Józef Robakowski

Józef Robakowski is an artist, art historian, academic professor, author of films, videos, photographic series, installations, objects, performances, multimedia actions, and conceptual projects.

Born in 1939 in Poznań, he earned a degree in art history and museum studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Mikołaj Kopernik University in Toruń and majored at the Faculty of Cinematography of the Leon Schiller National School of Films, Television and Theatre in Łódź, where in 1970–1981 he taught and ran the Photography and Visual Advertising Unit. In 1995, he returned to the Łódź School, and until 2017 ran the Studio of Multimedia Actions there. He has also taught in the Faculty of Cultural

Studies of the University of Łódź (1982–1983), at the Łódź College of Humanities and Economics (2001–2006).

Co-founder of a number of artistic collectives, e.g. Oko (1960), STKF Pętla (1960–1966), Zero-61 (1961–1969), Krąg (1965–1967). Co-founder of the Workshop of the Film Form (1970–1977), and Telewizyjna Grupa Twórcza Stacja Ł (1991–1992). In 1978, founded (with Małgorzata Potocka) the Exchange Gallery (Galeria Wymiany) in Łódź, which he runs to this day. Initiator of numerous artistic events, curator and co-curator of several dozen exhibitions, publisher, author of texts and publications. He lives and works in Łódź.

Robakowski’s film practice dates back to the 1960s and experimental productions, including found-footage films. His pioneering 1970s analyses of the structures of the film language are today considered as classics of structural cinema. In the 1980s, often using video, he developed the concept of “one’s own cinema,” personal, often autobiographic recordings and performative practices. At the same time, he pursued a critique of media politics and the mechanisms of viewer manipulation in ideologized mass media. He is an author of videos documenting his often improvised performances from the last two decades. Video documentations and films on contemporary art and its avant-garde traditions form an important part of his practice.

Since the end-1950s, Robakowski has practiced photography, experimenting with the medium, and made photographic objects. His analytical-conceptual series of works from the 1970s reflect his preoccupation with the ontology of perception and the potentials of photographic representations. In the 1980s, he produced various photographic series by taking pictures of TV images. In recent years, he has been making monumental compositions of his own images found on the Web, a project called Fotomania.