Cyfrowa Etnografia

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Part of Summary of articles / Polska Sztuka Ludowa - Konteksty 1992 t.46 z.3-4

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SUMMARY OF ARTICLES
Zbigniew B e n e d y k t o w i c z EDITORIAL - THE ANTHROPOLO­
GY OF FILM AND PHOTOGRAPHY
T h i s successive issue of "Polish F o l k A r t . Contexts" is devoted to film and
photography and primarily deals with the anthropology of contemporary
culture. T h e collected texts discuss the problem of film and photography as
a record and document of contemporary culture as well as the participation of
the creative element in scientific ethnographic undertakings. Alongside
theoretical essays by Barthes, Calvino's reflections about the myth in
contemporary culture a>d literature and an excellent study by J . Clifford
about the creative aspect of the ethnographic works by B r o n i s ł a w Malinowski,
the reader will find analyses of particular symbolic and mythical structures in
present-day mass culture. T h e issue contains an examination of registered
culture encountered in the contemporary cinema moulded in an atmosphere of
a postmodernistic play with cultural texts. T h e source materials - reminiscen­
ces, fragments of biographical diaries and photodiaries, series of artistic
photography and an autobiography of a provincial photographer - oscillate
around the participation of the subjective, creative and symbolic element in
documentary records which, either in the form of a film or a photograph could
become the object of analyses, conducted from the viewpoint of the
anthropology o f culture.
A l e k s a n d e r J a c k i e w i c z MY LIFE IN THE CINEMA
Profesor Aleksander Jackiewicz (died in 1988) describes his life and first
interests in literature, the cinema and theatre. H e indicates the merging of
particular interests and their transformation. I n his work, professor Jac­
kiewicz tried to combine literary and film critique and in this manner arrived at
the anthropology of film, which he subsequently pursued.
T e r e s a R u t k o w s k a T H EW A N D E R I N G S O F F E L L I N I
W e are dealing here with an attempt at viewing Fellini's works through
a prism of a Baroque tradition, particularly dear to that artist. T h e author
argues that the narrative structure of his films, ways of construing time and
space, symbolics as well as the visual imagery and specific philosophy have
their source in the culture of the Baroque. This complex of references favours
the discovery of an astonishing coherence of those works, beginning with
/ Vitelloni, up to the most recent films. W e encounter a special realization of
the Baroque comprehension of life and deeds as a form of wandering both on
the level of contents and formal operations.
M a ł g o r z a t a B a r a n o w s k a THE MASS-PRODUCED POSTCARD
AND THE PHOTOGRAPHY O F EMOTIONS
T h e mass-scale phenomenon of the postcard during the period of its greatest
expansion (up to the 1920s) is incomparable. A t the beginning of the century
billions of illustrated postcards circulated all around Europe, creating their
own universe of popular imagery, a world of ready-made feelings as well as
photographic reports, a sui generis newsreel. T h e mass-producend „ p u b l i c "
postcard became, in the course of time, changed by its buyer, so that from
a duplicated object it turned into a unique one. Its mass nature and designs at
times provoked a production of private postcards, issued in one or several
copies.
T h e universe of the postcard has collapsed, and despite their enormous
production, the number of cards will not substitute for the symbolic meaning
which they had at the beginning of the century. Apparently, only private
postcards salvage the very concept of the postcard from its best period.
D a r i u s z C z a j a SYMBOL AND FILM. METHODOLOGICAL COM­
MENTS
Increasingly often the film is the object of analyses and interpretations
within the framework of a current known as „ t h e anthropology of contem­
poraneity" which has been developing in Polish ethnology for the past few
years. Scholars dealing with culture have stressed such features of the cinema
as: an inclination towards neomythologization (J. L o t m a n ) or the camouflage
of mythical structures and the employment of symbols ( M . Eliade), and
suggest that the conceptual apparatus used by ethnologists in their studies on
mythical thought and symbolic imagery could be exploited for an interp­
retation of the film „text". T h e symbol as a metacategory of interpretation
appears to be particularly useful. T h e author examines the opinions expoun­
ded by D o n Fredericksen (a lecturer at Cornell University) which are unique in
filmological reflection and which deal with the possibility of applying the
category of the symbol in investigations into the cinema. H e stresses primarily
the importance and purposefulness of the division of methodological orien­
tations, proposed by the American scholar, into „ s e m i o t i c " and „ s y m b o l i c " .
Finally, he also indicates the resemblance and complimentary nature of the
interpretation of the symbol as seen by Jung (to which Fredercksen refers) vis
a vis the achievements of the hermeneutics of culture (Eliade, Ricoeur,
Avierintsev).
W o j c i e c h M i c h e r a THE ALCHEMICAL IMAGERY OF WERNER
HERZOG. A SYMBOLIC EXEGESIS O F „HEART O F GLASS"
The author of this article employs the hermetic tradition of alchemy as a key
to his proposed interpretation of Werner Herzog's Heart of Glass (Herz aus
G l a s ) . H e presents the fundamental concepts and the very idea of the
alchemical process, and distinguishes two aspects: practical — operatio, and
intellectual — tractatus. Contrary to commonly held opinions, alchemy was
not merely concerned with the produciotn of gold. Its process of transfor­
mation was a symbolic materialization of the spiritual change of the
apprentice while alchemical gold (aurum nostrum) and the philosophical stone
(lapis philosophorum) were symbols of the goal and crowning of the goal and
crowning of that transformation.
The author discerns the „ a l c h e m i c a l nature" of the film both in its practical

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dimension — operatio (e.g. the cast performs under hypnosis) and symbolic
dimension. T h e ruby glass, which is the aim of the quest in the plot, closely
resembles the philosophical stone and its mystical meaning. Alchemical beliefs
as well as certain motifs of ancient mythology and the legend about the G r a a l
enable us to better comprehend the symbolic sense of the activity pursued by
the heroes.
Heart of Glass is a depiction of a never ending transformation summarized
in the visions of Hias, the shepherd-prophet (in particular the first vision of
a descending and ascending world, and the last one of four persons sailing in
a „ b o a t which is much too small" to the end of the world).
T h e article ends with comments which try to determine the possibility of
applying the accepted line of interpretation in a discussion on Herzog's other
films.
D a r i u s z C z a j a VENICE AND DEATH. SYMBOLIC CONTEXTS
Venice holds a special place in the mythical geography of E u r o p e . T h i s is
a distinct region, typical for its characteristic „ s u p r a v a l u e " . Only Venice,
among the many myth-producing European towns, has generated such
a universal resonnance in literature. Interest in Paris, St. Petersburg, D u b l i n or
Vienna remained within the range of local, national tradition, but the image of
Venice has found its expression in almost the whole of E u r o p e a n literature.
T h e Venitian myth develops around several tangible motifs, one of the most
frequent and most spectacularly present in numerous testimonies being the
motif of death. Starting with T . Mann's Death in Venice, the author pursues
the connection between Venice and death in other texts (poetry, the belles
lettres, travel books). H e draws attention to the recurrence of a number of
motifs associated with the symbolics of Thanatos. H e also demonstrates the
process of the imtroduction of semiotics into urban space (water, streets,
palaces, and gondolas which bring to mind death and its attributes). By
capturing elements of the symbols of death (darkness, blackness, subterraneity, silence and oblivion), the author proves the affiliation between the
image of Venice and the archaic and folklore vision of the other world. Finally,
he accents the connection between the analysed stereotype images and cliches
on the one hand, and archetypical contents on the other hand.
M o n i k a S z n a j d e r m a n „OLD GRINGO": T H EMOTIF O F D O N
QUIXOTE IN FILM AND LITERATURE
T h e author analyses the pesence of the mythological motif of D o n Quixote
in other literary works, and in partiular in C a r l o s Fuentes' book Old Gringo
and the film by L u i s Puenzo under the same title. Don Quixote by Cervantes is
described here as a „travel book", accompanying many literary and meta­
phorical journeys, and its hero is a patron of „ o t h e r " , „ s t r a n g e " heroes who,
m a d in the eyes of the world, wander in search of truth and death. One o f them
was Ambrose Bierce, an authentic American author and journalist, whose
hypothetical, mythologized history has been reconstructed by Fuentes and
Puenzo. I n Bierce's life story (both its literary and film version), one can detect
meanings which connect him with his distant past, the foolish knight fram L a
M a n c h a . T h e strongest bond between the two is the attitude and philosophy of
a jester, together with the whole symbolic burden of that concept.
W i e s ł a w J u s z c z a k T H EW O R K O F A R T A N D T H E „LIMIT O F
SENSE"
This is an analysie of Babette 's Feast by Gabriel Axel, based on a novel by
K a r e n Blixen. T h e simple but unusual tale is made real i.a. by its precise
historical setting. T h e author interprets the film as a story about a work of art
and the revelation of grace. H e concentrates his attention on the mystery of
sacrifice, selected from among the numerous references preceivable in the film,
and describes the feast which crowns it as a „ p o t l a t c h " since the nature of the
french dinner given by Babette is that of a religious cult. I n its course the work
of art and the sacrifice merge together. ,,The supreme message of Babette's
Feast is probably contained in the discovery and growing awareness of the fact
that a work of art, both as a concentration and emancipation of a certain force
and energy which it would be most suitable to describe as the force of truth,
takes hold of us, envelopes us and compels us to participate in it". W h e n
General Loewenhielm mentions grace (the grace of comprehending events
from one's life during the feast) and Babette confesses that if she was able to
offer the whole of herself then she was capable of providing others with perfect
happiness, they are both speaking about the same: the experience of infinite
and limitless fulfillment. A true work of art is a sacrifice and a communion
— an act of merging.
D a r i u s z C z a j a T H E E T E R N A L M O M E N T . O N „BABETTE'S
FEAST"
T h e author concentrates his attention predominantly on an interpretation
of the symbolic dimension of the feast mentioned in the title of the film. H e
notices an underlying image of the L a s t Supper. Subsequently, he performs
a closer analysis of two motifs: the idea of the sacrifice and the dialectics of the
moment and eternity. H e also compares certain scenes from the film with
fragments of two books by Virginia W o o l f ("Mrs. Dalloway" and " T o the
Lighthouse"). Finally, the author demonstrates the way in which the vision of
the feast merges with the archetype of Paradise.
Z b i g n i e w B e n e d y k t o w i c z " M A R Y A N D M A R T H A " (ON "BA­
BETTE'S FEAST)
The author concentrates his analysis on the motif which refers to the
Evangelical parable about M a r t h a and M a r y and which, in his opinion, is the
most significant both for the construction of K a r e n Blixen's novel and for the
film. H e examines the mode in which this tale is transformed and repeated,
confronting two life patterns: vita activa and vita passiva (Protestantism
versus Catholicism), a puritanically ascetic life and the lay life and condition of
the artist.

M a r t a L e ś n i a k o w s k a ON THE SIN O F GLUTTONY AND CUL­
T U R A L C O N F L I C T . R E M A R K S P R O V O K E D B Y „BABETTE'S F E ­
AST"
F r o m first century A . D . culinary art was contained in the clasical definition
of art as ars/techne. It also became the fundamental element of Western
civilization (life style) and a symbol of a definite existential thesis. T h e story
presented in Babette 's Feast situates it in the realm of the socio-ethnological
orbis interior-orbis exterior thesis and a cultural confrontation initiated by the
„ a l i e n " . T h i s fact makes it possible to view the film as an illustration of
a polemic between a dual concept of European civilization and the two ethical
attitudes within the framework of European Christianity (Protoestantism and
Catholicism), as well as a K a n t i a n controversy between middle class and court
culture (the enclased culture of Protestant burghers contra the open Catholic
culture). T h e narrative leads from conflict to acceptance, a process with
a distinct ecumenical overtone. T h e heroes of Babette's Feast retain their own
traditional spheres of „ a lesser homeland", and in this context the film can be
regarded as a contribution to the political discussion concerning the unifica­
tion of Europe.
J a n u s z G a z d a A N ARTIST WHO CONTRIVES ONLY THE TRUTH
A great artist is a person who knows a lot by the very nature of things and
not a person who uses knowledge gained from others. A great artist never
imitates anyone but seeks his own paths and remains original not because he
pursues originality but because he remains himself. Serge Parajanov, the
author of The Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors and The Colour of
Pomegranates, one of the greatest personalities of world cinema, was such an
artist. H e was born an Armenian in Georgia (Tbilisi) and his fate was
determined by living in a country known as the Soviet U n i o n although he
never made any Soviet films but became part of the culture of either the
Ukraine or the Caucasus (Armenia, Georigia, Azerbaijan). T h e author of this
study analyses the motifs of Parajanov's work a n d poetics, reflecting on the
essence of the greatness of an artist whose every film is a journey into the
infinite domain of strange and little-known cultures. T h e intention of such
journeys was to enter into the complicated world of symbols, rituals, beliefs
and myths, and to discover that what is most important for understanding
basic universal truths. B y displaying the beauty of man-made objects, the artist
wished to „ s h o w man his scale, his spiritual maximum". Dostoevsky claimed
that „ b e a u t y will save the world". Parajanov decided above all, to salvage
beauty in a state which had intentionally condemned it to annihilation.
S ł a w o m i r S i k o r a PHOTOGRAPHY — M E M O R Y — IMAGINA­
TION
The connection between memory and photography appears to be obvious
and has been even expressed in the phrase: „mirror with a memory". I f one
could describe photography as external memory, then it would contain
a similar dilemma as Plato's concept of writing. I n discourse, Ricoeur
maintains, we deal with the dialectics of an event and meaning. Writing retains
meaning at the price of the event. By way of contrast, photography retains the
event and leaves meaning uncertain, to say the least. T h e essence of
photography, according to Barthes, is hidden in the simple and banal
expression: „ t h a t has been" associated with the extreme metonymical and
ametaphorical nature of photographs. T h e author of the article refers to the
categories of studium and punctum, distinguished by Barthes, and claims that
the punctum element possesses a double reference (similar in this respect to the
language of poetry). I n this element the essence of photography ( „ t h a t has
been") can be transcended, opening up strictly metonymical photography
toward metaphorical and symbolic meanings. T h e element of the imagination
is indispensable for such a transcendence. A n important example which
indicates the possibility of transcendence is the experience described by
Barthes (Camera Lucida) who discovered the truth about his dead mother in
her photograph.
R y s z a r d C i a r k a FILM AND THE T R U E IMAGE O F THINGS
The intention of the author is to answer an apparently simple but cleverly
posed question concerning the role of the image in film as a carrier of the sense
or idea of the work. This prime element of cinematic art functions, after all, in
a context of objective reality (everyday life) and created reality, in this manner
transcending beyond the sphere of that what it means in itself. This „ s u r p l u s "
of reality and meanings contained in the image, which endow the given work
with its sense, cannot be reduced to a single scene nor to the logic of montage
and, the author contends, could be deciphered in accordance with the poetic
formula of „ r e r u m simulacra". Just as a suitably selected word which due to
the very act of selection ceases to be only a word, and can produce a true image
of things, so the film image, involved in two realities and its own technical
nature, creates a new reality which we can no longer reduce and which we must
learn to decipher and comprehend.
A n n a S o b o l e w s k a THE CONSTRUCTION O F EXISTENCE
In his video films (based on H i g h Definition technique) Zbigniew R y b c z y ń ­
ski constantly experiments with the film material, the categories of time and
space. T h e axis of his works is often a symbolic or allegorical depiction of the
"path of life", leading from childhood up to old age and death. T h e author of
the article emphasizes the symbolic and "artificial" nature of the created time
and space in which all definitions pertain exclusively to the sphere of culture
(Orchestra). R y b c z y ń s k i makes free use of the symbols of our culture, which
become elements of a game whose purpose is cinematic „ e p i s t e m o l o g y " : the
disclosure of the universal rules of our existence. T h e director cherishes the
Renaissance model of the artist-artisan, a master of the imagination and
technology ( L . da Vnci). H i s own favourite strategy is the technology of
disillusion, parody and irony.
T h e author proposes a semiotic analysis of Rybczynski's films since the
intention of the artist is a search for significant oppositions governing both our
time and space, as well as the unconscious activity of the human mind.
Rybczynski's works are composed of an incessant translation from one

symbolic system into another. Orchestra is not merely the visualization of
music. T h e director proposes only symbolic action in several sign systems
simultaneously. T h e theory and praxis of the translation, concealed in the film,
are compared by the author of the article with the C a b b a l a .
T h e key to Rybczynski's vision of culture could be the concept of a game. A .
Sobolewska connects it with the idea of the divine game contained in H i n d u
philosophy, and with the vision of thedivine paradoxical synthesis of calmness
and motion.
Violetta Kutlubasis-Krajewska, Piotr Krajewski
MIXED
TAPES, OR VIDEO-ART A T T H E WROCŁAW FESTIVAL
T h e text introduces the Polish reader to basic information concerning the
origin and development of video-art. It also comprises a presentation of the
largest Polish festival devoted to this form of art - the Sound Basis Visual A r t
Festival ( W R O ) which takes place in Wroclaw.
L u d w i k S t o m m a T H E A N T H R O P O L O G Y O F C U L T U R E , HIS­
T O R Y A N D WINNIE THE POOH
T h e article discusses the possibility of applying the anthropology of culture
in research into contemporary culture. T h e main theme is the appearance of
the category of childhood in E u r o p e a n culture and the transformation of the
minature adult who becomes a child, together with all the attributes: his own
toys, clothes, habits, speech and literature. (The fairytales by the Brothers
G r i m m and even those by Andersen are permeated with truth; Disney was the
first to create a children's world as such). One of the prominent postulates of
the text is the necessity of taking into account, in ethnological investigations,
the category of history (even in such synchronical methods as structuralism)
since, the author maintains, too often the fact that culture is to a considerable
extent decreed, is simply forgotten.
W i e s ł a w S z p i l k a TO S E E T H E WORLD: E T H N O G R A P H Y VIS
A VIS F I L M A N D MASS C U L T U R E
T h e article aims at presenting the specificity of an ethnographic description
of mass culture whose distinctness is achieved by a confrontation with other
ways of presenting the phenomenon in question. F r o m the viewpoint of
ethnography, such descriptions fall victim to three illusions listed by P.
Ricoeur: the creator, the recipient and the source. Three popular and still
oft-encountered opinions in the literature on the subject appear to be the
outcome of those illusions. T h e conception proposed by M . M c L u h a n , for
instance, is an example of the illusion of the source: civilizational changes are
supposed to explain mass culture. Illusions of the recipient correspond to J .
Ortega у Gasset's visions of mass man, mass culture being the realization of
the latter's desires. Finally, one could regard J . H . Schiller's Helmsmen of the
Consciousness as an illusion of the creator. F o r this author, as well as for all
those who wrote about the socialist variant of mass culture, the belief that the
creator imposes meaning upon the recipients constitutes a basic premise for
the theory of manipulation. Mass culture is perceived as the tool of
domination and the subjugation of certain groups by others. A t the basis of all
these illusions there lies a causal-effective way of thinking which, instead of
speaking about the phenomenon itself, is consented with that which procedes
it or which is its aftermath. T h e point of departure for ethnographic
description is the phenomenon on which it concentrates itself and in which it
seeks meanings. It, therefore, presumes that the phenomenon has an objective
existence. T h e ethnographer treats phenomena of mass culture as texts:
starting from their external common denominators — the mass recipient — he
makes his way to internal textual unity.
A n example of W . Szpilka's opinions on the subject of mass culture could be
his publication entitled B A T M A N — A T A L E O F C R E A T I O N . I n it, he
proposes a structural analysis of. T . Burton's film and concentrates his
attention on the mythical dimension of the story and its two prime heroes
— Batman and Joker. H e dissects the film into three parts, making it possible
to view it as a classic example of rites des passages and a story about a new
creation of the world. T h e permanence of the proposed models enables the
author to formulate a conclusion about the sacral nature of mass culture in
which, similarly to traditional cultures, a greater emphasis is placed on the
recurrence and permanence of patterns than on innovation.
The text is followed by fragments of a discussion which was held at
a seminar organized in the Institute of A r t . Special attention should be drawn
to the opinion voiced b y T . R u t k o w s k a who suggested a totally different
interpretation and, by referring to the theory of U . E c o , indicated that Batman
could be considered a classical postmodernistic work, together with its concept
of a double code.
M o n i k a S z n a j d e r m a n WHAT DOES THAT MASK CONCEAL? IN
CONNECTION WITH T H E MOTIF O F T H E JOKER: A F E W R E ­
MARKS CONCERNING „BATMAN"
T h e author analyses Joker — the antagonist of Batman — by discussing
consecutive strata of the myth concealed under his mask. She begins with the
motif of the murderous jester and the evil clown, well enrooted in literature
and the cinema, and goes on to reflect on the image of the carnival producend
by Joker, which becomes a symbolic regression of the world into a state of
chaos, followed by a new creation. T h e last motif is the Promethean myth
whose distant traces can be detected in Joker's fate.
T e r e s a R u t k o w s k a POSTMODERNISM AND FILM
The article situates film in the context of reflections on postmodernism.
Baudrillard, Jameson and above all E c o devote much attention to mass
culture, including the cinema, ascribing to it an essential role in shaping the
postmodernistic landscape. Such features of postmodernistic art as the
abolishing of the borderline between high and low art, a fascination with
kitsch, commercials, and exploited literary and film cliches, and the devalua­
tion of creative individuality, have their source indubitably in mass culture;
morever, the distinction between a product of mass culture and a postmoder­
nistic work often generates controversies. Jameson and E c o are inclined to
perceive the difference in an intertextuality typical for postmodernistic texts.

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Jameson draws attention to the pastiche as the dominating creative strategy of
the current, while for E c o the greatest importance belongs to the double code,
that is, the coexistence within the same text of two levels — one addressed to
the spohisticated audience and one which is attractive for the less educated
viewer. F i l m s by D a v i d L y n c h , Peter Greenaway a n d Woody Allen are
regarded as typically postmodernistic. I n Poland, where postmodernism is
distinctly imitative, mention can be made of Swansong by Robert Gliński and
Deja vu Juliusz Machulski.
E w a K l e k o t "MATADOR", O R A SPANISH POSTMODERNISTIC
TALE
Beginning from a formal trick which consists of showing many possible
types of reality, up to a reply which the plot gives to questions posed by itself,
Matador by Pedro Almodovar appears to be the product of relativism, typical
for postmodernism. A t the same time, it is an attempted declaration
concerning the fundamental (and thus nonrelative?) experiences of existence,
such as love and death. I n order to conciliate those two premises, the film seeks
refuge in the poetics of myth, the epos and the fairytale, displayed in Spanish
decorations. T h e idea of the film is not based on a drama of attitudes, conflict
of manners and morals or a psychological analysis of the dramatis personae,
although all these elements do occur in it. Its heroes participate in cosmic
(figuratively but also literally) phenomena and thanks to the director they
change into the heroes of a myth, who exist beyond good and evil.
C z e s ł a w R o b o t y c k i VAMPIRES. F R O M F O L K BELIEFS T O
FILM PHANTOMS
T h e article begins with a description of events which took place in Cracow
and Katowice in the years 1985, 1972 and 1964 when circulating rumours
mentioned a vampire who killed women.
T h e author poses a question concerning the reason for the topicality of an
apparently distant cultural matrix in popular culture and image of the world.
I n order to understand the phenomenon and to discover an answer to the
above formulated query, he proposes to examine the various cultural contexts
which in the past contained the category of the vampire. H e thus discusses
West European medieval beliefs, Slav and R o m a n i a n folk beliefs, Polish
Romantic literature, the European Gothic novel, the vampire novel, beginning
with B r a m Stoker, and, finally, film adaptations of the vampire motif and
Dracula.
I n conclusion, the author maintains that in Polish culture the permanence of
the vampire matrix should be connected with Romantic literature and folk
beliefs, considering the slight acquaintanceship with foreign literature, limited
reception of foreign films and the small frequency of the theme in the Polish
cinema.
A l e k s a n d e r J a c k o w s k i TO EXPERIENCE FICTION
The author discusses a certain specific, intermediate and fictitious space,
which, nonetheless, affects reality. It could be described as „serious fiction"
since although we frequently know that we are dealing with fiction, in inspires
„ s e r i o u s " emotions. T h e author recalls his visits to film locations and the
earnest, moving and humourous confrontations between film and reality. T h e
reminiscences end with a story about the decorations which were supposed to
resemble the market place of the small Jewish town of Drohobycz, and which
were made for W . Has's The Hourglass Sanatorium, based on the prose of
Bruno Schulz.
A n n a B e a t a В o h d z ie w iс z PHOTODIARY, OR A SONG ABOUT
THE END OF THE WORLD
The author is a qualified ethnologist and photographer. T h e idea of
a Pholodiary appeared as an illumination in 1981, the year of the great Polish
holiday of Solidarity. T h e author, however, embarked upon her work a year
later, already during the martial law period. T h e photodiary is coposed of over
3 000 photographs and concerns political, social and private lives. T h e works,
always with a title, are accompanied by a commentary, a joke or a counter­
point, which introduce an element of play between the image and words. T h e
published text could be regarded as the author's credo. Bohdziewicz believes in
an expressive image and strong word. A photograph which is connected with
the past or the future, but never with the present, always contains a feature
which, citing M . K u n d e r a , she calls „ C l e m e n t i s ' cap" (a detail which takes on
special importance).
Z b i g n i e w B e n e d y k t o w i c z " F L E E T I N G PICTURES" - A N IN­
TERVIEW WITH PIOTR S K R Z Y N E C K I
T h i s is a conversation with Piotr Skrzynecki, the leader of the famous
Cracow "Piwnica pod Baranami" cabaret who is at the moment preparing his
second film. I n it he presents the story of a small square situated close to the
Wawel Hill (the residence of Polish monarchs) which has become a special,
unique center of unofficial artistic life for more than twenty years, at a time
when Polish culutre was subjected to a state monopoly, censorship etc. and
when the "Piwnica pod Baranami" was part of the avantgarde of the Polish
underground. T h e film about the N a G r o b l a c h Square is a record of
picturesque, colorful and surrealistic events in the history of the square; in the
filmmaker's memory they have merged with his lifestory and the history of the
unusual cabaret whose co-author he remains up to this very day. Skrzynecki's
film is conceived as a story of the twenty years in his life whose message is
addressed to his eccentric Jewish grandmother, a resident of Paris, who died in
the Mauthausen death camp. T h e interview is supplemented by a sketch which
explains the scenario and the texts of two songs composed for the film, which
open a n d close the narrative.
Małgorzata Niezabitowska FREE MAN
The article deals with an exceptional phenomenon in the Silesian village of
Bojszowa. This is the site of a film studio belonging to J ó z e f K ł y k , director,
producer, designer and author. K ł y k hoped to graduate from a film school but
his parents chose another profession. He, therefore, devotes all his leisure time

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to his passion with which he has also infected the residents o f the village (who
act in the films).
T h e first films were made with the cheapest possible amateur camera, later
replaced by slightly better equipment. K l y k ' s favourite genre are westerns. By
combining Silesia and America, he has created the figure of Józef Z ł o t k o , an
emigrant from the middle of the nineteenth century. T h e first films were no
longer than twenty minutes but the most recent ones are full length
productions with a complicated plot. K ł y k consciously refers to various
models which he then creatively transforms. His works contain only commen­
tary (the author claims that westerns cannot have Polish dialogues). T h e
number of films producend in the course of 25 years totals 68, including 7 full
length pictures.
J ó z e f S z y m ń c z y k l A M A P H O T O G R A P H E R ( A n Interview Noted
by A n n a E n g e l k i n g )
„I am a photographer" is a registered conversation held with J ó z e f
S z y m a ń c z y k , in which he presents his lifestory. S z y m a ń c z y k comes from
K o s o w o Poleskie which is now part of Byelorussia. Prior to the first world
war, when he ran a photographic studio, K o s o w o was situated in a terrain of
great national and cultural differentiation and the coexistence of Byelorussian,
Jewish and Polish communities. J ó z e f S z y m a ń c z y k , who comes from a poor
family, is a self-taught photographer, enthusiastic and full of curiosity, who
became an observer and registrator of the reality of Polesie. W e owe to him
a unique collection of about 70 photographs which he made in the 1930s in
several willages of the region, and which would not have come into being, had
he been only an artisan.
„I am a photographer. T h i s is both good and bad", he declared. Polesie,
after all, witnessed changing authorities, political systems, states and frontiers.
It became obvious that the task of the photographer which is to register
everything which he sees, could be very dangerous. T h e story of J ó z e f
S z y m a ń c z y k tells how the fate of a humble photographer from a small studio
in a county town became intertwined with History. This would not have been
the case had the hero of our tale not been a photographer by vocation;
someone who not only observes and makes images permanent but also creates.
A l e k s a n d e r J a c k o w s k i CREATION AND DOCUMENT. FILMS
BY A N D R Z E J RÓŻYCKI
Andrzej R ó ż y c k i , director and photographer, from the very outset connec­
ted with the Ł ó d ź avantgarde ("Zero-61") claims that "photography has
already transcended the scale of human eyesight a long time ago". H e uses the
camera for the realization of philosophical and poetic undertakings. I n his film
works R ó ż y c k i deals with ethnographic issues. H e is of the opinion, however,
that one cannot restrict oneself to a pure document which is incapable of
transmitting the truth. E v e n while registering man-made works, he tries to
show a wider context: religious, spiritual, social and psychological, and
cepture the meaning of depicted reality. T h e author of the article discusses
Rozycki's more important ethnographic films.
A n n a B e a t a B o h d z i e w i c z WARSAW SHRINES
O l d Warsaw courtyards have preserved shrines which, although quite old,
are still well taken care of— renovated, painted and redecorated. Several types
of huts, figures of Christ and the Holy Virgin can be distinguished. It is
interesting to note that the standard figures often display different, in­
dividualised facial features.
F R O M T H E F O L I O O F M A R I U S Z A. W I E C Z O R K O W S K I
T h e author is an ethnologist by profession and a photographer whose art
seeks in the sphere of metaphysics the symbol and new cognitive possibilities of
man. H i s texts deal, predominantly, with the ontology of photography. I n the
G A L L E Y O F U N I N T E N T I O N A L P H O T O G R A P H S ( A n Attempted Eidetic Capturing of the Essence of Photography) he tries to prove upon the basis
of an analysis of involuntarily made photographs (which he distinguishes from
mechanical registration) that photography is always intentional and deter­
mined by subjectivity. T h e B L A C K B E L T discusses the connection between
photographic image and photographed reality. Here the pretext is an attempt
at rediscovering photographs-self portraits made wearing a sweater which one
day was turned into a floor rag. A similar problem is examined in W H I T E
S I G N . R E S P O N S E draws attention to the symbolic dimensions of photog­
raphy.
R y s z a r d C i a r k a T O SEE, F E E L A N D THINK — A N INTERVIEW
WITH J A C E K OLĘDZKI
Jacek Olędzki is one of the very few Polish ethnologists who for years have
devoted themselves to photography and ethnological films. H i s works (over
20) deal, above all, with rituals (Poland, Africa, Mongolia). Both films and
photographs are always accompanied by analytical articles. Olędzki was able
to reach the very essence of phenomena in an extremely synthetic fashion,
sometimes attempting a rather bold comparison, for example, between the
humanism of sheep sacrifice in Mongolia and the sacrifice of Christ in
a sequence showing a Catholic priest performing the mea culpa gesture (Agnus
Dei 1984). One of Oledzki's mottoes is to teach to see, and moderation in
excess — a striving towards the capturing of form and mood from visual
reality.
K r z y s z t o f K u b i a k COLETTE'S „R E G A R D S " — COMMENTS B Y
A PARTICIPANT FROM T H E EAST
Tire article contains reflections by a participant of the „ R e g a r d s sue les
societes europeennes" film seminar held for many years now (1983—1992) by
Colette Piault in various countries. T h e unique nature of these seminars
consists of the possibility to see a large number of films with a simultaneous
opportunity to discuss with the authors their cinematic and anthropological
strategies. This is also an occasion for presenting 'works-in-progress' — films
which are still incomplete. T h a n k s to constructive criticism attendants of the
seminar perfected their workshop. T h e last part of the article is composed of
the author's cmments about several anthropological films as yet not screened
in Poland.