I made this short film at university as a final BA Visual Anthropology dissertation project. I decided to turn my gaze back towards Poland – the country I grew up in, one that idealises anything Western uncritically and sees the Western model as the only correct one for growth. I wanted to analyse the collective feeling of inferiority towards the West that myself and my Gen-Z peers have internalised as a result of being conditioned to think of our place in the world as that of a “second-category” European country – and how we attach the level of alleged civility to one’s geographical origin.
Simultaneously, I am interested in how this view is shifting currently, as over the past decade or so Poland has been becoming “a new European superpower,” and it has recently become a new destination for migrant workers from around the world. The film I made is just the tip of the iceberg – it explores how Poland has been portrayed within the Western gaze and how this pejorative representation has shaped us. I want to keep expanding this film over time, to encapsulate more nuances and the contemporary changes happening in my country.
Arti Siudem
Arti is a Polish-born, UK-based queer visual artist, anthropologist and experimental filmmaker working at the intersection of art and academia. Their practice remixes moving image, animation, desktop recordings, archive footage, and critical theory to challenge social norms and explore the theories of identity, modernity, hyperreality, human-non-human relations and the ethics of representation. Through collaborative and long-term oriented film-research and community projects, Arti aims to contribute to the global anti-capitalist grassroots social justice movements. Arti is the founder of KONTEKST Collective and regularly curates and facilitates accessible public events that promote media literacy, advocate for social justice, and platform emerging creatives. They are also an avid backpacker.