As a person in his mid-thirties who is mainly in contact with people working in the fields of performing arts, I am surrounded by more and more parents who fail day after day in their impossible attempt to transform the triangle of children, relationships, and household into a sustainable seven-pointed star, complemented by friends, creativity, me-time, and even some rest. This is not an extreme sport. It is tantamount to slow suicide.
The 23rd SURVIVAL Exhibition and Festival, entitled “3s/8h,” focused on the relationship between time, work, and attention. Within the framework defined by the curators – Michał Bieniek, Daniel Brożek, Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz, and Ewa Pluta – the eight-hour workday fought for by the labor movement is contrasted with today’s three-second attention span on social media. The festival and the selected works invited us to reflect on how we manage time – individually and as a society – in an age of overstimulation, flexible employment, and constant availability.
Organized by the Polish Art Transparent Foundation, the 23rd edition of the festival took place in Wroclaw from June 18 to 22 in the casemates of the 800-year-old Leśnica Castle.
The theme is in keeping with the location and timing of the exhibition (the long weekend in June), highlighting the historical perception of time. Concepts such as “leisure” and “boredom” were the privilege of the aristocracy and nobility for centuries. Today, attention has become the new measure of time and the currency of the information economy. Work is no longer tied to specific hours – efficiency and task completion are much more important. At the same time, we are all participating in the attention economy, which is disrupting the traditional concept of productivity.
Out of hundreds of submissions, 31 works were featured at the festival, most of which clearly reflected the poignant everyday nature of the theme. At the entrance to the casemate, we are greeted by Just a Sec (created by Maciej Cholewa), which at first glance appears to be a simple door knocker. Dr. Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz, who accompanied us on an English-language tour for international guests, provides historical context for the object: the first door knockers appeared in ancient Greece, but at that time, a slave was tied to the end of the door knocker on the other side of the door, who had to open the door for the guest as soon as possible. This is evoked by the appearance of the work: on closer inspection, we are knocking on a set of teeth. I found this opening extremely powerful, because the impatience of waiting in front of a door we want to enter is such an everyday feeling – “I don’t have time for this.”
Some of the works also reflected on the theme of time through the creative process itself. No Gods, No Masters (created by Babirot Group) is a community painting on a long canvas roll, created by a group of civilians and artists who meet as a community and who did not set a goal or theme for their work beyond allowing everyone to participate freely for as long as they wanted. There was time for everything. While Anna Sztwiertnia’s work, which most closely resembled a chandelier – titled ( ) → ( ) → ( ) – also reflected on the time of creation; Anna, a working mother who cannot make a living from her work as a sculptor and therefore also has a civilian job, was able to work on her piece every day between 5 and 6 in the morning.
Jakub Leniart’s series of two photorealistic paintings, entitled Terrain Expansion, is also extremely powerful. According to the artist’s statement, the source of the idea is the anime series Jujutsu Kaisen, where “domain expansion” is a process by which someone is able to create a zone where they become absolute. Leniart’s paintings depict a temporary refuge for rest.
As the above examples show, neither the creators nor the curators are optimistic about our relationship with time and how we manage it. That is why the festival’s other spaces and programs were designed to provide opportunities for rest and relaxation. Visitors were encouraged to arrive by bicycle, and sun loungers and blankets awaited them in front of the stage where roundtable discussions were held, while the festival club also served as a pleasant place to relax. Another nice touch was this year’s festival logo product, the beach slippers.
As for the discussions, they were given a long time frame of 1.5-1.5 hours, so there was no rush here either. As the leader of the Arts pillar, representing the Deconfining project, I participated in the roundtable discussion The Body as an Archive. Artistic Experiences in Intercultural Cooperation. In the roundtable discussion, led by curator Dr Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz, I spoke with Oliwia Bosomtwe, a renowned writer and editor who researches cultural relations between Ghana and Poland, and Roland Jacek Chojnacki, a leading figure in Polish cultural diplomacy who has headed Polish Institutes in several countries and currently heads the Department of Cultural Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the discussion, we talked about cultural relations between Europe and Africa, the challenges and the lasting consequences of the historical legacy of colonization. The theme of time thus took on a different context than before: how much time does it take to recover from social traumas? And to truly understand other cultures?
The latter topic was also explored in another conversation, prompted by the film Dialog from the Between Worlds, which presents an imagined, perhaps never-realized conversation between two 20th-century filmmakers, Jonas Mekas and Ousmane Sembene, based on data and stories collected about them. The calm dialogue between the Lithuanian-born experimental filmmaker from New York and the Senegalese anti-capitalist director sets an example of the value of slowing down and paying attention.
You will be able to see the films created as part of the Deconfining project in Hungary at the Kerekdomb Festival.
There, we will invite you to relax, slow down as much as possible, and make space for yourselves and your truly creative selves.