A DREAM FULL OF FILMS

Exhibition summarising 20 years of creative work by Joanna Polak

Opening: 14 December 2023, 6 p.m.

The exhibition is co-organised with the Association of Polish Artists.

It presents elements of set design, film puppets as well as the films themselves or photographs from film productions.

Running until 14 January 2024

A dream full of films – 20 films for the 20th anniversary of the creative work of Joanna Polak.

        The creative output of Joanna Polak is extensive. There is not enough space in the gallery to show even a fraction of it. We presented a selected, small part. One can now imagine the scale on which the artist works and artist works and creates. I believe that this is material for not one but many exhibitions in an extensive space.

        It was difficult to make a selection and place objects in the gallery that would give at least a small picture of who Joanna Polak is and the scale with which she works. It would be difficult to look for even one repetition, replica, duplication of themes. Sometimes, on the contrary, one gets the impression that Joanna Polak is a team of artists, each of them carrying a creative story.

        There are no secrets to the director in art of filming. She uses dozens of animation techniques, creating an original world, veiled but legible, dedicated to many viewers who can explore more or less difficult themes with varying degrees of intensity.

              To understand the phenomenon of Joanna Polak’s work, it is necessary to look closely at many of her film productions. One has to look at the set designs, of which she has created many for her animations. Thanks to the sets for the film ‘Meblościanka’, which we installed for a year in the Theatre Palace in Gardzienice, we were able to stay for a while in a living room truly taken out from the old, communist newspapers, cycling between a kiosk and a dustbin and peeking into a kiosk seller, because he fell asleep again and we needed matches. We had new neighbours on this cardboard ‘block of flats’, and ‘parking’ cars in such precise positions by the arbor was causing quite a bit of frustration. By the time this dream was over, we had already managed to take the rubbish to the micro-containers on more than one occasion and hung up many a load of laundry in the small, uncomfortable bathroom. Moments later, we met the Woollie and his noble companions and the sense of the world according to these characters.  The moment came when we saw the rest of the film, we lost count, lost the threads, enchanted, in awe of the genius of Joanna Polak and her creations, imaginary worlds in which there are countless possibilities, horizons, and the multitude of stories and plots can be artistically intimidating.

        Designing in such a diverse way is one thing; giving meaning and life to puppets and sets is another. Joanna Polak sends us countless messages, signals, life hints, hidden in her productions like cryptic advertisements, just like that, appearing at the most appropriate moment for us. She takes us across the threshold of the cinematic world to this carefully created and planned plane of a certain production.

Zuzanna Zubek-Gańska

Joanna Polak – director and animator. Born in Lublin. Graduated from the State Secondary School of Fine Arts in Lublin and the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań at the Faculty of Multimedia Communication. She obtained her MFA degree specialising in motion pictures in 2003. In 2011, she completed her doctoral thesis at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, thus obtaining the title of Doctor of Fine Arts. In 2019, was awarded a postdoctoral degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław and received the title of professor at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology (PJATK) in Warsaw. Polak is the author of the book “Hotel Mirage – computer cut-out in film-therapeutic animation” and 5 chapters on film animation in various published books. She is a member of ASIFA Poland (Association Internationale du Film d’Animation – International Animated Film Association) which comprises artists and people connected to the animation environment and the Association of Polish Artists and Designers in Lublin.Since 2007, she has conducted dozens of film animation workshops for children and master classes for adult teachers of the profession both home and overseas  (Austria, Russia, USA, Serbia). She has received scholarships from: the Minister of Culture, National Heritage and Sport (2021), the Mayor of Lublin (2021, 2017), the Marshal of the Lublin Voivodeship (2019, 2017).

She has also held the Artist in Residence scholarship at MuseumsQuartier in Vienna, Austria (2009) and on the invitation of ART Domus in Brno, Czech Republic (1995). She has sat on the jury of Polish and foreign festivals and competitions (USA, Serbia, Slovenia, Russia, Belarus, India). Joanna Polak’s films and video installations have been presented at over 900 festivals, presentations and exhibitions and on many television channels (Europe, Asia, USA). The films have won 65 awards and distinctions in Poland and abroad (Italy, China, India, USA, Russia, Ireland, Serbia, Romania, Belarus, Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary). Her curriculum consists of over 170 films, predominantly animated ones. Her current creative explorations revolve around animation for adults and children and experiments with simultaneous video installation.