Decalogue:
Point Of View

I ask questions about life, so we will look ourselves in the eye - Krzysztof Kieślowski

 

("The question is "how to live? How to live so you can look yourself in the eye in front of a mirror?")

 

How does one follow a director’s view? What arises when we contemplate the gray, banal environment in Warsaw, or in our own world? These questions bear significance in the context of this exhibition that presents some of the eventsthat came about as a result of “Decalogue”, a Polish television series directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski (1941 – 1996). The exhibition tries to introduce the audience into the perspective of Kieślowski, who observed the building of the residential complex, “Inflanka”, in his country’s capital and who, through the identical concrete walls and windows, asked profound ethical questions. By taking a close look, one can see how Kieślowski saw in a simple neighborhood, theoretically gray and boring, a wealth of humanity and the complexity of the soul, and he divided this observation of his into parts, and from these he created his cinematic masterpiece.

 

The exhibit accompanies the tenth edition of the “Arava International Film Festival” where, right in the middle of the desert, all ten episodes of Kieślowski’s series “The Ten Commandments (Decalogue) are being screened. You are invited to step into the places where the series was filmed, to linger in them as if you too were acting on the set, to take part in the three-way view: the director who is looking at the world, the photographer who is filming the director, and us, who are watching their world.

 

The exhibit is made up of two parts: the first shows ten shots by the Polish stills photographer, Kieślowski’s friend, Piotr Jaxa – who created them at the director’s request for the project The Decalogue Map – and next to these are three photos from the actual films. We look at and are reflected in the pictures and images while the eyes of the actors are looking at us. At the computer station you can browse a map of Warsaw that accompanies the filming locations of the series’ episodes and read more about the places, the plot, the production process and the philosophical and theological issues the series raises. In the rear room of the gallery,you’ll find another taste of Kieślowski’s work process that focuses on the films he created after Decalogue, and all of this is through the eyes of Jaxa, who worked as a stills photographer during the shooting and production of the trilogy “Colors“.

A reflection of the soul is what Kieślowski sought to awaken in us in his films, that confront us as viewers and as human beings with moral dilemmas that life presents, whether we are Polish, Israeli or come from anywhere in the world. Whether you see the “Decalogue” in the framework of the Arava Film Festival, or you’ve just come to the exhibit for a quick look, you are welcome to visit at your own pace, and orchestrate the flow of your internal and external look and observation.