film, 10 min 30 sec

The end of plastics is near!
In 1956, a speaker at a conference of American packaging manufacturers made a pivotal statement: “Your future is in the garbage wagon!”. After decades of using glass and reusable packaging, major corporations decided to introduce an innovation: the PET bottle. Lured by the promise of profits, manufacturers brought into mass circulation a material that is as practical as it is harmful. And so – for better and for worse – began an adventure starring plastic: once our best friend, now a fierce enemy.
Julita Wójcik’s bittersweet film judges human reason with deep scepticism and its narrative forms a kind of requiem for the plastic era. The material is shown as a rare artefact from the past. Individual shots – like a probe exploring deep water mysteries – examine the nooks and crannies of the Strzyża, the Royal Brook and the Dead Vistula to show this forgotten relic. The plastic odyssey has a happy ending: its remains fall prey to organisms feeding at the bottom of rivers, seas and oceans, disappearing for ever in the jaws of voracious benthos…

Cinematography, sound and editing: Jacek Niegoda
The film uses a fragment of Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Richard Strauss
Special thanks to: Agnieszka Szymkiewicz as well as Dr. Halina Kendzierska and Dr. Dagmara Wójcik-Fudalewska from the Division of Experimental Ecology of Marine Organisms, Institute of Oceanography, University of Gdańsk

Julita Wójcik (born 1971) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. The artist takes basic, ordinary activities, such as peeling potatoes or sweeping the floor, and places them within the context of art institutions. However, her activities are not about trivializing art, but taking a different perspective towards everyday practices and noticing their socio-political complexities. The artist casts a new light on obsolete cultural codes and gender stereotypes hidden in daily routines. For Narracje#12, she traces the futuristic odyssey of a mundane object swept up by the Strzyża Stream. Wójcik is a holder of the Passport award given by Polityka magazine. She lives in Upper Wrzeszcz.