Film premiere: “The Rise and Fall of Zygmunt Blask”
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| 5 EUR, reduced 3 EUR |
| 12 years and older |
| English, German, Polish |
| Berlin Exhibition, 1st floor, Hall 5 Berlin Room |
Set in Poland’s underground queer scene in the 1970s and 1980s, “The Rise and Fall of Zygmunt Blask” tells the story of glam rock superstar Zygmunt Blask. The fictional character was created by Polish musician Jemek Jemowit, who released his rock opera “Legenda Zygmunt Blask” in 2021. In the film by Krzysztof Honowski and Jemek Jemowit, artists Ewa Maria Slaska and Leon Dziemaszkiewicz trace the life of the pop icon, whose rise and fall exemplifies many fleeting existences between censorship, self-determination, emigration and exile.
Based on their personal experiences and memories, Slaska and Dziemaszkiewicz describe an alternative European history of the East and West. Part musical, part documentary, part queer-feminist agitprop, the film combines collages of home videos from communist Poland with interviews and staged re-enactments shot in Berlin and Zielona Góra.
“The Rise and Fall of Zygmunt Blask” is an unsparing tribute to hard-fought battles for the right to self-determination, which have been waged over the years in former Soviet countries and are being fought today with renewed vigour.
The event is part of the programme accompanying the Open Space “Liberty, Equality, Solidarność” by Ewa Maria Slaska, Anna Krenz and Jemek Jemowit.
6 pm
Tape listening session of the studio album “Legenda Zygmunta Blask” by Jemek Jemowit. Released in 2021, the music raises questions about the socio-political situation in the country under the Law and Justice government (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS), in particular the difficult situation faced by the LGBTIQ community.
7 pm
Premiere screening of the film “The Rise and Fall of Zygmunt Blask”. The film will be shown in Polish, German and English with English subtitles.
7.35 pm
Q&A with the filmmakers and actors, moderated by Joanna Ratajczak. The discussion will be held in German with simultaneous English interpretation.
“The Rise and Fall of Zygmunt Blask” (2021-24) is a film by Krzysztof Honowski and Jemek Jemowit, with Ewa Maria Slaska, Leon Krzysztof Dziemaszkiewicz, Roland Owsnitzki and Jemek Jemowit. The film received funding from the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe as part of the Oder Partnership.
Participants
Media artist Krzysztof Honowski (born 1986 in London) studied at the University of Cambridge, the Slade School of Fine Art and the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. Since 2009, he has organised performances, screenings and exhibitions worldwide, including at the Jewish Museum Berlin, the Oberhausen Short Film Festival, PACT Zollverein, Ruhrtriennale 2019, ISSUE Project Room New York, Nordic House Reykjavik, and Barbican London. His upcoming exhibitions include presentations at Kunstverein Leverkusen and LALA Athens. Honowski lives and works in Cologne.
Born in 1986 in Gdynia, Poland, Ziemowit Nowak is better known as his alter ego, goth-glam musician Jemek Jemowit. His artistic journey has spanned various genres since 2009, and he has helped to shape the musical landscape with his political and conceptual approach. His album “Legenda Zygmunt Blask” (2021), which accompanies the film shown here, concludes his Polish trilogy after “TEKKNO POLO” (2013) and “wróg publiczny no. 1” (2016). In addition to his work as a performer and musician, Nowak has been running the art and culture venue TROPEZ at Sommerbad Humboldthain in Berlin’s Wedding district since 2019. Together with Ewa Maria Slaska and Anna Krenz, he conceived of and realised the Open Space “Liberty, Equality, Solidarność” at BERLIN GLOBAL.
Born in Sopot, Poland in 1949. A writer, editor, publicist, blogger, project manager, translator, teacher and curator, Ewa Maria Slaska also sees herself as a mediator between German and Polish realities. She fled to Berlin in 1985 as an activist of the Solidarność movement. She has since been involved in refugee aid and numerous cultural and political projects. Together with Anna Krenz and Jemek Jemowit, she conceived of and realised the Open Space “Liberty, Equality, Solidarność” at BERLIN GLOBAL.
Krzysztof “Leon” Dziemaszkiewicz (born 1963 in Poland) is a Berlin-based performer and visual artist. He began his career as a dancer and choreographer at the Teatr Ekspresji in Gdansk in the early 1990s. In 1995 he founded his own company, Read My Lips Theatre. He has lived and worked in Berlin and Gdansk since 1998. His art has been shown in the USA, France, Germany, Turkey, Brazil, Canada, Italy and many other countries.
Joanna Ratajczak is a Polish-German radio and TV journalist, producer and filmmaker. After studying political science and journalism in Poznań, she moved to Berlin in 2001. There she became known at JazzRadio Berlin, presenting and producing various programmes, including the well-known ‘JazzRio!’. Her career was honoured with a bronze medal at the New York International Radio Programming Awards in 2014. Ratajczak is also active as a DJ in Berlin and has been working intensively with RBB since 2011, where she produces articles, reports and documentaries. In 2018, she returned to Poland to further develop her skills in film. She studied at the Wajda Film School in Warsaw and the Władysław Ślesicki Film Foundation. Her debut documentary ‘TRUST ME’, made in collaboration with HBO, will premiere at the DOK FEST Munich Film Festival in May 2024.
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