Emerging Artist: Jan Baracz by Ellen Harvey

by pmaxwell, 6 October 2008

Profile by Ellen Harvey

REALITY CINEMA / LIVE VIDEO will be on view at Art in General at 79 Walker Street, New York, until December 13. There will be live performances on October 16 and December 2 from 6.30pm – 8.30 pm. Opening Hours are Tuesday – Saturday 12 – 6pm. For additional information, please contact: Eva Diaz at (212) 219 0473 x 27 or info@artingeneral.org.

Jan Baracz, Live Video, 2008

For the casual passerby, the red curtains and the “live” “video” neon signs in the window signal what was once a familiar sight from New York’s seedier past. But enter into what appears to be a tiny old movie theatre and you end up being treated to a completely different form of voyeuristic thrill. The “movie” that this cinema shows is a live video feed from security cameras recording the street outside. Backed by an eerie soundtrack, the “movie” is a beautiful and compelling demonstration of our need to impose narrative onto even the most banal of street scenes. It’s a truly magical experience.

Jan Baracz, Live Video Outside View, 2008

REALITY CINEMA / LIVE VIDEO is a project of Polish-born artist Jan Baracz . From a 60 ft high swing installed at Basel’s Art Unlimited, to a haughty bronze cat gazing down at the viewer below, a maze made of frames, a gigantic sandbox for adult museum visitors and a pixilated portrait of a porn star that turns out to have been made out of Rubic’s cubes, the common denominator of his work is a playful yet rigorous exploration of the very human need to impose sense on the nonsense that is our reality.


Jan Baracz, Life is Short Installation, 2002

Jan Baracz is a graduate of Bard College’s MFA program and the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. He has received awards from the Asian Cultural Council, the Edward F. Albee Foundation, Artist’s Space and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, among others. He has exhibited extensively in the United States and internationally.


Jan Baracz, Uberkatze, 1998

Jan Baracz, Artist