The Art of Un-War is Maria Niro’s stunning documentary tribute to the life and works of Krzysztof Wodiczko, a prolific anti-war artist. The film will be available for streaming worldwide on Friday, June 3 through the 2022 New Jersey International Film Festival website, or in-person at 7 pm at Rutgers University's Voorhees Hall.
This film is a journey through time and space, with Niro following Wodiczko around the world to his different installations, past and present. Niro shoots with him in the United States, France, Canada, Japan, and South Korea, but his work has also been displayed in multiple other locations worldwide. Wodiczko’s first piece of political art - all of which are reffered to as public art interventions - was created in Warsaw, Poland in 1968, and now, 54 years later, he is still making an impact with his groundbreaking art.
His work is unique in both beauty and function, often involving giant projections of isolated body parts onto monuments and buildings, and focusing on juxtapositions of militarism versus pacifism. In fact, a lot of Wodiczko’s work seems to be a commentary of comparison. For example, some of his art interventions present people projected onto statues and monuments of war heroes and political figures, often through isolated body parts that move and speak to tell impactful stories about war and its consequences. His “Abraham Lincoln: War Veterans Project” was especially striking to me for the way it shared veterans’ stories verbally and through meaningful body positioning over a statue of former President and war veteran Lincoln. This sort of meaningful comparison was also seen in Wodiczko’s wearable tech art, which includes the Porte-Parole mouthpiece. The gadget appears very militaristic on the wearer, almost like armor, but is actually meant to empower the wearer to verbalize what they might otherwise avoid saying.
All of these meaningful interventions lead us to the project at the heart of the film: an installation of scaffolding around the Arc de Triomph in Paris. Wodiczko is no stranger to large, seemingly impossible projects, but this is one of his most daring yet. Through this art intervention, he hopes to spark a conversation about peace-building by allowing the monument’s visitors to get a closer look at its graphic depictions of war and violence. This spirit of confronting war head-on is a constant throughout Wodiczko’s many years of work, and it seems to have existed from the day he was born.
Wodiczko was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1943, right in the midst of World War II and on the eve of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Niro captures the artist’s personal history in a manner that clearly paints his desire to create anti-war art experiences as stemming from the traumas of his childhood and his awareness of how war affected him. There is a super impactful scene where Wodiczko has a rather panicky, visceral reaction to being interviewed in a coffee shop because he and the filmmaker are surrounded by loud noises. He opens up about his sensory sensitivities, stating that although he was a baby at the time of World War II and does not remember it, the war remembers him. This sort of lasting impact really informs the purpose of this film and Wodiczko’s work in general; by channeling his personal experiences with the atrocities of war and asking others to do the same, he touches the hearts and minds of others and truly does intervene and interrupt the normalization of violence.
The Art of Un-War is a moving tribute to Krysztof Wodiczko’s mission, and is the sort of film that leaves the viewer with a renewed sense of hope. Be sure to check it out on Friday, June 3 online through the New Jersey Film Festival website, or in-person at 7 pm at Rutgers’ Voorhees Hall. To buy tickets click here.
The 27th annual New Jersey International Film Festival will be taking place on select Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between June 3 -12. The Festival will be a hybrid one as we will be presenting it online as well as doing select in person screenings at Rutgers University. All the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. Each ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in person screenings. The in person screenings will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at either 5PM or 7PM on their show date. Tickets: $15=Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$100. For more info go here: https://2022newjerseyinternationalfilmfestival.eventive.org/
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