Jozef Robakowski


b. 1939 in Poznan, Poland Studied in the Fine Arts Department at Mikolaj Kopernik University, Torun, Poland. Also studied Cinematography at the State Film, Television and Theatre Academy in Lódz, Poland. Academy lecturer between 1970-1981. Created films, photographic series, videotapes, video-performances, installations, drawings, objects, conceptual projects and initiated numerous events, exhibitions and artistic actions. Additionally editor and theorist of contemporary art.
Co-founder of the avant-garde group Zero-61, working in Torun between 1961-1969, and the group Oko STKF, Petla, Krag. Co-organizer of Film Workshop and Television Creative Group Station L in Lódz, experimenting in film image and sound, and active in the field of Polish conceptual and post-conceptual art of the 1970's.
Since 1971, he has run Galeria Wymiany (Exchange Gallery), a private gallery of contemporary art, with the aim of exchanging artistic thoughts and provoking creative initiatives. The gallery collects films, videotapes, documentation, produces video-films and is a contact office for the international artistic movement INFERMENTAL.
Since 1959, Robakowski has organised and participated in numerous exhibitions and art productions of the so-called Other Media. Lives and works in Lódz.



Selected exhibitions
1959   KMKiP Group, Torun, Poland
1961-69   manifestations of the Zero-61 group, Torun, Poland
1971   Fotografowie poszukujacy (Searching Photographers), Galeria Wspólczesna, Warsaw
1972   Atelier 72 (Polish Contemporary Art Festival), Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (UK)
  Searching Photographers, Cologne, Germany
1973   Atelier 72 (Polish Contemporary Art Festival), Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (UK)
  Polska '73, CAYC, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  Kinolaboratorium, Galeria EL, Elblag, Poland
1974   Actual Art in East Europe, ICC, Antwerp, Belgium
  5th International Festival of Experimental Film, Knokke Heist, Belgium
1975   Aspekty Polskiej Sztuki Wspólczesnej / Aspects of Modern Polish Art, Galeria Wspólczesna, Warsaw
1976   VIDEO-FILM-PHOTO-TEXT, De Appel Gallery, Amsterdam
  VIDEO ART, Galeria Labyrint, Lublin, Poland
  Workshop of Film Form Group, The International Festival-ICC, Antwerp, Belgium
1977   Documenta 6 (experimental film section), Kassel, Germany
  Film als Film, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany
1978   5th Triennial of Drawing, Muzeum Architektury, Wroclaw, Poland
1979   3rd International Avant-Garde Film Festival, National Film Theatre, London
  Works and Words, De Appel Gallery, Amsterdam
  Experiment '79, Nederlands Filmmuseum, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
  Film as Film (formal experiment in film 1910-1975), Hayward Gallery, London
1980   Foto Medium Art, Aai Gallery, Tokyo
1981   de POLOGNE: 9 artistes d'avant-garde, Raffinerie du Plan K, Brussels
  Konstrukcja w procesie / Construction in Process, Hala Budrem, Lódz, Poland
  70/80 - Polish Art of the '70s, BWA, Sopot, Poland
1982   Sydney Biennial, New South Wales Institute of Technology, Sydney, Australia
1983   Presences Polognaises, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1985   Polish Avant-Garde, Culturel Centre, Brechem/Antwerp, Belgium
1987   Out of Eastern Europe: Private Photography, Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA)
1990   5. Manifestation Internationale de Video, Centre Video, Montbeliard, France
1992   Lyon/Lódz: La collection du Musée de Lódz au Musée d'Art Contemporain, Lyon, France
1993   OSTranenie 93, Bauhaus Dessau, Germany
1994   Der Riss im Raum, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; Warszawa Minima Media (Medienbiennale); Factory, Leipzig, Germany
  Europa, Europa, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle, Bonn
1995   LAB 5. International film, video and computer art exhibition, Centrum Sztuki Wspólczesnej, Warsaw
  OSTranenie 95, Bauhaus Dessau, Germany
1996   The Butterfly Effect, Mûcsarnok (Kunsthalle), Budapest aw
1997   Polish Art 1945-1996, Mûcsarnok (Kunsthalle), Budapest
  Energia obrazu, Galeria Arsenal, Poznan; Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków, Poland
  Contemporary Polish Photography, Ernst Museum, Budapest
  Impulsy FOTO - SWIATA, Galeria FF, Lódz; Miêdzynarodowe Centrum Sztuki, Poznan;
  WRO'97 Sound Base Arts Festival, Galeria Foto-Medium-Art, Wroclaw, Poland


Selected film
1962   6,000,000 (5 min., 16mm, b/w)
1963   Swan Lake (5 min., 16mm, b/w)
1970   Market Place (6 min., 35mm, b/w, R. Meissner-T. Junak, WFF)
1971   Test I (5 min., 35mm, b/w, WFF)
  Test II (4 min., 35mm, colour, WFF)
1972-73   Exercise (6 min., 35mm, b/w, WFF)
1973   I Am Going (film performance, 5 min., 35mm, b/w, WFF)
1975-76   1 -Intermingled Space- 2 (8 min., 35mm, colour)
1976   Exercises for Two Hands (action with two projectors, 8 min., 16mm, b/w)
  On the Line (film performance, 6 min., 16mm, b/w)
1981   About My Fingers (7 min., 16mm, b/w)
1984   Broadcast from Moscow (8 min., 16mm, b/w)
  Cinema is Power (8 min., 16mm, b/w, co-producer M. Potocka)
1978-85   From My Window (film with live commentary, 18 min., 16mm, b/w)


Selected video
1975   Coming Closer (photo/video, 5 min., colour)
  Functions (video performance, 3 min., colour)
1976   Commands (video/action, co-producer A. Paruzel)
1977   TV Face (video performance, 5 min., colour)
1977-79   Exercise for Two Hands (transmissions, video performance)
1978-91   From My Window (video/film, 19 min., b/w)
1982   The State of War (video/film, 9 min., b/w, team production)
1982-88   In Memeory of L. Brezhnev (video/film, 9 min., b/w)
1985   Art is Power (video/film, 8 min., b/w)
  Exercise for Video (colour)
  Video Series & Dedications (35 min., colour)
  Cars! Cars!(2 min., colour)
1986   Machines Trembling, Chimneys Smoking (17 min., colour, co-producer W. Krymarys)
1987   Energetic Angles (18 min., b/w)
1987-92   "Party" with Lutoslawski & Symphony (29 min., b/w)
1989   Polish Frolics (29 min., colour)
  Masochistic Little Pictures (8 min., colour)
  Joseph's Touch (19 min., colour)
  I Was a Boy in NY (5 min., colour)
  Exercise for Video & Montreal (11 min., colour)
  Dance in a Bowel (5 min., colour)
1989-90   Come to Me (4 min., colour)
1990   Gee! My Foot is Painful (5 min., colour)
  Joseph's Testament (4 min, colour)
  Videomasochisms II (5 min., colour)
1991   Magic of Mirror (8 min., b/w)
1992   The Eyeglasses (video story, 11 min., colour)
  Arnolvideofini 1434-1992 (11 min., colour)
1991-92   Videospaces (240 min., colour)
1992-93   Yaga! Take a Call, Please (4 min., colour)
  Film/Video Machine (video installation)
1994   No Access (4 min., colour)
  Apple (4 min., colour)
1995   Film-Machine (video installation)


Earlier works
1975   Intervention I,
  Three Angles
1975-95   Energetic Angles
1978   From the series Energetic Angles
1979-90   Energetic Angles
1989   Self-portrait with an Angle
1990   Energetic Angles
  Angles
1993   Energetic Angles

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