The main idea of the exhibition “In Praise of Happy Chance” is the coincidence that occurs in the artistic process. The three artists presented at the exhibition, each in their own way, also refer to the rich Polish film tradition with their works. The exhibition offers diverse and interactive experiences for viewers of all ages and screenings of two series of Polish animated films in Norwegian.
Artists – Victoria Sara Davis, Grzegorz Rogala, Stanisław Furman – will show their new works, works created especially for the exhibition. These are: a large, multi-channel video installation displayed on six free-hanging screens, created by award-winning director Victoria Sara Davis, an interactive installation in which the viewer helps in completing the work by Grzegorz Rogala, and a documentary by Stanisław Furman.
Randomness uses artificial intelligence to construct both narrative and visuality in the work of Grzegorz Rogala (born 1956). The installation presents two artistic personalities (a woman and a man) with two individual paths that merge into one, while maintaining their individual character. Rogala uses artificial intelligence in her work. The artist has been involved in artistic film, photography and interactive art for 10 years, and has been running a film studio since 1988.
The video installation by Victoria Sara Davis (born 1983) is titled “Traces” and is a poetic narrative about Polish artists Franciszek (1907-88) and Stefan Themerson (1910-88). They were pioneers of avant-garde cinema in Poland and important figures in the European avant-garde of the 1930s and 1940s. In the installation, various fragments of films are displayed on six freely hanging screens. Davis was born in Poland and grew up in the UK. She studied documentary film at the Sorbonne in France and won several awards for her films. He is a member of the European Film Academy.
Stanisław Furman (born 1973) made a documentary based on the film material of the famous director Tomasz Pobóg-Malinowski (1940-2015). The film is about the Themersons.
The exhibition will be accompanied by screenings of two Polish series of animated films for children – “Aggie” (6-9 years old) and “Patchwork Kingdom” (3-5 years old) in Norwegian language versions. The films are produced by Serafiński Studio from Warsaw, and the producer is Małgorzata Serafińska-Bosek (born 1968). In 2023, “Patchwork Kingdom” qualified for the competition of the most important international animated film festival in Annecy, France.
The exhibition was presented in the fall of 2023 at the Masovian Museum in Płock. The museum is a partner of Kunstbanken in the implementation of the “Stories. The world is more complicated than our truths about it”, financed by the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area.
The curator of the exhibition is Małgorzata Sady.