Suzanne
Treister
Transmission
is one of two interrelated projects made in Torun, Poland, during a
residency hosted by
the Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu (CoCA)
and Fundacja Fabryka UTU in September-October 2010
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 video stills |
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Transmission is a video filmed at Radio Maryja headquarters in Torun, Poland. Radio Maryja is a Polish Catholic national independent radio station based in Torun. The Radio Maryja network includes a TV station, a cell phone company, a university, a daily newspaper and a proposed colossal 'Third Millenium' church for Torun whose domed design resembles a cross between the top section of St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican and a giant mosque, or something out of science fiction. Since its foundation in 1991 Radio Maryja has propagated extreme anti-semitic views and has been accused of twisting the teachings of the Catholic Church. Radio Maryja is financed by donations from its audience, the 'Radio Maryja Family' and supposedly by Jan Kobylanski, friend and ally of the director, Father Tadeusz Rydzyk. Kobylanski is a Uruguay-based millionaire reportedly disallowed from entering the USA due to his alleged wartime collaboration with the Nazis. Transmission is based on still photographs taken inside Radio Maryja headquarters in Torun - images of the main building and of visualisations from the brochure for the proposed 'Third Millenium' church - onto which is transposed a star of David photographed in the town centre from a memorial plaque to a destroyed synagogue. Transmission is a circular time loop where past, present and hypothetical future are in continuous rotation, creating a temporary hallucinatory destabilisation of time and belief patterns. Links: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jun/05/poland http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/poland/090925/tadeusz-rydzyk-media-empire |
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