves. Perhaps, this comes from the ephemeral nature of his installations. The public projections last only one or two nights, and then disappear from the façades of monuments and public architecture forever. His temporary video projections assault the surfaces of static (often increasingly meaningless or ignored government structures) and bring them back to life with the faces, hands, legs, and bodies of living victims of public policy.
I have chosen to focus on his first indoor installation, “If You See Something…” because I am particularly interested in the dialogue created by art in both public and private spaces. The small, intimate setting confronted the viewers in a way that encouraged close listening and transformed the audience into individual voyeurs rather than collective spectators. I am particularly interested in the artist’s process of collecting, editing, and reproducing testimony from traumatized individuals—a process that Wodiczko compares to post-traumatic stress therapy. The production process and poignant final projections carefully critique social injustice and political ideologies while simultaneously giving oppressed members of society a platform for their testimony and a chance to heal by bearing witness to a captive audience.
I had trouble writing this small blog post because there is SO much to be said about the artist and his prolific body of work. Since it is nearly impossible to sum up the importance of his work in a few paragraphs, I hope that you take the time to check out these youtube videos (linked below). The first is from Wodiczko’s episode of Art:21 and provides an excellent overview of his public projections. The second is an interview with Wodiczko conducted by BOMB Live and shows some footage of “If You See Something…” If you have any questions about the artist or any of his works, feel free to post a response. Also, let me know what you think about his work (to many his work is considered controversial) and I have discovered that lively debates can be inspired. So long and happy watching!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juq-Z48lY7g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSsCFNBge24
On a side note, if you are interested in contemporary monuments or controversial public art, I recommend a recently released PBS documentary titled "The Last Conquistador." The documentary follows the controversial production of a monument to Spanish conquistador Juan de Onate at the El Paso Airport a few years ago. It was the most interesting art documentary that I have seen in a while, and I highly recommend it.
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