designers' task force
an installation by Jakub Szczęsny for the movie by Guy Maddin Cowards Bend the Knee or The Blue Hands
Guy Maddin’s Cowards Bend the Knee or The Blue Hands (2003) is a film to peek. On your own, in hiding, through a keyhole or one-way mirror. In Derailed Cinema, the director confirms he made an autobiographical movie that provokes the viewer to take the position of a voyeur, who will get everything he needs in it: “a little pornography, some shameful stories, evidence of my own cowardice, etc. […] The word cowards in the title encouraged me.”
Guy Maddin’s Cowards Bend the Knee or The Blue Hands (2003) is a film to peek. On your own, in hiding, through a keyhole or one-way mirror. In Derailed Cinema, the director confirms he made an autobiographical movie that provokes the viewer to take the position of a voyeur, who will get everything he needs in it: “a little pornography, some shameful stories, evidence of my own cowardice, etc. […] The word cowards in the title encouraged me.”
In Cowards…, Maddin goes to the other side of the mirror – and quite literally on occasion. The beauty salon (mother!) and the hockey arena (father!), two places where he grew up, become – respectively – a brothel/abortion clinic and a grim crime scene. It is impossible to tell the biography from its alternative version. “Some of the events actually took place, while others are their exact opposites. A bit like cubism – at the same time things are seen from the front, side and back.”
On Your Knees, Cowards! is a new project, prepared especially for the 9th edition of ERA NEW HORIZONS. Szczęsny sets up ten mysterious cabins (one for each part of the film) that are effects of his artistic associations. They include a confessional, a wardrobe, a makeshift children’s house under the living-room table, a hairdresser’s chair, etc. Szczęsny lures us into the sensual, suspicious interiors, at the same time imposing a fragmented reception of the movie. The perverse voyeurist pleasure with the tension it involves on the one hand, and the safe, cosy hideaway on the other. Inconspicuous constructions hiding extravagant and provocative interiors. You are welcome to step inside.
Katarzyna Roj i Kuba Mikurda
design: Kuba Szczęsny
curated by: Katarzyna Roj, Kuba Mikurda
coordination: Marta Kubik
graphic design: Maciej Lizak
Organizators: International Film Festival ERA NEW HORIZONS & Design Gallery - BWA Wrocław
