Przemek Branas
untitled | three video shorts, 2012
Although Przemek Branas made these three video shorts in 2012 when he was still a student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, their showcase at NARRACJE will be the first public presentation of the triptych. The video was included in the festival’s programme because of its ambiguous, unsettling reference to the world of plants, which represent a very important element of Oliwa’s landscape. A large part of the district is occupied by the Oliwa Forest: this centrally located park complex is one of Oliwa’s most characteristic locations. Its unique, mild microclimate allows many endangered plant species to flourish.
In his triptych, Branas suggests that the flora need not be as gentle as we tend to think. His films argue that nature has to defend itself against dangers – this is why we see nettles burning the skin with the substance produced by their leaves and stipes, or a shyplant (Mimosa pudica) whose leaves fold inwards upon the touch of a robot built using the Lego Mindstorms technology. We sometimes struggle to make sense of the internal life of plants, and their gradual development – unnoticeable when we look at them – distracts our attention from their permanent, brutal expansion. Even in Oliwa we are currently witnessing the gradual displacement of the touch-me-not balsam (Impatiens noli-tangere) caused by the small balsam (Impatiens parviflora), which is native to Asia. Branas’s film triptych – hidden among trees and bushes next to the beautifully trimmed and painstakingly tended flower bed opposite the Abbots’ Palace – is meant to provoke a sense of discomfort and strip us of any illusions as to who would emerge victorious in the event of a global ecological crisis.
location: wall, Oliwa Park
Przemek Branas (b. 1987) is an author of performances, videos and installations. He graduated from the Faculty of Intermedia of the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, and is currently an interdisciplinary PhD student of the University of the Arts in Poznań. His works combine personal subjects with symbols. He is interested in trespassing the barriers of the body, culture and mechanisms of social coexistence. He has taken part in a number of festivals, including in Hong Kong, China and Canada. He won the 2nd prize in the 2017 Views competition. In 2013, he won the scholarship awarded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and in 2015, an award of the Grey House Szara Kamienica Foundation. Branas was an artist-in-residence at Meet Factory in Prague (2016), Sesama in Jakarta (2017) and Terra Foundation for American Art in Giverny (2017). He lives and works in Jarosław.
