Lech Majewski

The Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Film and Media presents the first American retrospective of Lech Majewski, a filmmaker in mid-career. Majewski, a Polish artist who works internationally, is known for the films and videos he writes, directs, and shoots, and for his original scores. A graduate of the Lodz Film School, Majewski is also a poet, painter, and stage director celebrated for opera and theatrical events. His stylized moving-image works eschew language in favor of music and fantastically expressive landscapes, both domestic and topographical. His imaginative features--whether based on legends, like The Knight and Angelus, or on such real-life figures as Jean-Michel Basquiat and the poet Rafal Wojaczek--are distinguished by a unique sensibility hovering not only between the absurd and the metaphysical, but also the beautiful and the profane. All films written and directed by Majewski, and in Polish with English subtitles, except where noted. Features will be preceded by a short video piece from Majewski’s DiVinities series.

On Wednesday, May 3, Majewski introduces the world premiere of Blood of a Poet (2006). This new work comprises twenty-seven digital pieces that can be seen separately or as a narrative feature.

Organized by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, Department of Film and Media, with the support of the Polish Cultural Institute, the Consulate General of Poland in New York, and the Cultural Institution Ars Cameralis Silesiae Superioris.

Lech Majewski: Conjuring the Moving Image
Kurator: Laurence Kardish