Krzysztof Wodiczko: The Art of Un-War
a film by Maria Niro
SYNOPSIS
The Art of Un-War, a Crossing Waters film, is an in-depth exploration of the life and the art of renowned artist Krzysztof Wodiczko who has practiced socially engaged art for over five decades and has dedicated his life and art in denouncing militarization and war.
The film focuses on Wodiczko's artistic interventions comprising of public projections which become powerful responses to the inequities and horrors of war and injustice. Throughout the film these interventions become examples of how art can be used to for social change and for healing. An instigator for social change, Wodiczko disrupt the valorization of state-sanctioned aggression and challenge our complacency towards war, xenophobia and displacement.  The film delves into timely works such as Abraham Lincoln War Veteran Projection in Union Square, NYC, where Wodiczko projects the voices and images of soldiers from 20th and 21st-century wars onto the statue of Lincoln. The participants' stories of loss, displacement, abuse, and PTSD combined with Wodiczko’s own story of trauma emerge in tandem as the projects become a vehicle for healing. The evolution of Wodiczko’s political art unfolds throughout the film from his first intervention created in Warsaw in 1968, to one of his most ambitious projects and a focal point of the film - a radical proposal to transform Paris’ Arc De Triomphe war monument into a site for peace-building research and activism. Wodiczko counters the monument’s glorification of war and portrayal of distorted histories by constructing scaffolding around the Arc De Triomphe and transforming it into its complete antithesis. Filmed in the United States, France, Canada, Japan, and South Korea, The Art of Un-War is one of the most comprehensive investigations into Wodiczko’s lifelong inquiry of historical war monuments. Narrated by Wodiczko, and in conversations with artists, activists, art historians, and curators.  Through colleagues and fellow artists, we come to know Wodiczko as an empathetic media artist with a deep commitment to exposing the travesties of war and its aftermath.
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