Józef Robakowski’s film ‘From My Window’ includes May Day marches, so it only stands to be suitable that his exhibition of ‘My Very Own Cinema’ which includes those images amongst many others, should open on the 1st May as the first presentation of work at Ikon Eastside of 2009.

Born 1939, Robakowski was amongst the first generation of Polish artists to work with video, working on From My Window from 1978 through to 1999; the project being literal in its title, with Robakowski following the daily goings on of the public square his window looked down onto, allowing a pseudo-documentary that only came to an end when a new hotel blocked the view he’d had for so many years. The film suggests the constancy of personal relations amidst events.

My Own Cinema also includes other shorter and more abstract works that investigate the relationship between sound and image including Attention: LIGHT!, a work made to a ’score’ produced by the American film maker Paul Sharits shortly before his death. “The Market” shot from above between the hours of 7am and 4pm follows the ebb and flow of people at a marketplace. All works made between 1970 and 2000, the underlying theme of the exhbition is that of the shift in ideologies of Eastern Europe from socialism to capitalism and the military rule during the 1980s’ and the paranoia it created.

Robakowski was a founding member of several artist’s organisations and held a teaching position at the Film, Television and Theatre State Academy in Lodz until 1981 when he was removed by communist authorities, who also forbid him from leaving the country or show his work in Poland. Ikon Eastside is showing the work as part of the The Polish Season in the UK.

The event is open from 1-31 May at Ikon Eastside which is open Thursday to Sunday 1-5pm. Admission is free.

Image credit: Film Still, About My Fingers, 1981.

Words: Alexandra Rochester