Une Journée dans la République Populaire de Pologne

The Poland of the 1960s, seen through official newsreels or personal archives, gives a first impression of banality and happiness. There is work, travel, weddings, studies… Images polished by an unruffled, well-oiled way of functioning. Yet, these almost flat images are disturbed and haunted by voices: police reports, letters of denouncement, a mother’s correspondence to her imprisoned son, calls for freedom. Texts and radio archives infuse the images with a dimension of fear, obsessive control, passivity and resistance. Daily gestures lose their insignificance. They are what follows or precedes an arrest or a report. Banality crumbles away to reveal an underlying reality that is painful, absurd and chilling.