fallout

fallout is inspired by an old RPG – „fallout 2”. The Generator of Eden Creation Kit is a device which serves to recreate an ecosystem destroyed by a cataclysm/pandemonium/nuclear-technological apocalypse. The programmers’ vision of the world is called wasteland which might be interpreted as: undeveloped land, wilderness, barren ground, fallow, desert, cultural desert. The aim of player is to find that G.E.C.K. The technologically advanced equipment which can return the wasteland to life, revitalise it, rectify the effects of the cataclysm, fill the void with life-giving content, revive the dried-out springs. The player, as a fictitious character in the game, executes a range of missions, covers vast expanses of the wasteland in search of the craved salvation of humanity represented by group of peasants/savages lost in culture and civilisation.
The use of concepts taken from fallout consists in the fact that a range of electronic-organic objects which constitute the installation, with pre-programmed behaviour functions; attempt to relate to the ‘empty-filled’, ‘destroyed-reclaimed’ arrangement.
The G.E.C.K. object – resembling a curious generator, emulates the functions of the fallout’s G.E.C.K. It searches for specific satellite images of the Earth thanks to dedicated software which contains the encoded features of the wasteland. Being only an algorithm, the results of the search are frequently surprising and do not tally with the stereotypical representation of a desert, waste, undeveloped land. Depending on the results, the programme attempts to reanimate the organic samples (placed in special containers), introducing specific substances (oxygen, water, chlorophyll). Unfortunately, due to erroneous interpretation of the images or incorrect proportions of administered substances the actions often lead to the death of a given organism, to a change of its constitution. On its remains a new life springs. One would say that no death has taken place, but energy was transferred onto a different organism.

2011 - fallout, XX1 Gallery, Warsaw (PL)
2010 - Mediations Biennale, Beyond Mediations, Centrum Kultury Zameki, Poznan (PL)

ode to youth

Attempting to refer to the idea of youth, I thought it would be good to recollect Ode to Youth and try to recite it again... only I did it backwards. I recorded this clumsy recitation and then digitally played it backwards. It caused the effect of an incredible agony and misunderstanding the words of the recited ode. 16 digital, audio-video generators, constructed diligently with all the consequences of a modern installation, (video image, cables, DVD players, a general mess of “new media”) continuously recites – or rather attempts to recite the text, which the stupid machine does not understand at all (why should it?). Listening to these 16 incessantly repeating voices I sometimes get the impression of either of a mantra or a prayer prattled without understanding...

"(...) another Andrzej Wasilewski’s installation Ode to Youth. The other one was built of 16 little monitors, on which were projected graphs resembling in their form graphs appearing on monitors of life-sustaining ICU. From time to time, there was a buzzing coming from the loudspeakers placed next to the monitors, closely resembling human, albeit slightly mumbling, voice. The whole machinery was connected to two screens. On them there was to be found the solution to the puzzle: the projected (once forwards, once backwards) text of Mickiewicz’s Ode to Youth, a synonym of the power struggle between generations. (...) The artist's subjects to analysis also the category of youth stressed in the title of the work and the exhibition, cultural connotations, which it unavoidably revokes: a generational change and evolution. Youth is presented here by means of the machinery as barely alive and artificially bolstered."

Ewa Małgorzata Tatar

2008 - 5th Triennale of Youth, Center of Polish Sculpture, Oronsko (PL)