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Title
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The Construction of Existence / Polska Sztuka Ludowa - Konteksty 2014 Special Issue
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Description
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Polska Sztuka Ludowa - Konteksty 2014 Special Issues.365-369
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Creator
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Sobolewska, Anna
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Date
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2014
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Format
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application/pdf
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Identifier
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oai:cyfrowaetnografia.pl:6142
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Language
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ang
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Publisher
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Instytut Sztuki PAN
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Relation
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oai:cyfrowaetnografia.pl:publication:6571
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Rights
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Licencja PIA
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Subject
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anthropology of film
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Type
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czas.
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Text
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The world as a work of art
ANNA
Asked by a French critic about his fascination with
technology, Zbigniew Rybczyński responded contra
rily that he regards it as an obstacle. More, he believes
that that it is impossible to achieve a desired goal and
admitted that he would like his films to flow in the
manner of life.1
Could it be that the master of the video technique
wished to capture with the assistance of computer
technology the indeterminate “stream of life” in the
manner of the Old Masters of painting or the novel?
The thematic axis of Rybczyński’s numerous films is
the symbolically portrayed “path of life” - from child
hood to death and further on (e.g. the video clip:
Imagine to music by John Lennon). In Washington a
little girl plays with a kitten. A moment later she is
already an old woman while the kitten has amazingly
preserved eternal youth. Several sequences in The Or
chestra also evoke the symbolic scheme of human life.
Rybczyński starts his story from the end - a hearse ap
pears at the beginning of the film and re-emerges at its
conclusion.
The stream of images in The Orchestra is not ruled
by the laws of association suggesting the reality of
slumber or dream. This is not oneiric poetic or that
of Surrealism. The succession of images is subjected
to concealed symbolic action, which has its laws and
rhythms, e.g. the sequence of the hearse - putting
out candles - “resurrection” ; childhood - growing up
- serpent and apple - double bed. A courting scene
involving maidens and hussars in the chambers of the
Louvre is followed by an “apotheosis” of marriage a couple of naked lovers soars below the vaulting of
Chartres cathedral. The second part of the film con
sists of a parade of characters across a never-ending
keyboard with girls and boys growing up, getting old
and dying while playing the same tune. Another meta
phor of life is the protagonist’s journey high above the
earth along narrow planks on which normal, human
affairs - food, sex, the struggle for women and money
take place (part three).
This manner of depicting the path of life in The
Orchestra brings to mind mediaeval or Baroque alle
gories. Rybczyński admires the allegorical art of past
centuries. W hat meanings pertaining to human fate
as a whole have been encoded? In what space is this
uninterrupted game of life and significance played?
In Rybczynski’s world human space is totally arti
ficial. This feature is additionally emphasized by ele
ments of Nature introduced at the beginning and end
of the film: birdsong, a hooting owl. First we see a sea
shore, which too appears to be not quite part of this
particular film. Only when a hearse appears along the
beach do we know for certain that it is “ours”. The
framework of the film - and that of human life - is
Nature. On the other hand, everything that is human
365
SOBOLEWSKA
The Construction
of Existence
transpires in artificial space and time with references
exclusively to the sphere of culture.
Rybczyński shows that human space is always sym
bolic. There appear certain key motifs: an apple, fire,
bread and wine, a serpent. Sometimes this is sacral
space, as in the sequence from Ave Maria by Schubert,
whose background is Chartres cathedral. In the last
sequence - Ravel’s Bolero — we deal with sacral space
d rebours: this is communist sacrum, degraded, false,
and hopeless. But each time it is symbolic space. Man
cannot force his way beyond it.
The paradox of art consists of the fact that that,
which is artificial to the utmost sometimes indicates
something that is as human as can be. I recall a certain
moment from Fellini’s And the Ship Sails On, when the
director appears together with a camera on the set of a
ship rocked by a hydraulic device. We see the camera,
the sets and the technical backstage but nevertheless
are moved. Whence came this feeling once the back
stage was revealed? This was a moment of particular
tension, a betrayal of the artificial reality created on
screen. Disillusion is an omnipresent strategy in twen
tieth-century art; it grants contemporary art the mark
of irony or self-mockery. But in this case disillusion
is not the disclosure of the artist’s “deception” or the
manifestation of his absolute power. On the contrary,
the director hands himself over to the spectators and
craves complete acceptance not only for the products
of his imagination. The credibility of the recounted
story no longer calls for the autonomy of the portrayed
world. This is the emotion, or rather its trace, that I
experienced while watching The Orchestra. A specifi
cally human element appears within computer tech
nology.
In Steps Rybczyński showed the console at which
he works, while in The Orchestra we encounter the in
triguing master of ceremony who fulfils the function
of the “’inner author”. From time to time he appears
on stage to personally supervise the progress of the
spectacle. In the first sequence he is the waiter passing
glasses in the “netherworld“ and the magician juggling
A n n a Sobolewska • THE CONSTRUCTION OF EXISTENCE
Zbigniew Rybczyński, Imagine
flaming torches. According to his whim he bestows
gifts upon some and takes them away from others. It is
he who to the accompaniment of the opening sounds
of Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 22 sets into motion a
bed with a couple of dead (?) old people. This primum
mobile inaugurates a universal dance on the film’s
“Elysian Fields”.
The artist-magician provokes the spectator’s ques
tion about the concealed director of this theatrum
mundi. Watching Rybczyńskis films we are able to cap
ture the thoughts formulated by Nietzsche: The world
is a work of art that gives birth to itself 2 and: For only
as an aesthetic phenomenon are existence and the world
eternally justified.3
Rybczyński perceives the world in aesthetic cat
egories. The implicit author of this great work: of the
applied arts, assuming that he exists, is not someone
whom we recognise from religious depictions. Nor is he
the “good Father” or the “Judge”. He is an artist and
366
perhaps even the cheerful, playful Juggler playing with
all elements of human reality. The role of the master
of ceremony in The Orchestra brings to mind the great
Artist sitting in the darkroom of the universe and try
ing out new models of games. Do we not experience a
similar feeling while looking at the reality surrounding
us, the history of the recent years or our own life? Is
this not an astonishing spectacle performed according
to some hidden model?
Who is the artist in Rybczyński’s art and theory?
The author of The Orchestra is close not so much to a
Romantic image of the artist-creator and destroyer as
to the Renaissance model of the artist-perfect crafts
man. Andrzej Barański told me about Rybczyński’s
fascination with the works of Leonardo da Vinci, ca
pable of cre siting; The Mona Lisa (frequently filmed by
Rybczyński), flying machines and double spiral stairs.
Rybczyński’s favourite is the essay by Paul Valéry: In
troduction à la méthode de Léonard de Vinci (Wstęp do me-
A n n a Sobolewska • THE CONSTRUCTION OF EXISTENCE
tody Leonarda da Vinci in the collection: Estetyka Słowa,
Warszawa 1971). He recalls that Leonardo began execut
ing a painting with the deepest black and slowly progressed
to light hues. In an interview for “Kino” Rybczyński ad
mitted that he sees his future films as “half an hour of
blackness” from which shapes and colours emerge.4
I also found out from Andrzej Barański that
Rybczyński loves technology, not only the great elec
tronic variety but also its small counterpart - assort
ed tools, screws, nuts and bolts. Just as other people
search in antique shops so Rybczyński has his favour
ite tool store in New York. He admires the technical
efficacy of America, e.g. nineteenth-century wooden
“skyscrapers” and fire-escape stairs mounted to the
outside, so characteristic for the New York landscape.
Rybczyński does not glorify technology but renders it
an ally of his cinematic epistemology:
Our instruments may be primitive but with their help
it is possible to discover something in reality that is not
connected with its actual reception. (...) Thanks to new
tools we perfect the possibilities of perception. (...) We can
come closer to reality if we obtain the ease of operating
with instruments. Then we shall be able to create a world
somewhat similar to our thoughts.5
II. Game of space and time
Miłosz Benedyktowicz defined Rybczynski’s oeuvre
as “manipulation with time and space”. The objec
tive of some of his films is to test time (The Orches
tra, Imagine) and in others - to experiment with space
(Manhattan, Washington). The films are dominated by
an eternal present. There is no past or anticipation.
There is only a narrow “now” repeated upon numer
ous occasions. Time is either depicted as a continuum
or as “the edge of a knife” between two moments—
both perspectives occur interchangeably.
Repeatability and rhythm are an - illusory - victory
over time. Rybczyński thus tries to outwit time. Watch
ing “floating” or “turning” space in such films as Manhat
tan and Washington we always hope that the same image
will be repeated: the same face will appear on the other
side of the screen, the director’s adorable dachshund will
play over and over again. When the outlined figure of
Miłosz Benedyktowicz (deceased) appears in Washing
ton the simple operation of repetition gains unexpected
acuteness. We wait impatiently for the camera’s close-up
of Benedyktowicz, but quite a different game is already
played on the screen. Rhythm binds image and sound,
time and space into an entity. Rybczyński exploits the
“artificial” rhythms of classical music and the “natural”
rhythms of breathing or heartbeat, brilliantly transposed
in music by Michał Urbaniak.
Rybczyński also exploits all forms of motion: the
dance, circular motion, up-and-down motion, or mo
tion deforming space (The Fourth Dimension). In each
of his films he sets into motion the same objects taken
367
rather from the order of culture than Nature, and pre
fers chairs to flowers, beds to trees, a dachshund to a
wild beast and The Mona Lisa to clouds. He sets into
motion the element of the self and the world, time and
space, imagination and cultural memory, objects from
the refuse heap of mass culture and respectable props
from the archive of myths and archetypes.
The director would probably agree with Mikhail
Bakhtin who claimed: When studying man, we search for
and find signs everywhere (....).6 The only path towards
cognition and self-cognition is thus an interpretation
of signs. In Rybczyński’s films all objects are signs they do not attract attention by their être-en-soi but re
fer to a domain beyond themselves. They include such
symbols of past epochs and our contemporaneity as the
telephone and the toilet bowl. Even Nature appears to
be an artefact existing solely thanks to the mercy of
the artist. A characteristic feature of Rybczyński is his
absolute freedom in using the symbol - instead of an
apple he immediately introduces a whole tray full of
apples and a serpent is the size of a boa constrictor.
Studying his films one could resort to a semiotic
analysis and seek predominantly significant relations
and opposites. Just like the structuralists Rybczyński
tries to capture the way “in which our world is made”,
the laws of our time, space and intellect (which could be
one and the same). The quest for “universal laws that
govern mythical thought” is according to Lévi-Strauss
the fundamental duty of twentieth-century art.7
Considering the models of the world in Rybczyński’s
films it is impossible to neglect the philosophy of transla
tion present in his art. The question of translating is the
central issue of contemporary semiotics based on the idea
of the translation, i.e. the transference of meaning from
one system of signs to another. At this stage it is worth
recalling the slightly older, Cabbalistic and hermetic con
ceptions of translation. The essence of Cabbala practices
was incessant translation from the language of Nature,
the cosmos or the elements into that of the human spirit
and body. The Cabbalists changed the words of the To
rah into numbers and new words endowed with magical
power. Translation from one language into another or
one art into another called for a third element of a “lan
guage-intermediary”, which is the medium of translation.
This function can be fulfilled by time or space, sound or
light. The Cabbala focuses on a translation of the To
rah and the world. The word changes into visible reality,
as in the prose by Schulz, when spring bursts forth from
the Book... In Rybczyński’s work music blossoms into a
garden or a cathedral. In the light of Cabbalistic philoso
phy the “third element” always involved in the process
of translation is God. In this manner, the sacrum reveals
itself along the crossing of the codes of culture.8
Apparently, the Cabbalistic theory of translation
makes it possible to perceive Rybczyński’s films dif
ferently - not from the “technical” side but from the
A n n a Sobolewska • THE CONSTRUCTION OF EXISTENCE
Cabbalistic viewpoint. Just as in the works of the Cabbalists the film witnesses an endless process of transla
tion. Rybczyński - in the spirit of the Cabbalists - seeks
the third element, the liaison between music and film.
The discovered liaison is the element of time. Music
is as if tamed time. Dance is the subjugation of space.
We cannot tell what is a translation of what. This is
not a visualisation of music but identical symbolic ac
tion pursued in several sign systems simultaneously.
The Cabbalists believed that translation leads the
scholar to the contemplation of the sacrum concealed
both in the holy signs of the Books and in the empty
space between the signs. In the case of Rybczyński, the
contemplation of mobile forms also indicates the ex
istence of emptiness and motionlessness. Interestingly,
the ceaseless process of translation does not produce
an impression of chaos and clamour. Rybczynski’s
moving images refer us somewhere beyond the screen,
towards an invisible backdrop, the place of the birth
and disappearance of forms.
III. The game is a serious matter
I would like to register the flow of time in genuine crea
tion - Rybczyński said in a conversation with Tadeusz
Sobolewski. - To have such an unrestricted workshop so as
to be capable of capturing the duality of our thoughts: yes and
yes, no and no.... And construction? Construction always ex
ists in the world but we are unable to comprehend it. Nature,
the universe are governed by laws of their own. Everything
contains concealed structures unknown to us. Once we com
prehend them we shall be capable of building something that
at present seems to be chaos. Right now we are still confused.
Imitation is not a way out. Expression —the process of express
ing oneself —is meaningless. The only thing worth pursuing is
the discovery of principles in science, art, everything.9
Rybczyński is, therefore, concerned not with expres
sion or mimesis but with a special sort of creation. His
films juxtapose the chaos of life and increasingly new
models of the world. The author‘s imagination is to be
supported by a disciplined experiment that would make
it feasible to disclose the poetic of our world, a product
of the applied arts. The objective consists of decipher
ing universal, possibly mathematical, rules of the game.
Art pursued by Rybczyński thus harbours maximal
ist ambitions. It is those bold ambitions that are served
by computer technology. In The Orchestra in particu
lar we can encapsulate the director’s efforts to capture
the culmination. Quite conceivably, this is a hazard
ous attempt. Has Rybczyński managed to depict cer
tain rhythms and categories pertaining to the whole
human world? The viewer is under the impression that
outside the stream of life on the screen the surface of
symbolic and allegorical imagery conceals some sort of
a code, a model of human existence.
In our culture the “essence of things” is usually
sought in intellectual speculations or along the con
368
templative path of self-cognition. Rybczyński pro
poses a third course - a game played with the sym
bols of culture. The value of the game is familiar to
children and artists. In his novel Shosha, I. B. Singer
formulated the hypothesis that the game, which is
the principle of our reality, is also the essence of the
“thing-in-itself’:
Since we are sure of nothing and there is even no
evidence that the sun will rise tomorrow, play is the very
essence of human endeavour, perhaps even the thing-initself. God is a player, the cosmos a playground. For years
Singer tried to discover the foundation of ethics, and
ultimately resigned. Suddenly it became clear that it is
possible to base human ethics on man’s right to play
his game according to a choice that no one may com
pel him to make.10
Play is not frivolous — declared Hans Georg Gadamer11 Contemporary philosophy and anthropology
attach high rank to the conceit of play. Frequently,
it acts as a key to a certain vision of culture (e.g. in
works by J. Huizinga and R. Caillois). In Hindu phi
losophy it is one of the fundamental concepts with a
metaphysical reference. The entire world is a game
of Omni-consciousness— claimed the contemporary
Hindu sage Swami Muktananda.12
Thanks to the played game the sole divine principle
assumes the form of the world and becomes everything.
For “liberated” man unity is always seen from behind
multiplicity, and awareness of the world is primeval, in
dependent vis a vis the predilection for its diversity. The
Hindu conception of play is associated with the idea
of the dance. The visual form of divine play, known as
leela, is the dance performed by Shiva. Muktananda de
clared that the Lord of Supreme Consciousness com
pels all 8 400 000 species to dance on the stage of the
outer world. Each performs its strange dance, as in a
film. More, each - from Brahma to an insect - has been
granted a suitable body. The human being, however,
has succumbed to servitude and the lifelessness of his
ego, he has forgotten his Self and suffers.13
One of the symbols of the Shiva dance is the multihued, opalescent peacock. The whirling circles of his
feathers set time and space into motion. Shiva is the
god of death and resurrection, the destruction and
eternal transformation of forms. He could have been
the patron of film. According to an ancient Hindu text
all creatures of this world are assorted roles played by a
single actor, God.14
Interestingly, seeking a metaphorical description
of this dance, the very essence of human existence,
the Hindu sage said: as in a film. It is precisely film
that he envisaged as an analogy to the world of per
ennial change. A t this stage we could add: just like
in Rybczynski’s film. Video technology created here
tofore unknown possibilities of showing the endless
resources of transformations.
A n n a Sobolewska • THE CONSTRUCTION OF EXISTENCE
Zbigniew Rybczyński, Tango, fragments of screenplay
The film technique of permeation conceals the
suggestion that the individual is not enclosed within
his limits but constitutes an exchangeable element.
This fluidity of boundaries, however, does not carry
negative connotations (anonymity, mass-scale quali
ties, etc.); on the contrary, it has a positive meaning.
There is no gap between man and man and they flu
ently cross over. The game is conducted incessantly,
and taking and giving, dressing and undressing go on
endlessly. Life and death occur interchangeably - one
dies and is resurrected while dancing. Death is only a
masquerade and in the multitude of symbols it has lost
its “sting”.
The significance of Rybczyński’s imagery cannot
be contained within a single definition. It is difficult
to ascertain whether the first sequence is an allegory
of vanitas or of paradise, since each image in The Or
chestra contains antinomy - or the idea of a paradoxi
cal conciliation of opposites - and evokes assorted
parts of the world of meanings, the world of life: in
this interpretation passage and eternity, motion and
motionless, life and infinity appear to be extremes of
the same principle. The essence of such play is the
struggle between the symbolic (and thus specifically
human and creative) and the accidental, mechanical.
The Japanese High Definition technique of the image
used by Rybczyński is not only a tool but also an ideal
model of a perception of the world. On a daily basis
we live in a reality chaotically fragmented and “glued
together” with the assistance of stereotypes of think
ing and seeing. How can we link the "highest defini
tion” of perception with the profound experience of
unity?
Where is the fixed point? - asks the director cel
ebrating his “turns of events”: Here [motion of the
camera - A. S.] lies the whole theory of relativity. Are we
moving or is it the world that is moving around us? Where
is the fixed point? But at that stage we are entering the
domain of metaphysics, and we were not supposed to talk
about metaphysics.15
369
The search conducted by Rybczyński brings to
mind T. S. Elliot’s poem: At the Still Point of the Turn
ing World, inspired by a paradoxical vision of Shiva’s
dance in which motion and absolute stillness are one:
At the still point of the turning world.
Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards;
at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. [...].
Endnotes
1
J.
Inny wymiar,
K e rm a b o n ,
in te rv ie w
w ith Z b ig n ie w
R y b cz y ń sk i, tr a n sl. W W e r te n ste in , “ K in o ” 1 9 9 1 , n o . 2.
2
F. N ie tz s c h e ,
Wola mocy,
(in :)
Dzieła,
W a rsz a w a 1 9 0 7 , p.
419.
Narodziny tragedii, (in :) Dzieła, p. 22.
Fantazja na żywo, Rozmowa ze Zbigniewem
3
F. N ie tz s c h e ,
4
T S o b o le w sk i,
Rybczyńskim,
5
6
“ K in o ” 1 9 9 1 , n o . 2.
Ib id em .
M . B a k h tin ,
Problem tekstu. Próba analizy filozoficznej,
tr a n sl. A . P r u s-B o g u sła w sk i, “ T w ó r c z o ść ” 1 9 7 7 , n o . 5, p.
7
54.
C f. C . L é v i- S tr a u s s ,
Antropologia strukturalna,
W a rsz a w a
1970.
8
I d is c u s s e d th is to p ic m o r e e x te n siv e ly in : Czytanie kaba
ły, in: Problemy wiedzy o kulturze. Prace dedykowane
Stefanowi Żółkiewskiemu, e d . A . B ro d z k a , M . H o p fin g e r ,
J . L alew icz , W r o c ła w 1 9 8 6 .
9
10
T S o b o le w sk i, o p . cit.
I. B. S in g e r,
Szosza,
tra n sl, S . S a l, W a rsz a w a
1991,
p. 166.
11
Truth and Method. C i t e d afte r: J. T o k a rsk a Hermenutyka Gadamerowska w etnograficznym
badaniu obcości, “ P o lsk a S z tu k a L u d o w a . K o n te k sty ”
H .G . G a d a m e r ,
B ak ir,
1 9 9 2 , n o . 1, p. 15 (fts).
12
Sw am i M u k tan an d a ,
The Mysteries of the Siddhas,
G a n e s h p u r i (In d ia ), 1 9 7 5 , p. 3 7 3 .
13
Ib id ., p. 4 8 .
14
Pratyabhi jandradayam. The Secret of Self-Recognition,
p re p . J. S in g h , D e lh i 1 9 8 0 , v o l. III, p. 9.
15
T. S o b o le w sk i, o p . cit.
