R. Biuro, P. Uklanski, ed., Earth, Wind, and Fire, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2004, pp. back end cover (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
Summer Love — The First Polish Western is Piotr Uklanski’s highly regarded debut film that was screened at various film festivals throughout 2006. Most notably it was included in the 63rd Annual Venice Film Festival, the Athens Film Festival, the Warsaw International Film Festival and the Polish Film Festival in the United States. The highly charged images represented in the present lot are film stills which convey the depth and range of emotion in Uklanski’s visual narrative. The film’s title claims that it is the first “first Polish Western” although Uklanski deems it more of an allegory; one that uses the language of a Western to tell a universally understood story of desire, love, embarrassment, pain and death. With Summer Love — The First Polish Western, Uklanski probes the notions of cultural identity and authenticity by attempting to recreate the quintessential American film genre set in the remote landscapes of Poland with native actors. Uklanski has previously explored this theme of removing recognizable nationalistic imagery, such as the Western, from their natural environments and re-appropriating them into a foreign context. In his Nazi Series Uklanski re-photographed movie posters and film stills featuring iconic Hollywood actors such as Clint Eastwood and Harrison Ford dressed in Nazi regalia. This unique re-interpretation of famous actors, often lauded in their films as heroes, placed in the same narrative context as one of the most infamous eras in modern history empowers Uklanski to manipulate and blend the notions of national identity and cultural disintegration. The artist builds upon these psychological crossroads in Summer Love — The First Polish Western in order to communicate to the viewer that taken out of everyday context, typical Western imagery can be challengingly fresh and innovative.
2000 16 Iris prints on Somerset paper in a custom leather portfolio with geniune leather western gun belts with 40 .38 caliber bullets. Iris prints: 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm) each. Portfolio: 21 1/2 x 17 x 2 in. (54.6 x 43.2 x 5.1 cm). This work is from an edition of 20 and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.