Patrycja Ochman — Return to Yourself / film etude
Galerie Ośrodka Działań Artystycznych / Dąbrowskiego 5 & Sieradzka 8 / Piotrków Trybunalski / Poland
VI Piotrowskie Biennale Sztuki / Patrycja Ochman / 23.10-31.12.2021
The Piotrków Biennale of Art is a nationwide competition whose aim is to review and present contemporary possibilities of artistic creation in various techniques, confrontation of artists using different media, and popularization of the most interesting current phenomena in the field of visual arts. Each edition of the Biennale gives the opportunity to present creative attitudes that are a response and way of interpreting the topic set by the organizer. The biennial's focus on authentic philosophical problems is a distinguishing feature of this competition. The title theses of previous editions are "The end of man?", "In a post-apocalyptic world. Illusion or a way out/towards?”, “A new man? Old truths or new myths? The theme of this year's Biennial, "Return from the Stars", draws inspiration from Stanisław Lem's book of the same title.
467 artists entered the sixth edition of the competition, presenting 903 works. The jury of the 6th Piotrków Biennale of Art, consisting of: Grzegorz Borkowski - chairman, Elżbieta Banecka, Katarzyna Józefowicz, Krzysztof Jurecki, Łukasz Głowacki, Andrzej Hoffman, qualified 67 works by 61 authors for the final exhibition and awarded prizes.
The film etude "Return to Yourself" as a thought experiment inspired by Lem's Return from the Stars draws on the idea of return, focusing on the situation of layering different versions of modernity, superimposing successive copies of it, which deepen the loss of the individual. Man has a problem finding his way among them, he no longer feels the connection between time and space. Excessive stimuli and the flow of information encoded in reality deepen alienation. This is a testing time for people. Time filled with virtual substitutes for events and subsequent versions of yourself in the world. Filling the space endlessly with images, ideas and things leads to satiety. The only right direction is the one that will help you reset reality and return to your interior, face yourself.