by Nevin Ulusoy
“AFTERIMAGE” – FREEDOM INSPIRING IMAGES
Art. A word that is strictly connected with freedom. Not being dependent on anything, anyone, searching only its own truth, trying to find a meaning only in itself. However strongly people, regimes, tyrants struggle to shape it according to their beliefs, ideas, it demands its independence, its own free will. It grows like flowers growing on stones, demolishing all outdated ideas and systems.
“Afterimage” is a Polish film directed by fascinating Polish director Andrzej Wajda. It is his last film. The film was chosen to represent Poland at the Oscar Awards as Best Foreign Language Film that year. It is about the last years of Polish avant garde artist Wladyslaw Strzeminski. The artist was born in 1893 and died in 1952. He fought in World War I and lost his left arm and right leg. He assisted the first avant garde art exhibition in Lithuania, which was in Poland then.After the war, he became a lecturer at the Higher School of Plastic Arts and Design. In the film, Boguslaw Linda acts as Strzemiński. The music that fills our hearts with excitement throughout the film is by Andrzej Panufnik.
Art. A word that is strictly connected with freedom. Not being dependent on anything, anyone, searching only its own truth, trying to find a meaning only in itself. However strongly people, regimes, tyrants struggle to shape it according to their beliefs, ideas, it demands its independence, its own free will. It grows like flowers growing on stones, demolishing all outdated ideas and systems.
So what is an “afterimage”? “An afterimage is an image that continues to appear in the eyes after a period of exposure to the original image” explains Wikipedia. Strzeminski is very much interested in afterimage, and tries to develop theories on it. The film begins in 1948. We see Strzeminski’s students in the countryside, surrounded by nature, painting their pictures. Young, vigorous people, full of the light of bright days and the colours of nature. Strzeminski comes along, although he is disabled, he rolls down a hill and his students join him, a cloud of mirth enveloping them all. The freedom that nature and natural art gives is incompatible with anything else. We have another scene, the artist is at home, painting his picture. All of a sudden, the room is darkened, he stands up, looks out of the window. It is a red flag, the flag of the new regime, covering the whole building. He starts tearing the flag, because he needs light to paint his picture. Of course the policemen come and take him away. The new Stalinist regime wants artists to create their works as products of Socialist Realist Art. Strzeminski does not agree, does not care about their threats. His lectures at school are followed by students with great enthusiasm. They discuss afterimage, Van Gogh’s pictures. The art sparkles in his eyes, changes the whole atmosphere around him and the room he gives his lectures in is illuminated by these sparkles and then the hearts of his students are wholly enlightened. As he refuses to create art according to the orders of the government, as he insists on abstract art, he comes across with financial difficulties. His lectures are abolished, he cannot find jobs anywhere. His Neoplastic Room in the Muzeum Sztuki is closed, his works of art are taken away. In the end, he could not even buy art supplies, get food stamps. As he paints, he forgets about food even, he just smokes. His daughter visits him sometimes, a little school girl, she tries to look after him. He writes “The Theory of Vision” with the help of his students. His conditions of health decrease day by day. He has friends who immensely adore and admire him, they protect his pictures. However the conditions are hard for him, he refuses to create art demanded of him. The freedom of art is a way holy for him. All his experience branded in his heart as images want to flow freely. “You can give back only what you have in art and love.”
We remember “Dovlatov”, the film about the Russian writer who refused to write according to the wishes of the governors, praising the government, the system all the time. When you write that way, it is no longer literature, writing poems about girls who leave their lovers because they do not work well at the factory, as in “Life Is Somewhere Else” by Kundera. Strzeminski is against restrictions just like the artist Sabina in Kundera’s “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”. At university, Sabina was not given any other choice, but that is not the way art is made. She continued painting modern pictures, it was both a reaction and a need, the need coming from the depths of the soul, the reason why you are an artist, a writer, a poet, a photographer, etc. Strzeminski chooses art and it is a life and death matter for him. He grasps how artists like Van Gogh created their works, inspired by the everlasting world of inspiration.